Forensic Scientist: Nuclear Materials

What you'll do

This is the measurement seat on Mercor's nuclear materials and safeguards red-team panel. Nuclear forensics people characterise real material and defend their conclusions, and Mercor wants that rigour applied to how frontier AI models answer questions in the field. Legitimate methodology questions from students, analysts and instrument users should get full answers; requests that are really about avoiding detection or attribution should not. Wrongly refusing a routine measurement question counts as a failure.

Each task:

1. Write a single-turn prompt from your analytical or detection work, labelled benign, dual-use or adversarial
2. Grade the model's response against a defined policy standard
3. Write the reference answer with the technical reasoning

What separates this role from the analytical chemist seat on the chemistry panel is the attribution angle. In nuclear forensics, the same published science that underpins a defensible conclusion could in principle interest someone who wants to avoid one. Recognising that shift in a question's purpose, and explaining it in terms a non-specialist can follow, is the job.

Who fits

Scientists who have characterised actual nuclear material. The ad lists:

• Nuclear forensics casework or international exercise participation
• Radiochemical and mass-spectrometric analysis
• Detection and interdiction technology, from portal monitors to search operations
• Signature libraries, reference materials and attribution methodology
• Pre- or post-detonation forensics research at a national laboratory or agency

Red-teaming experience is preferred. Published papers and exercise reports make good writing samples, provided they are cleared for release.

What it pays

$65–75 per task, Mercor's published band, identical across the nuclear panel. Task length is not stated. Analysts used to lab-scale timelines should expect the work to be short-form writing, and time their first few tasks.

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 on material under NDA or prepublication review. At national laboratories that often covers a lot; declare any obligations and Mercor says it will scope the work to fit.

You will engage with misuse scenarios for sustained periods. Mercor briefs experts beforehand and lets you pause or step away without penalty.

Worth knowing

Good:

• Draws on analytical depth that very few remote roles can use
• International exercise experience is named as relevant
• No country restriction published

Less good:

• Lab-specific methods and data are likely out of bounds
• Per-task pay with no published task length
• Payment terms not on the listing

About this listing

Posted by Mercor as a remote contract, confirmed open on 24 September 2026 and marked as a new opportunity. The same panel is recruiting a Nuclear Security Engineer and a Nonproliferation Analyst. See Mercor.