AI Research Scientist - Fully Remote | Up to $200/hr

About the job
Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark , General Catalyst , Peter Thiel , Adam D'Angelo , Larry Summers , and Jack Dorsey .
Position: Machine Learning Expert
Type: Contract
Compensation: $150–$200/hour
Location: Remote
Role Responsibilities

- Develop challenging machine learning engineering tasks for a long-horizon AI research project .

- Design tasks that challenge frontier models, ensuring they are solved in no more than 2 out of 8 attempts.

- Focus on inference, evaluation, and systems work rather than heavy model training. Tasks run on both GPU and CPU .

- Clearly explain why each problem is difficult for a frontier model.

- Contribute ideas without needing to build or review the tasks yourself.

Qualifications

Must-Have

- Current or recent role as an ML research engineer , research scientist , or applied scientist .

- Experience with training, fine-tuning, or optimizing models in PyTorch or JAX .

- Deep knowledge in at least one area: LLMs , GPU inference and performance , Reinforcement learning (RL) , or Scientific ML .

- Ability to explain why a problem is hard for a frontier model.

Preferred

- Experience writing benchmark or evaluation questions.

- PhD in ML , CS , or physics , or an MSc with strong research output.

- Publications.

- Prior Mercor contracts with strong performance.

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

- Upload resume

- AI interview based on your resume

- Submit form

Resources & Support

- For details about the interview process and platform information, please check:

- For any help or support, reach out to:

PS: Our team reviews applications daily. Please complete your AI interview and application steps to be considered for this opportunity.
Originally posted on Himalayas