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 res