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: Materials Science Expert Type: Contract Compensation: $1,150–$1,450/task Location: Remote
Role Responsibilities
- Build a realistic digital workspace centered on the Drive folders you use daily. Include experimental write-ups, characterization reports, simulation results, technology transfer memos, IP disclosures, project proposals, and email threads. Represent platforms like VASP , Materials Studio (Biovia) , LabVantage LIMS , and ANSYS Fluent .
- Design multi-step tasks grounded in your real workflows. Require navigation of multiple apps, files, and stakeholders to challenge frontier AI agents.
- Collaborate with other materials-science experts to design the environment, shape task scope, and review scenarios for realism and rigor.
- Work asynchronously with research teams to refine task designs and evaluation criteria for materials-science agent benchmarks.
- Contribute to frontier AI research and benchmarking. Your work directly informs how leading labs train and evaluate the next generation of AI systems.
Qualifications
Must-Have
- MS / PhD in materials science, chemistry, physics, or related discipline.
- 3+ years of full-time experience at a Fortune 500 R&D organization, national lab, or R1 university materials research group .
- Background in metals, polymers, ceramics, composites, or semiconductor materials.
- Experience with characterization techniques like XRD , SEM/TEM , spectroscopy, and thermal analysis.
- Computational materials science expertise in DFT or MD .
- Process development and scale-up experience.
- Reliability and failure analysis in advanced materials.
- Day-to-day use of VASP , Materials Studio (Biovia) , LabVantage / LabWare LIMS , and ANSYS Fluent / STAR-CCM+ .
- Strong analytical thinking and writing skills to translate materials-science workflows into structured task specs.
Compensation & Legal
- Task Completion Pay: Competitive and based on task quality (~ $1,150–$1,450 per completed task, subject to change as the project evolves).
- Performance Bonus: Top performers receive a weekly bonus incentive on top of their per task rate.
- Hourly Opportunity: Top performers may be invited to transition to an hourly compensation model based on sustained quality and throughput.
Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)
- Upload resume
- AI interview based on your resume
- Submit form
Resources & Support
- For details about the interview process and pla