Physics Researcher - Fully Remote | Upto $140/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: Research Physics ExpertType: ContractCompensation: $80–$140/hourLocation: RemoteCommitment: ~10 hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Solve research-level physics challenges end-to-end with verifiable derivations, code, and peer-reviewed references.
• Decompose challenges into standalone checkpoint sub-problems requiring genuine physical reasoning.
• Author Python answer templates with auto-grading functions for symbolic or numerical answers.
• Audit submitted solutions for correctness, scope, and method soundness; deliver actionable feedback across iterations.
• Adjudicate between parallel solver attempts and decide which solution becomes the golden reference.
• Document chain-of-thought reasoning, error tolerances, equivalent symbolic forms, and verification test cases.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• PhD or postdoc in the relevant subfield (senior PhD student minimum).
• Postdoc or junior professor in the relevant subfield (PhD minimum).
• Full professor or industry research PI in the relevant subfield (senior postdoc or junior professor minimum).
• Hands‑on familiarity with at least two canonical methods of the target subfield, demonstrable through publications.
• 3–5 representative publications (arXiv ID or DOI), ideally within the last ~5 years and in the target subfield.
• Working proficiency with LaTeX , Python , Jupyter , and SymPy .
• Strong written English (B2/C1/C2 minimum; native or near-native preferred).