Bilingual Finnish STEM Expert (PhD): AI Safety

What you'll do

Finnish has roughly five million native speakers, and the number who also hold a PhD in chemistry or biology is small. That scarcity is why this role exists: AI models are tested far less in Finnish than in English, and a safety behaviour that only holds in English is easy to route around.

The work has three parts:

• Writing expert-level prompts in Finnish on specialised scientific subjects
• Evaluating and annotating model answers for scientific accuracy, helpfulness and how well they handle sensitive content
• Classifying prompts and conversations against structured guidelines

The subject areas named in the ad are chemical, biological, and radiological and nuclear science. The central judgment is dual-use: telling a legitimate research or teaching question apart from one that seeks genuinely dangerous capability, and checking that the model draws that line in the right place in Finnish, not only in English. You are testing the model's restraint, not supplying anything harmful yourself.

No AI or machine-learning background is needed; Mercor trains you on the workflow.

Who qualifies

• A PhD in chemistry, biology or a closely related field, completed or in progress
• Enough depth to write across chemical, biological, or radiological and nuclear topics
• Native or near-native Finnish plus business-level written English
• Working familiarity with current laboratory and computational techniques in your subfield
• Sound judgment on scientific safety and dual-use information

The ad prefers real depth in one subfield (organic or inorganic synthesis, molecular biology, microbiology, virology or genetics, for example) over broad coverage. Radiochemistry, nuclear chemistry, energetic materials and radiation physics all count toward the radiological and nuclear side. Research or coursework in chemical security, biosafety, biosecurity or hazardous-materials handling helps, as does experience reviewing, grading or red-teaming technical content.

Being based in Finland or elsewhere in Western Europe is preferred, not required.

What it pays

$61–65 per hour, Mercor's published figure. The Finnish generalist version of this role pays $48–52, so the PhD is worth $13 an hour here. The Danish and Belgian Dutch STEM roles pay the same $61–65; Norwegian STEM tops the series at $77–81.

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

Worth knowing

Good:

• A strong hourly rate for part-time remote work, and current PhD candidates are eligible
• Uses your scientific judgment rather than generic labelling
• Your own schedule, with an immediate start
• 4 hires on the listing this month when we checked

Less good:

• Sensitive by design: expect hazardous-science topics throughout
• No weekly hours or project length stated; projects can be extended, shortened or ended early
• Independent contractor with no benefits
• H-1B and STEM OPT candidates excluded
• The end client and the models under test are not named

About this listing

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