Remote Applied Math Benchmark Specialist (PhD) - Contract

Mercor; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; GBP 63,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking a contracted Benchmark Specialist in Applied Mathematics to author and review advanced math questions across domains such as Signal Processing and Financial Mathematics. The role requires PhD-level expertise or current doctoral candidates with strong proof writing and excellent English communication.

You will craft self-contained questions with clear problem statements, provide correct solutions and distractors, and support verification with references.

Qualifications

• Strong command of graduate-level mathematical concepts and formal proof writing.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas concisely.
• Ability to design rigorous academic problems and mathematical competition-style questions.

Responsibilities

• Author original math questions testing deep conceptual understanding in Signal Processing and Financial Mathematics.
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined with all necessary information.
• Rate questions for difficulty and provide 1 correct answer plus 9 plausible alternatives.
• Write step-by-step chain-of-thought solutions in markdown format.
• Provide 1–5 academic references per question.

Skills

Graduate-level mathematics

Formal proof writing

Excellent written English

Education

PhD or doctoral candidate in Mathematics/Applied Mathematics/Statistics

Master's degree considered for exceptional depth

Job description

Mercor is seeking a contracted Benchmark Specialist in Applied Mathematics to author and review advanced math questions across domains such as Signal Processing and Financial Mathematics. The role requires PhD-level expertise or current doctoral candidates with strong proof writing and excellent English communication.

You will craft self-contained questions with clear problem statements, provide correct solutions and distractors, and support verification with references.