Applied Mathematics PhD - AI 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 Details

Position: Applied Mathematics Benchmark Specialist

Type: Contract

Compensation: $61–$77/hour

Location: Remote

Commitment: 10+ hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Author original math questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall.
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined. Include all necessary information 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 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 Mathematics , Applied Mathematics , Statistics , or a closely related field.
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain.
• Strong command of graduate-level mathematical concepts and formal proof writing.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.

Preferred

• Experience with rigorous academic problem design or mathematical competition writing.

Resources & Support

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