[Contract] Applied Biology Benchmark Specialist

[Contract] Applied Biology Benchmark Specialist

Mercor

Remote

Role Overview

We are seeking expert biologists to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will write and verify rigorous multiple-choice questions across core biology 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 biology 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.

Biology Domains Covered

• Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Industrial and Synthetic Biology, Medical Research & Drug Discovery, Agricultural, Environmental & Food Biology.

Key Responsibilities

• Author original biology 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

Ideal Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Neuroscience, or a closely related field
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain
• Strong command of graduate-level biological concepts, experimental design, and data interpretation
• Research publications or laboratory experience in biological sciences is a strong plus
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely

More About the Opportunity

• Expected commitment: 10+ hours/week
• Asynchronous, fully remote work

We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.

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.