Part-Time Chemistry PhD: AI Chemistry Benchmark Designer

Mercor; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 83,000 - 131,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking a Chemistry Subject-Matter Expert to join a leading AI lab's cutting-edge research team. This part-time position through Cincinnatus LLC involves working on foundational AI models for chemistry, with focus on synthetic routes, reaction optimization, and spectroscopic characterization.

The role requires a PhD in chemistry or equivalent experience and at least 3+ years of hands-on chemistry work in pharma/biotech/chemical sectors. Remote/hybrid options are not specified.

Qualifications

• PhD in chemistry or equivalent research experience.
• 3+ years of hands-on chemistry experience in recognized organizations.
• Hands-on experience in small-molecule synthesis and multi-step route design.

Responsibilities

• Guide research and engineering teams to close knowledge gaps and improve AI model performance in synthetic chemistry, reaction mechanisms, structure elucidation, and physical-chemical property reasoning.
• Design challenging, non-searchable chemistry tasks, benchmarks and training data, and write accurate, well-structured solutions to problems such as multi-step route design, reaction optimization and spectroscopic characterization.
• Evaluate AI model outputs and step-by-step reasoning on chemistry tasks, diagnosing errors in chemical logic, tool usage and factual accuracy, and provide clear, written technical feedback.
• Develop specifications, grading rubrics and verification processes for chemistry data produced by external technical teams, and act as the domain authority on data quality.
• Advise on experimental design, common lab failure modes, and the chemical validity of model outputs, including molecular representations such as SMILES.
• Collaborate with other subject matter experts to ensure consistency and accuracy in training data.

Skills

Hands-on chemistry experience

Strong written communication

Ability to work 20 hours/week

Cheminformatics tools

Small-molecule synthesis

Education

PhD in chemistry (synthetic, organic, medicinal, analytical, physical or related)

Equivalent research experience

Tools

NMR

Mass spectrometry

IR spectroscopy

HPLC/LC-MS

Job description

Mercor is seeking a Chemistry Subject-Matter Expert to join a leading AI lab's cutting-edge research team. This part-time position through Cincinnatus LLC involves working on foundational AI models for chemistry, with focus on synthetic routes, reaction optimization, and spectroscopic characterization.

The role requires a PhD in chemistry or equivalent experience and at least 3+ years of hands-on chemistry work in pharma/biotech/chemical sectors. Remote/hybrid options are not specified.