Physics Research Expert - PhD

About the job

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark
, General Catalyst
, Peter Thiel
, Adam D'Angelo
, Larry Summers
, and Jack Dorsey
.

Position: Research Physics Expert
Type:
Contract
Compensation: $80–$140/hour
Location:
Remote
Commitment: ~10 hours/week

• Solve research-level physics challenges end-to-end with verifiable derivations, code, and peer-reviewed references.
• Decompose challenges into standalone checkpoint sub-problems that require genuine physical reasoning.
• Author Python answer templates with auto-grading functions for symbolic or numerical answers.
• Audit submitted solutions for correctness, scope, and method soundness; deliver actionable feedback across iterations.
• Adjudicate between parallel solver attempts and decide which solution becomes the golden reference.
• Document chain-of-thought reasoning, error tolerances, equivalent symbolic forms, and verification test cases.

• PhD or postdoc in the relevant subfield (senior PhD student minimum).
• Postdoc or junior professor in the relevant subfield (
  PhD minimum).
• Full professor or industry research PI in the relevant subfield (senior postdoc or junior professor minimum).
• Hands‑on familiarity with at least two canonical methods of the target subfield, demonstrable through publications.
• 3–5 representative publications (arXiv  DOI), ideally within the last ~5 years and in the target subfield.
• Working proficiency with LaTeX
  , Python
  , Jupyter
  , and Sym Py
  .
• Strong written English (
  B2/C1/C2 minimum; native or near-native preferred).

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