Principal Engineer / Professor — Technical Expert

Confidential; United States; Remote; USD 110,000 - 255,000; Full time

Job summary

Zekai is seeking a Principal Engineer / Professor — Technical Expert for a remote, contractor role. Candidates should hold a Master’s or PhD in engineering or physical sciences and have principal-level industry experience or a faculty appointment.

You will design advanced technical problems, provide solutions with reasoning, and establish clear criteria for correctness. The work spans aerospace, semiconductors, manufacturing/industrial engineering, and materials science.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in engineering, physics, materials, or a closely related field.
• Principal-level experience at a major engineering organization, a national lab, or a faculty appointment at a leading university.
• Deep technical depth with hands-on ownership of the work.
• Able to explain why an answer is correct for independent verification.
• Publications, patents, or leadership in technical activity.

Responsibilities

• Design difficult technical problems from your own area, with realistic constraints and supporting data.
• Provide the correct solution and walk through the reasoning that gets there.
• Define objective criteria for correctness so another expert would reach the same verdict.
• Review problems built by other contributors for technical accuracy and soundness of method.
• Flag problems that turn out to be ambiguous or ungradable rather than submitting them.

Skills

Deep technical depth

Clear explanations

Technical leadership

Education

Master's or PhD in engineering/physics/materials or related field

Principal/fellow-level experience at a major org, national lab or leading university

Job description

Role Title: Principal Engineer / Professor — Technical Expert

Role Type: Contractor

Location: Remote

Opportunity Snapshot

Pay: $80- $185/hour

Commitment: Flexible — fits alongside your current role

Location: Fully remote

You’ll need: Master’s or PhD in an engineering or physical science field, plus principal-level industry experience or a faculty appointment

Your tasks: Build challenging technical problems from your own domain and define what makes an answer correct

our partner is engaging principal-level engineers, scientists, and faculty to design the technical problems that measure what AI systems can actually do. Your domain expertise is what matters here — no prior AI experience required.

We’re building this across four areas: aerospace, semiconductors, manufacturing and industrial engineering, and materials science. If your work sits in one of those — or across two of them — this is for you.

The work draws on what you already know: the problems where the textbook answer isn’t enough, where the right approach depends on reading the constraints correctly, where a plausible-looking solution is quietly wrong.

What you’ll do

• Design difficult technical problems from your own area, with realistic constraints and supporting data.
• Provide the correct solution and walk through the reasoning that gets there.
• Define objective criteria for correctness, so another expert reviewing the work would reach the same verdict.
• Review problems built by other contributors for technical accuracy and soundness of method.
• Flag problems that turn out to be ambiguous or ungradable rather than submitting them.

What we’re looking for

• Master’s or PhD in engineering, physics, materials, or a closely related field.
• Principal, staff, or fellow-level experience at a major engineering organization, a national lab, or a faculty appointment at a leading university.
• Deep technical depth in at least one area, with hands‑on ownership of the work.
• Able to explain why an answer is correct clearly enough that another expert could verify it.
• Publications, patents, or a record of technical leadership is a strong plus.

How the selection process works

• Complete the AI interview for this role
• Profile review
• Onboarding — our Talent Ops team will get you set up

This is a 100% remote contract role, open to applicants worldwide in the countries the employer accepts.