Applied Physics Benchmark Specialist

What you'll do

This is benchmark construction for an AI research initiative: writing and checking hard physics exam questions. Each contributor is placed on one of two task types:

• Authoring: write an original multiple-choice question in your subfield, rate its difficulty, and submit it for review
• Verification: take someone else's question, check it for accuracy, clarity and rigor, fix what needs fixing, and document every change

Every question carries one correct answer and nine distractors, each plausible enough to trip an expert solver. Writing one good wrong answer is easy; writing nine that are wrong for different, subtle reasons is where most of your time will go. On top of that you write a step-by-step chain-of-thought solution in markdown and cite 1–5 academic references (peer-reviewed journals, university repositories).

Difficulty is graded on three levels: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate) and Expert (post-graduate and above). Questions must be self-contained: everything needed to solve them sits in the problem statement.

Physics domains in scope

The ad names an applied, industry-leaning list rather than the textbook core:

• Semiconductor physics, nanoelectronics and spintronics
• Photonics, quantum optics and ultrafast
• Quantum sensing and metrology
• Plasma physics and fusion energy
• Nonlinear dynamics and turbulence
• Geophysics and reservoir simulation

If your expertise is in, say, high-energy theory or cosmology, this particular listing is not aimed at you even though the degree requirement fits.

Who fits

• PhD or doctoral candidate in physics, applied physics, astrophysics or a close field
• A master's is considered if you have exceptional depth in one subdomain
• Graduate-level command of the concepts and the mathematical formalism
• Excellent written English
• Olympiad problem writing or other rigorous problem design is called out as a strong plus

What it pays

$61–77 per hour, Mercor's published figure. The ad does not say what places you within the band. The expected commitment is 10+ hours a week, asynchronous and fully remote.

Payment is weekly via Stripe or Wise. Mercor cannot support H-1B or STEM OPT candidates.

Worth knowing

Good:

• Doctoral candidates are explicitly welcome, so you do not need the degree in hand
• Asynchronous work with a modest 10-hour weekly floor, which fits alongside a PhD
• Very active: 93 hires on the listing this month when we checked
• The applied domain list rewards industry-adjacent physicists who rarely see targeted listings

Less good:

• Nine distractors per question is slow, careful work; hourly pay only helps if your throughput is judged fairly, and the ad does not say how output is measured
• The band is narrow and modest for PhD-level authoring compared with Mercor's $100+ expert listings
• No country list is published, but H-1B and STEM OPT holders are excluded
• Independent contractor; projects can be extended, shortened or ended early

About this listing

Posted by Mercor as a remote hourly contract, confirmed open on 24 September 2026. The pay band, domains, difficulty scale and qualifications are the ad's own. See Mercor.