History PhD - Assessment Specialist - AI Trainer

Mercor; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 40,000 - 70,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Flexible schedule

Job summary

Mercor is seeking experts in history and political science to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will create and verify rigorous MCQs, rate difficulty, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.

Role is remote and part-time (10+ hours/week). You will transfer expertise to evaluation tasks, produce references, and document edits for improved rigor.

Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in History, Political Science, International Relations, or closely related field.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly.

Responsibilities

• Author original history and political science questions that test deep conceptual understanding.
• Rate each question's difficulty: Medium, Hard, or Expert.
• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible alternatives.
• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear reasoning.
• Provide 1–5 academic references per question.
• For verification tasks: flag clarity, completeness, precision, solvability and justify edits.

Skills

History knowledge

Political science expertise

Academic writing

Question authoring

Question verification

English writing clarity

Education

PhD in History or Political Science

Doctoral candidate

Job description

Role Overview

We are seeking experts in history and political science to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will write and verify rigorous multiple-choice questions across core history and political science domains, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.

You will be assigned one of two task types:

• Question Authoring — Create original, challenging multiple-choice questions in your area of expertise, rate their difficulty, and submit them for review.
• Question Verification — Review pre-written questions for accuracy, clarity, and rigor. Edit where needed, rate difficulty, and document any changes made.

History & Political Science Domains Covered

National Security, Public Policy, Business History, Environmental History, Latin American History.

Key Responsibilities

• Author original history and political science questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined — all necessary information must be in the problem statement
• Rate each question's difficulty: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate), or Expert (post‑graduate and above)
• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives that challenge expert-level solvers
• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear, concise reasoning in markdown format
• Supply 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources (peer‑reviewed journals, university repositories)
• For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made

Ideal Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in History, Political Science, International Relations, or a closely related field
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain
• Strong command of historiographical methods, political theory, and comparative analysis
• Research publications or policy experience is a strong plus
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely

More About the Opportunity

• Expected commitment: 10+ hours/week
• Asynchronous, fully remote work