Energetic Materials Expert for Redteaming

What you'll do

This is the general intake for Mercor's energetic materials red-team panel, and it covers the same five profiles that Mercor also advertises as separate listings. The panel tests whether frontier AI models can judge the misuse potential of a technical request: answer the mining engineer or investigator fully, and decline the request that should be shut down.

The umbrella ad puts the problem in its sharpest form: models fail in both directions. They refuse routine questions a professional asks every day, and then engage with a request they should have declined because it was dressed up in academic language.

Each task:

1. Write a single-turn prompt in your specialty, labelled benign, dual-use or adversarial
2. Judge the model's response against a defined policy standard
3. Write the reference answer, with the technical reasoning behind it

Who fits

Mercor says it needs two profiles and wants both: chemists with specialty materials expertise, and engineers or operators with initiation and propulsion system experience. The backgrounds it names:

• Hazardous device specialists and public safety professionals
• Specialty materials chemists (pyrotechnics or propulsion)
• Federally certified materials specialists and incident analysts
• Propulsion and effects engineers
• Commercial blasting engineers

Prior AI evaluation or red-teaming experience is preferred. The writing requirement is the same as the individual listings, with one addition: incident and post-blast reports are explicitly named as a strong signal, alongside technical writing, research and expert witness work. Include a sample or link.

Which listing to apply through

The ad does not say whether this general listing and the five role-specific listings feed the same pool. If one of the specific roles matches you closely, applying through it signals your profile more clearly; if you straddle two (a chemist who also ran a test range, say), this umbrella listing may fit better. Either way, the pay and terms published are identical.

What it pays

$65–75 per task, Mercor's published figure and the same as every role-specific listing. No task length is given. 16 people were hired onto this listing in the past month, so the panel is actively filling.

No payment schedule or visa eligibility is published on the listing.

Before you apply

You may not draw on classified or export-controlled information, or anything under NDA or prepublication review. Declare any such obligations and Mercor says it will scope the work accordingly.

Mercor briefs experts about sustained exposure to misuse scenarios in advance and lets you pause or step away without penalty.

Worth knowing

Good:

• Accepts both chemistry and engineering or operator backgrounds
• Actively hiring, with 16 hires this month
• No country restriction published

Less good:

• Unclear how this listing relates to the five role-specific ones
• Per-task pay with no stated task length
• Payment terms not on the listing

About this listing

Posted by Mercor as a remote contract, confirmed open on 24 September 2026. The role-specific listings on the same panel: Hazardous Device Specialist / Public Safety Professional, Specialty Materials Chemist: Pyrotechnics or Propulsion, Federal Certified Materials Specialist / Incident Analyst, Propulsion & Effects Engineer and Commercial Blasting Engineer. See Mercor.