Mathematics PhD - Benchmark 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 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 in Signal Processing , Financial Mathematics , and other domains.
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined with all necessary information.
• Rate each question's difficulty as Medium, Hard, or Expert, providing 1 correct answer and 9 plausible alternatives.
• 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.
• 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 is a strong plus.