History PhD - Benchmark Specialist

Mercor; United States; Remote; MXN 585,000 - 1,403,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor seeks 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 two task types: Question Authoring and Question Verification, with responsibilities to create original questions,

Qualifications

• Strong command of historiographical methods
• Strong command of political theory and comparative analysis
• Research publications or policy experience is a strong plus
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly

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, Hard, or Expert
• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives
• 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
• For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made

Education

PhD or doctoral candidate

Master's degree considered

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