Quantum Computing Scientist for AI Benchmarks (PhD)

Mercor; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 124,000 - 165,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking PhD and Master's level scientists to author AI evaluation tasks for Sci Code, collaborating with leading AI labs on a new benchmark for scientific computing. You will craft original, executable research problems that current frontier models cannot solve.

Responsibilities include sourcing material, writing prompts, designing grading criteria, and calibrating against frontier models. This is a 6-week, part-time engagement starting immediately.

Qualifications

• PhD in physics, applied physics, or closely related field.
• Depth in at least two subdomains: condensed matter, optics, quantum information/computing, computational physics, astrophysics, or particle physics.
• Working proficiency in Python, R, or another relevant programming language for scientific computing.
• Comfortable with Git/GitHub and running code in Docker — authoring runs through a pull-request workflow with automated quality checks.

Responsibilities

• Source your own material: a published paper, a Kaggle dataset, an open-source repository, or a scenario you design.
• Write scientific prompts based on the input
• Build the grading criteria that define a correct answer
• Calibrate against frontier models — a task ships only when strong models fail it more often than they succeed

Skills

Python

R

Git/GitHub

Docker

Education

PhD in physics or related field

Job description

Mercor is seeking PhD and Master's level scientists to author AI evaluation tasks for Sci Code, collaborating with leading AI labs on a new benchmark for scientific computing. You will craft original, executable research problems that current frontier models cannot solve.

Responsibilities include sourcing material, writing prompts, designing grading criteria, and calibrating against frontier models. This is a 6-week, part-time engagement starting immediately.