Engineering PhD - Assessment Specialist

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: Applied Engineering Benchmark Specialist Type: Contract Compensation: $61–$77/hour Location: Remote Commitment: 10+ hours/week Role Responsibilities Author original engineering questions that test deep conceptual understanding in Semiconductor Design & Manufacturing (VLSI) , Control Science and Engineering , Mechatronics , and other domains. Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined, with all necessary information in the problem statement. Rate each question's difficulty as Medium, Hard, or Expert, providing 1 correct answer and 9 plausible alternatives to 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 like peer-reviewed journals and university repositories. For verification tasks, flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made. Qualifications Must-Have 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 do