Physics PhD - Scientific Computing Expert

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: Physics PhD Coding Experts
Type: Contract
Compensation: $70/hour
Location: Remote
Duration: 6 weeks
Commitment: 20+ hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Source material from published papers, Kaggle datasets, open-source repositories, or self-designed scenarios.
• Write scientific prompts based on sourced input.
• Build grading criteria to define correct answers.
• Calibrate tasks against frontier models, ensuring tasks ship only when strong models fail more often than succeed.
• Work independently and asynchronously to meet deadlines while improving AI model performance.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• PhD in physics, applied physics, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated depth in at least two subdomains: condensed matter, optics, quantum information/computing, computational physics, astrophysics, particle physics.
• Working proficiency in Python, R, or another relevant programming language for scientific computing.
• Comfortable with Git/GitHub and running code in Docker.

Preferred

• Publications in peer-reviewed journals.
• Prior scientific software or research engineering experience.

Start Date

• Immediate

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

• Upload your resume and application form.
• A 25-minute conversational interview covering your background, experience, and motivations.
• Follow up within a few days with next steps and onboarding.

Resources & Support

• For details about the interview process and platform information, please check: https://talent.docs.mercor.com/welcome
• For any help or support, reach out to: [email removed]

PS: Our team reviews applications daily. Please complete your AI interview and application steps to be considered for this opportunity.