Physics Content Specialist - Fully Remote | Upto $77/hr

mercor; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; GBP 64,000 - 80,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Contract role

Job summary

Mercor is seeking a remote Applied Physics Benchmark Specialist on a contract basis, requiring a PhD or doctoral candidacy. The role focuses on creating challenging physics questions with rigorous solutions, graded by difficulty.

The position is remote and expects 10+ hours per week from a flexible schedule, aligning with ongoing AI research collaborations. Candidate should demonstrate strong graduate-level physics knowledge, superb written English, and the ability to produce accurate,

Qualifications

• Must hold a PhD in Physics, Applied Physics, Astrophysics or closely related field.
• Master's degree may be considered for exceptional depth in a subfield.
• Strong command of graduate-level physics concepts and mathematical formalism.

Responsibilities

• Author original physics questions with deep conceptual understanding.
• Ensure questions are self-contained, unambiguous and precisely defined.
• 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 intermediate steps.

Skills

PhD in Physics

Graduate-level physics

Clear scientific writing

Education

PhD in Physics

Master's degree in related field

Job description

About the job Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark , General Catalyst , Peter Thiel , Adam D'Angelo , Larry Summers , and Jack Dorsey . Position: Applied Physics Benchmark Specialist Type: Contract Compensation: $61-$77/hour Location: Remote Commitment: 10+ hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Author original physics questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall.
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined with all necessary information 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 intermediate steps 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.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Physics , Applied Physics , Astrophysics , or a closely related field.
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain.
• Strong command of graduate-level physics concepts and mathematical formalism.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.

Preferred

• Experience with rigorous academic problem design or physics olympiad writing is a strong plus.