Medicinal Chemist - Fully Remote | Up to $90/hr

Mercor; New York (NY); A distancia; USD 90.000 - 130.000; A tiempo parcial

Ventajas ofrecidas por este puesto de trabajo

Claude Code access

Claude Max subscription reimbursed

Descripción de la vacante

Mercor is seeking a researcher to design evaluation frameworks for frontier AI models applied to drug discovery. You will craft challenging problems, assemble data rooms grounded in real sources, and write graders to appraise solutions on substance rather than style.

The role requires deep domain expertise in enzymology, medicinal chemistry, and structure-based design, with commitment of 20–40 hours per week in a browser-based studio environment using Claude Code/Claude Max.

Formación

• PhD or equivalent track record in a relevant field.
• Ability to defend complex problems with rigorous reasoning.
• Experience judging reasoning quality and experiment design.

Responsabilidades

• Design the challenge by identifying the hidden basin and forcing chain.
• Build a data room with real, source-grounded data for decisive values.
• Write a grading document that scores memos on substance.
• Validate the framework through verification and calibration.
• Revise the framework as requested by reviewers.

Conocimientos

Mechanistic enzymology

Structure-guided design

Antibody design

Fragment-based discovery

Medicinal chemistry

Educación

PhD or equivalent

Herramientas

Claude Code

Claude Max

Descripción del empleo

About the role

This is an evaluation framework for frontier AI models in drug research and development. Domain experts write realistic research problems wrapped around messy evidence worlds. The model works offline in a sandbox with open-source scientific tooling, receiving incomplete, indirect and sometimes misleading data, and must reach a defensible conclusion. The answer is present in the evidence but never stated.

Your job is to build a research problem so realistic and well-constructed that the model has to genuinely reason to solve it — it can't pattern-match or look the answer up.

What you'll deliver

Three things per task: the prompt, the data room, and the grading document.

1. Design the challenge — identify the hidden basin and the forcing chain that makes one conclusion inevitable.

2. Build the world — assemble a data room from real, source-grounded data. Every decisive value traces to a real source.

3. Write the grader — a grading document that scores a submitted memo on substance, not style or method.

4. Validate it — run verification and calibration before submission.

5. Revise it — you own the rework if a reviewer requests changes.

You are the final authority on every scientific and difficulty question in your task.

Who we're looking for

• Working expertise in mechanistic enzymology, structure-guided peptide or antibody design, fragment-based discovery, or structure-based medicinal chemistry — PhD or equivalent industry track record.

• You can pose a problem whose answer you can defend rigorously, but which a strong solver cannot shortcut.

• Comfortable judging reasoning quality, not just final answers.

Commitment

Minimum 20 hours per week, up to 40.

Tooling

Work happens in a browser-based studio plus Claude Code. A Claude Max subscription is required and is fully reimbursed.