Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Expert

Zekai; United States; Remote; USD 110,000 - 255,000; Part time

Job summary

Zekai is seeking a Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Expert for a fully remote, contract role. The position pays $80-185 per hour and targets professionals with advanced degrees and senior industry or academic experience.

Responsibilities include designing challenging technical problems in manufacturing domains, providing correct solutions with clear reasoning, and establishing objective criteria for evaluation. Worldwide applicants are welcome where permitted.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in manufacturing, industrial, or mechanical engineering is required.
• Principal, staff, or fellow-level experience at a major manufacturing organization or a university faculty is required.
• Deep technical depth in at least one subdomain with hands-on ownership.
• Ability to explain why an answer is correct clearly to enable verification by another engineer.
• Publications, patents, or demonstrated leadership is a plus.
• AI/LLM evaluation experience is a plus, but not required.

Responsibilities

• Design difficult technical problems from your own area — process design, production systems, quality engineering, automation, supply chain and operations modeling — with realistic constraints and supporting data.
• Provide the correct solution and walk through the reasoning that gets there.
• Define objective criteria for correctness, so another expert reviewing the work would reach the same verdict.
• Review problems built by other contributors for technical accuracy and soundness of method.
• Flag problems that turn out to be ambiguous or ungradable rather than submitting them.

Skills

Technical depth

Problem solving

Communication

Education

Master’s or PhD in Manufacturing/Industrial/Mechanical Engineering

Job description

Role Title: Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Expert

Role Type: Contractor

Location: Remote

Opportunity Snapshot

Pay: $80- $185/hour

Commitment: Flexible — fits alongside your current role

Location: Fully remote

You’ll need: Master’s or PhD in manufacturing, industrial, or mechanical engineering, plus principal‑level industry experience or a faculty appointment

Your tasks: Build challenging technical problems from your own domain and define what makes an answer correct

You’ll be working on

The problems where the textbook answer isn’t enough, where the right approach depends on reading the constraints correctly, where a plausible‑looking solution is quietly wrong. You’ll build those problems, provide the correct analysis, and define what separates a right answer from one that only looks right.

What you’ll do

• Design difficult technical problems from your own area — process design, production systems, quality engineering, automation, supply chain and operations modeling — with realistic constraints and supporting data.
• Provide the correct solution and walk through the reasoning that gets there.
• Define objective criteria for correctness, so another expert reviewing the work would reach the same verdict.
• Review problems built by other contributors for technical accuracy and soundness of method.
• Flag problems that turn out to be ambiguous or ungradable rather than submitting them.

What we’re looking for

• Master’s or PhD in manufacturing, industrial, mechanical engineering, or a closely related field.
• Principal, staff, or fellow‑level experience at a major manufacturing organization, or a faculty appointment at a leading university.
• Deep technical depth in at least one subdomain, with hands‑on ownership of the work.
• Able to explain why an answer is correct clearly enough that another engineer could verify it.
• Publications, patents, or a record of technical leadership is a strong plus.
• AI or LLM evaluation experience is a plus, but not required.

This is a 100% remote contract role, open to applicants worldwide in the countries the employer accepts.