We're hiring experienced CAD, PCB, and 3D design engineers to build realistic, difficult design tasks that expose where AI still falls short.

You'll design a realistic engineering problem (a prompt, input files, and a grader that checks the result), run it against frontier models, and refine it until it is fair, realistic, and hard. Realism always comes before difficulty.

• Mechanical CAD: parts, assemblies, mechanisms, and tolerancing. Professional experience with SolidWorks, AutoCAD, FreeCAD, or a comparable CAD tool is the baseline; Siemens NX and/or CATIA experience is highly valued. Tasks are built with code-based CAD (build123d, CadQuery, OpenCASCADE) and mesh tools (trimesh, manifold3d, Open3D).
• Electronics / PCB: schematic capture, layout, DRC/ERC, footprints, and enclosure fit using KiCad (kicad-cli, pcbnew Python API); openEMS or RF/EM simulation is a plus.
• 3D / Spatial-Temporal: scene construction, animation, rigging, physics, and camera work in headless Blender driven by Python, plus rendering with PyVista/VTK.
• Minimum 20 hours per week, active at least 5 days per week.
• Role starts immediately, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

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.
• Payments are weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
• Please note: We are unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time.

• Turn real design work from your field into self-contained tasks: a prompt, input files (STEP, KiCad projects, .blend files, meshes), and an automated grader.
• Build and iterate on tasks with an AI coding agent (Claude Code) and version them in Git.
• Run each task against frontier models, read the model transcripts, and close leaks and shortcuts until the task is hard for the right reasons.
• Pass automated QA and peer review, and document the rationale behind any synthetic data you create.
• Attend onboarding and calibration sessions.

Work arrangement: Fully remote

Eligible countries: United States