Research Scientist

Job Description

Job Details

Expert Professionals — STEM Research

Company: Mercor

Location: Remote (New York, NY)

Geographic Reference: Remote

Type: Contract

Compensation: $70–$100/hour

Work Commitment: 40 hours/week (Weekdays)

Employment Status: W-2 employment with Cincinnatus LLC

• Guide research teams to close knowledge gaps in STEM domains by surfacing edge cases, ambiguities, and frontier problems where current models underperform.
• Design challenging, rigorous domain tasks and write accurate, well‑reasoned solutions that demonstrate expert‑level scientific and technical reasoning.
• Evaluate tasks and solutions produced by AI agents and other contributors, providing clear written technical feedback grounded in domain expertise.
• Develop evaluation frameworks and rubrics for assessing scientific reasoning quality across STEM domains.
• Collaborate with other subject‑matter experts to ensure consistency and accuracy in training data.

• Education:
  
  PhD (completed, enrolled, or equivalent research track) in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Materials Science, or another STEM discipline.
• Experience:
  
  3+ years of research, academic, or industry experience in their primary STEM domain.
• Technical Expertise:
  Demonstrated technical expertise in at least one domain: computational modeling, laboratory methods, data analysis, statistical inference, programming, or equivalent scientific methods.
• Availability:
  Ability to commit to 40 hours per week during weekdays for the duration of the engagement.
• Communication:
  Strong written communication skills; ability to explain complex scientific or technical concepts clearly in writing.

• Prior experience with data annotation, labeling, evaluation, or human feedback collection.
• Experience with LLMs, AI systems, or agentic workflows; familiarity with agentic frameworks.