PhD Chemist AI Evaluator

Compensation vs. Market: At $90–$140/hr as an independent contractor, this is a strong rate for senior PhD-level chemistry expertise. Annualized at full-time hours, this equates to roughly $187K–$291K — well above typical academic salaries for Associate or even Full Professors ($100K–$160K), though without benefits or job security.

Skills Developed: This role sits at the cutting edge of AI + scientific domain intersection. You will build expertise in:

• AI/LLM evaluation methodology and benchmark design — a rapidly growing, high-demand skill set.
• Scientific reasoning quality assessment — transferable to AI safety and alignment research roles.

Career Signals: The AI training data and RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback) space is booming. Experience contributing to frontier AI model development is a valuable credential for future roles at AI labs (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Deep Mind) or AI-in-science startups.

Green Flags: Flexible, project-based work is ideal for academics wanting supplemental income. Weekly payment cadence reduces financial risk. No IP conflicts required.

Red Flags: Contract-only with no benefits, no job security, and variable project duration. Not suitable as a primary income source for those needing stability. H-1B/OPT exclusions significantly narrow the candidate pool, reducing competition but also signaling compliance complexity.

This role is for one of our clients

Compensation: $90 – $140 per hour

Employment Type: Contract (Independent Contractor)
Location: Remote (United States)
Work Arrangement: Fully Remote, Flexible Schedule

We are seeking highly experienced PhD Chemists and Chemistry Researchers to contribute their scientific expertise to the development, evaluation, and advancement of next-generation Artificial Intelligence (AI) models.

In this role, you will collaborate with leading AI research teams to improve how advanced AI models understand, analyze, and reason about complex chemical concepts and real-world chemistry research. You will leverage your specialized domain knowledge and research experience to evaluate chemistry-related reasoning tasks, assess AI-generated outputs, develop rigorous problem specifications, create reference solutions, and design advanced benchmarks to measure model performance.

The ideal candidate will be an established academic or research professional with deep specialization in at least one area of chemistry, a strong peer-reviewed publication record, and practical experience using Large Language Models (LLMs) in scientific or research workflows.

• Expert Evaluation: Review chemistry-related tasks and AI-generated outputs for scientific accuracy, logical consistency, and research-level rigor.
• Identify implausible reaction mechanisms, infeasible chemical reactions, stoichiometric inconsistencies, thermodynamic errors, and incorrect spectral interpretations.
• Problem Design: Develop precise, challenging, research-level chemistry problem statements that reflect real-world scientific and experimental challenges.
• Reference Solutions: Create detailed and scientifically rigorous reference solutions, including chemical equations, reaction mechanisms, calculations, and explanations that establish clear standards for correctness.
• Benchmark Development: Design advanced chemistry problems, evaluation datasets, and benchmarks within your area of specialization to assess and improve AI model capabilities.
• Scientific Assessment: Evaluate AI-generated chemical reasoning, experimental approaches, reaction predictions, and theoretical explanations to distinguish scientifically valid arguments from plausible but incorrect conclusions.
• Research
  
  Collaboratio…