Mechanical Engineering PhD - Problem Author

Mercor; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor in San Francisco, CA seeks a senior mechanical engineering expert to build a benchmark of the hardest reasoning questions in the field. You will author original, free-response engineering problems grounded in real industry scenarios and provide expert-level solutions for each.

The role includes validating difficulty by running three frontier language models until at least one model fails. Required: PhD in Mechanical Engineering and 8+ years of hands-on experience in design, analysis, or

Qualifications

• PhD in Mechanical Engineering, 8+ years hands-on professional/industry experience in design, analysis, or R&D.

Responsibilities

• Author original, free-response engineering problems grounded in real industry scenarios.
• Write a complete expert-level solution for each problem.
• Validate difficulty by testing against frontier language models until at least one fails.

Education

PhD in Mechanical Engineering

Job description

We're looking for a senior mechanical engineering expert to help build a benchmark of the hardest reasoning questions in the field - questions specifically designed to be difficult enough that today's most capable AI models still get them wrong. You'll author original, free-response engineering problems grounded in real industry scenarios, write a complete expert-level solution for each, and validate difficulty by running it against three frontier language models until at least one fails.

Requirements: PhD in Mechanical Engineering, plus 8+ years of hands-on professional/industry experience in design, analysis, or R&D. Candidates from well-known/blue-chip employers preferred.