Applied Chemistry Benchmark Specialist

Position: Applied Chemistry Benchmark Specialist

Type: Hourly Contract

Compensation: $61–$77/hour

Location: Remote

About the Opportunity

Mercor is seeking expert chemists to author and verify high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will develop rigorous chemistry questions, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks designed to measure and advance AI capabilities across multiple chemistry domains.

You may contribute through Question Authoring or Question Verification, depending on your expertise and project needs.

Responsibilities

- Author original, challenging multiple-choice questions that assess deep conceptual understanding rather than surface-level recall.
- Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, precisely defined, and contain all information necessary for solving.
- Rate question difficulty as Medium, Hard, or Expert based on academic level.
- Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives designed to challenge advanced solvers.
- Develop clear, step-by-step solutions with concise intermediate reasoning in Markdown format.
- Provide 1–5 reputable academic references for each question, including peer-reviewed journals and university repositories.
- Review pre-written chemistry questions for accuracy, clarity, completeness, precision, and solvability.
- Identify and document issues found during verification and justify any edits or corrections.
- Help maintain consistent academic rigor and quality across benchmark content.

Chemistry Domains

- Materials, Polymer & Electronic Chemistry
- Industrial & Process Chemistry
- Energy Storage & Environmental Chemistry
- Pharmaceutical & Agrochemical Chemistry
- Consumer, Food & Specialty Chemicals

Required Qualifications

- PhD or doctoral candidacy in Chemistry, Biochemistry,



Chemical Engineering, or a closely related field.
- Strong command of graduate-level chemistry concepts.
- Demonstrated understanding of reaction mechanisms and quantitative chemical analysis.
- Ability to design and evaluate rigorous academic chemistry problems.
- Excellent written English.
- Ability to communicate complex scientific concepts clearly and concisely.
- Robust attention to accuracy, precision, and logical consistency.
- Ability to work independently in an asynchronous environment.

Preferred Qualifications

- Master's degree with exceptional depth in a specific chemistry subdomain.
- Experience designing rigorous academic assessments or problem sets.
- Experience writing chemistry olympiad questions or comparable advanced academic content.
- Strong expertise in one or more of the covered chemistry domains.
- Experience reviewing or validating technical/scientific educational content.
- Familiarity with academic literature and reputable scientific reference sources.

Compensation

- $61–$77 per hour
- Hourly contract engagement
- Fully remote and asynchronous
- Expected commitment of 10+ hours per week

Eligibility

- Open to qualified candidates with the required academic and chemistry expertise.
- Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.
- Selection is based on qualifications without regard to legally protected characteristics.

Application Process

1. Submit your application highlighting your chemistry background and area(s) of expertise.
2. Specify relevant academic qualifications and specialized chemistry domains.
3. Demonstrate experience with advanced chemistry problem-solving or academic content creation where applicable.
4. Selected candidates may be assigned question-authoring or verification work based on their expertise.
5. Complete assigned benchmark tasks while following the project's quality and formatting standards.

📌 Chemistry Research Specialist (Remote | ) (Canada)
🏢 Synthires
📍 Canada