Bilingual Arabic STEM Expert (PhD): AI Safety

What you'll do

With 13 hires this month when we checked, this was the most actively recruiting listing in Mercor's bilingual AI safety series. It wants PhD-level chemists and biologists who can write serious science in Arabic, a language with hundreds of millions of speakers but comparatively thin scientific text online, since much Arab-world science is taught and published in English or French.

The tasks:

• Writing expert-level prompts in Arabic on specialised scientific topics
• Evaluating and annotating model responses for scientific accuracy, helpfulness and handling of sensitive content
• Classifying prompts and conversations using structured guidelines

Subjects span chemical, biological, and radiological and nuclear science. The core skill is dual-use judgment: separating legitimate research, teaching and safety questions from requests for genuinely dangerous capability, and checking the model treats each correctly in Arabic. The work assesses safeguards; it does not involve producing harmful material.

The ad does not say whether prompts should be in Modern Standard Arabic, a regional dialect, or both. Scientific writing usually defaults to MSA, but safety testing often cares about how people really type, so ask during onboarding.

No AI background is needed; Mercor trains you on the workflow.

Who qualifies

• A PhD in chemistry, biology or a closely related field, ongoing or completed
• Depth to write across chemical, biological, or radiological and nuclear subject areas
• Native or near-native Arabic and business-level written English
• Deep familiarity with modern laboratory and computational techniques in your subfield
• Sound judgment on scientific safety and dual-use information

Nice to have: depth in one subfield (organic or inorganic synthesis, molecular biology, microbiology, virology, genetics and similar), radiological and nuclear coverage from chemistry (radiochemistry, nuclear chemistry, energetic materials, radiation physics), research or coursework in chemical security, biosafety or hazardous-materials handling, and experience reviewing, grading or red-teaming technical content.

Saudi Arabia or the wider MENA region is preferred, not required.

What it pays

$38–42 per hour, Mercor's published figure. That is below the European and East Asian STEM versions ($48–81) and above the Thai ($24–28) and Hindi ($23–27) ones. We did not see an Arabic generalist counterpart among the AI safety listings we reviewed on 24 September 2026.

How good the rate is depends on where you are: attractive for a postdoc in much of North Africa or the Levant, less so against Gulf academic salaries.

Payments are weekly via Stripe or Wise, based on services rendered.

Worth knowing

Good:

• The most active listing in the series (13 hires this month)
• PhD candidates are eligible
• Remote on your own schedule, immediate start
• No AI or machine-learning experience needed

Less good:

• Mid-to-low rate in the series for a PhD-level bar
• MSA versus dialect expectations not stated
• Hazardous-science topics throughout
• No stated weekly hours, project length or end client; projects can be extended, shortened or ended early
• Independent contractor, no benefits; H-1B and STEM OPT candidates excluded

About this listing

Posted by Mercor as a part-time remote position, confirmed open on 24 September 2026. Pay, requirements, location preference and payment terms are the ad's own; the notes on Arabic and the comparisons are ours. See Mercor.