Research Mentor (Contract / Remote)

Empowerly; United States; Remote; USD 83,000 - 110,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Training & development

Fully remote

Job summary

Empowerly is seeking experienced RSP Research Mentors to guide students remotely through ideation, execution, and synthesis of high-level academic papers. This role emphasizes computational tools, data science frameworks, simulators, and safe local prototyping.

You will direct literature reviews, formulate hypotheses, design methodologies, and help analyze data, ensuring guidelines for ethical and responsible research are followed.

Qualifications

• Graduate-level research and publication track record.
• Strong mentorship and communication skills.
• Reliability in meeting timelines and tracking protocols.
• Ability to explain complex math and engineering concepts to high school students.

Responsibilities

• End-to-End Project Guidance: lead literature reviews, hypothesis design, methodology, data analysis, manuscript structure.
• Technical Troubleshooting: assist with debugging and using professional software suites for data work.
• Milestone & Pipeline Tracking: log progress and coordinate with Writers and Publication Advisors.
• Student Safety & Ethics: ensure safe, compliant remote prototyping practices.

Skills

Mentorship Instinct

Communication

Data analysis

Literature reviews

Education

Ph.D. program from a top university (T50)

Job description

Commitment: Flexible / Part-Time (Contract, ongoing cohort-based matching)

Location: Remote (US-based)

Compensation: $50-70/hour

About Empowerly

Empowerly is a top-tier educational technology company dedicated to guiding high school and college students toward their academic and career goals. The Research Scholar Program (RSP) is our elite, internal research program. We pair highly motivated, exceptional students with advanced academic researchers to produce publication-ready, college-level manuscripts, engineering prototypes, and competitive science fair submissions.

We are expanding our internal Research Counselor Roster and seeking subject-matter experts—specifically Ph.D. candidates, Postdocs, and industry research professionals—to serve as contract Research Mentors.

The Role of an RSP Research Mentor

As an RSP Research Mentor, you will act as a primary research advisor, directing students one-on-one through the ideation, execution, and synthesis of a high-level academic paper. Because our students work remotely, we place a heavy emphasis on computational tools, data science frameworks, simulators, and safe local prototyping methodologies.

Core Responsibilities

• End-to-End Project Guidance: Direct students through literature reviews, hypothesis formulation, methodology design, data analysis, and manuscript structure.
• Technical Troubleshooting: Guide students through debugging, using professional software suites, manipulating complex datasets, and navigating track-specific computational tools.
• Milestone & Pipeline Tracking: Maintain precise logs of student progress in Empowerly’s tracking infrastructure and seamlessly collaborate with internal Writing Coaches and Publication Advisors when the manuscript enters final drafting.
• Student Safety & Ethics: Ensure all remote, computational, or home-bench prototyping methodologies adhere to strict safety regulations and academic integrity standards.

Open Tracks & Specializations

When applying, please indicate your primary area(s) of expertise. Open tracks include, but are not limited to: Economics, Psychology, Business, International Relations, Environmental Studies, Gender Studies, Sociology, History, Philosophy, Education, Classics, Law, Linguistics, Data Science, Biology, Mathematics, Computer Science, Medicine, Physics & Astrophysics, Architecture, Neuroscience, Engineering, and Chemistry.

Candidate Qualifications

• Required Education: Currently enrolled in or completed a Ph.D. program from a T50 University.
• Required Experience: A proven track record of graduate-level academic research and publication.
• Preferred Experience: Strong publication history in indexed journals or presentations at marquee industry conferences such as IEEE, ACM, ASME, or AIChE is highly preferred and required for Fellowship-level student matching.
• Mentorship Instinct: Exceptional patience and communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to break down highly complex mathematical and engineering theories for brilliant high school students.
• Reliability: Strict adherence to project timelines, tracking protocols, and communication rhythms.
• Communication: Cross-cultural fluency, with the ability to communicate effectively with a globally diverse student body.

Program Logistics

• Flexible Workload: Mentors manage their own availability.
• Supportive Ecosystem: You focus entirely on technical research. Empowerly provides dedicated program managers to handle administrative logistics, scheduling, client relations, and separate publication support structures.
• Training and Professional Development: Empowerly provides monthly workshops designed specifically for Research Mentors and Counselors. These sessions bridge technical academic mentorship and the undergraduate admissions landscape, helping mentors understand how student research, technical publications, and science competitions influence admissions decisions at top-tier universities. Mentors receive strategies to integrate student breakthroughs into compelling narratives and guidelines for drafting impactful, objective letters of recommendation.

About Empowerly

Empowerly (Empowerly.com) is an education technology company that personalizes college and career counseling, with a mission to empower students to become the most successful version of themselves.

We provide data-driven education technology, start-up and research internship programs, and personalized counseling led by former Admission Officers and experienced College Admissions Counselors. We are a rapidly growing, mission-driven, and venture-backed company. It takes a unified team committed to our core values (collaboration, data driven, and empowerment) to achieve this goal and a fast-moving team committed to serving the needs of our students and families.

Each student is holistically evaluated through our Empowerly Score — the only predictive technology that can also quantify subjective material. Each student is offered a three-pronged approach to evaluate academics, essays, and extracurricular activities, providing them with a 360-degree view of how to be competitive against other applicants.

We are a fully remote, global workforce focused on building world-class, college admissions advisory services and programs.

The pay range for this role is:

60 - 80 USD per hour (Remote; United States)