Work Type
Remote
Location
United States
Compensation
$90-$140 per hour
About this opportunity
Overview
Mercor is looking for senior physicists to help improve how frontier AI models reason about real physics research. This is a fully remote, independent contractor role for candidates based in the United States. The work is suited to a practicing specialist rather than a generalist, and the focus is on high-quality scientific judgment.
What You’ll Do
- Review physics tasks and model outputs for reasoning quality and scientific accuracy.
- Identify flawed derivations, unjustified approximations, dimensional mistakes, limit errors, and answers that sound plausible but would not hold up under peer review.
- Write precise problem statements and rigorous reference solutions that define what correct work looks like.
- Design challenging, research-level benchmark problems and evaluation sets in your area of specialization.
- Work with other researchers and experts in adjacent fields to turn expert judgment into clear, teachable evaluation criteria.
Requirements
- PhD in physics, astrophysics, applied physics, or a closely related field.
- Faculty appointment, principal investigator role, staff or senior scientist position, or an equivalent senior research role at a university, national laboratory, or research organization.
- Deep specialization in at least one area such as condensed matter, high-energy or particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, atomic, molecular, optical and quantum physics, or statistical and computational physics.
- Strong peer-reviewed publication record; competitive fellowships or awards are a plus.
- Hands-on use of large language models in your work, with the ability to distinguish sound reasoning from plausible but incorrect arguments.
- Excellent written communication and the ability to give precise, well-structured feedback.
- Based in the United States.
Contract Details
- Independent contractor engagement.
- Fully remote and can be completed on your own schedule.
- Projects may be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance.
- Work will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution.
- Payments are made weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
- H1-B and STEM OPT candidates are not supported at this time.
