Mechanical Engineering PhD - Problem Author - AI Trainer

Mercor; Detroit (MI); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Obsidian seeks a senior mechanical engineer to craft challenging, original problems rooted in real industry contexts and to provide expert solutions for each case.

You will validate difficulty by benchmarking against frontier language models to ensure robust evaluation and insight in a cutting-edge research environment.

Qualifications

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

Responsibilities

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

Skills

Design

Analysis

R&D

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.