Materials Scientist - AI Trainer

About the Role

This opportunity is with a company that connects high-caliber creative and technical professionals with leading AI research organizations. The work is remote and part-time, and the role is focused on materials science expertise applied to AI benchmark and task design.

Position Details

Title: Materials Science Expert
Engagement Type: Contract
Compensation: $1,150–$1,450 per task
Work Mode: Remote

What You’ll Do

• Create a realistic digital work environment built around the Drive folders and documents you typically use in your day-to-day work. This should include items such as experimental notes, characterization summaries, simulation outputs, technology transfer documents, IP disclosures, project proposals, and email chains.
• Develop multi-step assignments based on authentic workflows, requiring movement across several tools, files, and stakeholders so frontier AI agents are meaningfully challenged.
• Partner with fellow materials science professionals to shape the environment, define task scope, and assess scenarios for accuracy and realism.
• Work independently and asynchronously with research teams to improve task structures and evaluation standards for materials science agent benchmarks.
• Help advance frontier AI research by contributing to benchmark design and evaluation work that supports training and testing of next-generation AI systems.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or PhD in materials science, chemistry, physics, or a closely related field.
• At least 3 years of full-time experience in an R&D setting at a Fortune 500 company, a national laboratory, or an R1 university materials research group.
• Practical background in one or more of the following: metals, polymers, ceramics, composites, or semiconductor materials.
• Hands-on experience with characterization methods such as XRD, SEM/TEM, spectroscopy, and thermal analysis.
• Strong knowledge of computational materials science tools and methods, including DFT or MD.
• Experience in process development and scale-up.
• Exposure to reliability and failure analysis in advanced materials.
• Regular, hands-on use of tools such as VASP, Materials Studio (Biovia), LabVantage or LabWare LIMS, and ANSYS Fluent or STAR-CCM+.
• Excellent analytical and technical writing ability, with the skill to convert materials science workflows into structured task specifications.

Compensation and Additional Terms

• Payment is based on completed tasks, with compensation set competitively at $1,150–$1,450 per task, depending on task quality and subject to change as the project develops.
• High-performing contributors can receive a weekly bonus on top of their per-task earnings.
• Top performers may later be offered an hourly pay structure if they maintain strong quality and throughput.

Application Process

The application takes about 20–30 minutes and includes three steps: uploading your resume, completing an AI interview based on your resume, and submitting the final form.

Support Information

If you need help during the process, you can contact the support team at support@mercor.com.

The team reviews applications daily.