Philosophy PhD - Assessment Specialist

Mercor; New York (NY); Remote; USD 30,000 - 42,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking expert philosophers to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will craft original philosophy questions, assess difficulty, and ensure each problem is self-contained with a single correct answer and 9 plausible distractors.

This asynchronous, fully remote role requires outstanding written English, rigorous argumentation, and the ability to deliver clear, well-referenced material for gold-standard benchmarks used to advance

Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Philosophy or closely related field.
• Strong command of philosophical argumentation and formal logic.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.

Responsibilities

• Author original philosophy questions that test deep conceptual understanding and not surface-level recall.
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined with all information in the problem statement.
• Rate each question's difficulty: Medium, Hard, or Expert.
• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible distractors.
• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear reasoning in markdown format.
• Provide 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources.
• For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify edits.

Skills

Philosophy

Analytical reasoning

Formal logic

Academic writing

Critical thinking

Education

PhD in Philosophy

Master's in Philosophy or related field

Job description

Role Overview

We are seeking expert philosophers 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 philosophy 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 philosophy 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.

Philosophy Domains Covered

Formal Ontology & Knowledge Representation, AI Ethics, Applied Epistemology, Philosophy of Technology & Robotics, Philosophy of Science.

Key Responsibilities

• Author original philosophy 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 reasoning 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 Philosophy or a closely related field
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain
• Strong command of philosophical argumentation, formal logic, and canonical texts across traditions
• Research publications or teaching experience in philosophy 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