Remote Computational Chemistry AI Researcher

mercor; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; GBP 62,000 - 83,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking a Chemistry PhD Coding Expert for a remote contract position. Compensation is $70/hour with a 6-week duration and a commitment of 20+ hours per week.

The role focuses on sourcing material, writing prompts, and building grading criteria to advance AI model testing. Ideal candidates hold a PhD in chemistry (or related field) with deep quantum and computational chemistry experience, and are proficient in Python or R, plus Git/GitHub and Docker.

Qualifications

• PhD in chemistry or closely related field.
• Depth in both quantum chemistry and computational chemistry.
• Working proficiency in Python, R, or another language for scientific computing.
• Comfortable with Git/GitHub and running code in Docker.

Responsibilities

• Source material from published papers, Kaggle datasets, open-source repositories, or scenarios you design.
• Write scientific prompts based on the input to challenge AI models.
• Build grading criteria that define a correct answer for scientific tasks.
• Calibrate tasks against frontier models, ensuring tasks ship only when strong models fail more often than they succeed.
• Work independently and asynchronously to meet deadlines while improving AI model performance.

Skills

Python

R

Education

PhD in chemistry

Quantum chemistry

Computational chemistry

Tools

Git/GitHub

Docker

Job description

Mercor is seeking a Chemistry PhD Coding Expert for a remote contract position. Compensation is $70/hour with a 6-week duration and a commitment of 20+ hours per week.

The role focuses on sourcing material, writing prompts, and building grading criteria to advance AI model testing. Ideal candidates hold a PhD in chemistry (or related field) with deep quantum and computational chemistry experience, and are proficient in Python or R, plus Git/GitHub and Docker.