About This Role
Mercor is hiring experienced Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics professionals to support a variety of high-impact research collaborations with leading AI labs. Freelancers will help improve AI systems through work on code validation, prompt refinement, algorithmic evaluation, and model benchmarking.
This is a unique opportunity to apply your engineering expertise toward shaping the next generation of intelligent systems.
Key Responsibilities
- Scientific Research Translation: Identify and analyze high-impact research papers in Physics, Chemistry, Math, or Science that introduce novel, code-implementable methods.
- Complex Problem Decomposition: Break down high-level scientific problems into a series of logical, independently testable subproblems.
- Golden Solution Authoring: Develop "Gold Standard" Python solutions for each subproblem and create corresponding unit tests to verify accuracy
- Quality Control and Review: Review peer prompts, golden solutions, and unit tests for accuracy, comprehensiveness, and difficulty.
Ideal Qualifications
- Degree: Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD in a STEM field (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biochemistry, or related Computational Sciences).
- Expert Python Proficiency: Strong experience in scientific computing libraries (e.g., NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, JAX, or domain-specific packages like RDKit or OpenMM).
- Technical Writing: Ability to translate dense academic research into clear, structured problem statements for a technical audience.
- Version Control: Proficiency with Git, including branch management and pull request workflows.
- Unit Testing Experience: Familiarity with testing frameworks (like `pytest`) and the ability to write robust validation scripts for mathematical/scientific code.
Project Timeline
- Commitment: Part-time (15–25 hours/week, with flexibility up to 80 hours/week)
Application & Onboarding Process
- AI interview: 3 short, 15-minute conversational sessions to understand your background, experience, and interest in the role
- Follow-up communication within a few days with next steps and onboarding details
Apply today and leverage your data science expertise to help build the future of AI-driven systems!
Many top hiring platforms use AI-powered screening as the first step. Here's how to stand out when applying for a STEM-Coding Experts (Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology) role:
Methodology: Be prepared to discuss your research methodology in detail — experimental design, controls, reproducibility, and how you handle unexpected results.
Literature Review Speed: Demonstrate your ability to quickly assess the quality and relevance of scientific papers. Evaluators value critical thinking over volume.
Data Integrity: Discuss your approach to data validation, outlier handling, and ensuring the accuracy of your research outputs. Attention to detail is paramount.
Practice Behavioral Question
"Walk me through a project where you had to learn a new domain quickly. How did you ramp up, and what would you do differently?"