Applied Physics Benchmark Specialist
We are seeking expert physicists to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative.
Hiring companyMercor
About the role
You will write and verify rigorous multiple-choice questions across core physics domains, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.
You will be assigned one of two task types:
- Question Authoring — Create original, challenging multiple-choice questions in your area of physics expertise, rate their difficulty, and submit them for review.
- Question Verification — Review pre-written questions for accuracy, clarity, and rigor. Edit where needed, rate difficulty, and document any changes made.
Physics Domains Covered
Semiconductor Physics, Nanoelectronics & Spintronics, Photonics, Quantum Optics & Ultrafast, Quantum Sensing & Metrology, Plasma Physics & Fusion Energy, Nonlinear Dynamics & Turbulence, Geophysics & Reservoir Simulation.
More About the Opportunity
- Expected commitment: 10+ hours/week.
- Asynchronous, fully remote work.
Contract and Payment Terms
- You will be engaged as an independent contractor.
- This is a fully remote role that can be completed on your own schedule.
- Projects can be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance.
- Your work at Mercor will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution.
Responsibilities
- Author original physics questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall.
- Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined — all necessary information must be in the problem statement.
- Rate each question's difficulty: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate), or Expert (post-graduate and above).
- Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives that challenge expert-level solvers.
- Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear, concise intermediate steps in markdown format.
- Supply 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources (peer-reviewed journals, university repositories).
- For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made.
Preferred skills
- PhD or doctoral candidate in Physics, Applied Physics, Astrophysics, or a closely related field.
- Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain.
- Strong command of graduate-level physics concepts and mathematical formalism.
- Experience with rigorous academic problem design or physics olympiad writing is a strong plus.
- Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.
Eligibility
Work arrangement: Fully remote
Please note: We are unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time.
Compensation details
$61–$77 per hour.
- Payments are weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
More about the hiring companyMercor

