Applied Physics Benchmark Specialist
Role details
Role Overview
We are seeking expert physicists 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 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.
Key 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
Ideal Qualifications
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
More About the Opportunity
Expected commitment: 10+ hours/week
Asynchronous, fully remote work
From the Mercor posting.
Applying on Mercor
What happens after you click
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- Upload a resume, complete the assessments the role asks for and verify your work authorisation.
- An AI interview of about 20 minutes. The confirmation screen then shows the expected timeline for that role.
- If Mercor hires you, you are paid weekly, on the Wednesday after each work week, via Stripe. Mercor says first payouts are held for 7 days.
- Remote — open to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, Liechtenstein and Monaco.
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