Mathematics PhD - Benchmark Specialist

Mercor; New York (NY); On-site; USD 83,000 - 179,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Flexible hours

Collaborative AI research environment

Job summary

Mercor is seeking expert mathematicians to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will author or verify rigorous multiple-choice questions across core mathematics domains, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks for advancing AI capabilities.

You will require deep mathematical understanding, strong written English, and the ability to produce precise problem statements, solutions, and references.

Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or closely related field.
• Master's degree considered for exceptional depth.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly.

Responsibilities

• Author original math questions that test deep conceptual understanding.
• 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 in Markdown format.
• Supply 1–5 academic references per question.
• Flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify edits.

Skills

Graduate math concepts

Formal proof writing

Academic problem design

English writing

Education

PhD in Mathematics

Doctoral candidate

Master's degree (exceptional depth)

Tools

LaTeX

Markdown

Git

Job description

Role Overview

We are seeking expert mathematicians 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 mathematics 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 mathematical 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.

Mathematics Domains Covered

Signal Processing, Financial Mathematics & Actuarial Science, Mathematical Economics, Mathematical Modeling of Ecological & Biological Systems, Mathematical Programming & Combinatorial Optimization, Geomathematics & Climate Modeling.

Key Responsibilities

• Author original math 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 intermediate steps 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 Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or a closely related field
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain
• Strong command of graduate-level mathematical concepts and formal proof writing
• Experience with rigorous academic problem design or mathematical competition writing 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