Applied Engineering Benchmark Specialist
The middle of its range, $69/hr, is above the $35/hr median of the AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF) roles open now, whose typical pay runs $20–$120/hr. How that pay moves week by week is in our research on AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF) work.
Half of all AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF) roles come down within 18.5 days of being listed, and 33.5% are still up after four weeks. This one was posted 90 days ago.
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About the role
Role Overview
We are seeking expert engineers 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 engineering 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 engineering 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.
Engineering Domains Covered
Semiconductor Design & Manufacturing (VLSI), Control Science and Engineering, Mechatronics, Reactor, Plant Design & Separations, Reservoir Engineering & Maintenance, Bioinstrumentation & Biotechnology.
Key Responsibilities
- Author original engineering 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 Engineering or a closely related field
- Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain
- Strong command of graduate-level engineering principles, applied mathematics, and domain-specific standards
- Professional engineering licensure (PE) or industry experience 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
Where you can work
This role is 100% remote: you can work from any country except Andorra, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Bahamas, Bhutan, Belarus, Belize, DR Congo, Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cameroon, China, Cuba, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Dominica, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Micronesia, Grenada, Georgia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Haiti, Iraq, Iran, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Kiribati, Comoros, St. Kitts and Nevis, North Korea, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Marshall Islands, Mali, Myanmar, Mauritania, Maldives, Malawi, Niger, Nicaragua, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Palestine, Palau, Russia, Solomon Islands, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Suriname, South Sudan, São Tomé and Príncipe, Syria, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Tonga, Tuvalu, Ukraine, Uganda, Vatican City, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Venezuela, Vanuatu, Samoa, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
From Mercor's job posting, checked 12 Nov 2026.
About Mercor
Premium expert network: physicians, lawyers, engineers, PhDs.
How it pays: Weekly via Stripe (1099 contractors).
When it pays: Every Wednesday, for the week before. How often others pay
Interview: yes, for everyone it takes (AI Video Interview (plus role-specific assessments)). How the Mercor AI interview works
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