Nuclear Engineer, Fuel Cycle

What you'll do

Mercor's nuclear materials and safeguards red-team panel needs engineers who have worked the fuel cycle itself, from front end to back end. The umbrella nuclear listing describes fuel-cycle depth as the core requirement, which makes this the anchor role on the panel. Your job is to test whether frontier AI models answer the everyday engineering questions of the civil nuclear industry and hold back on the few that only matter for a proliferation pathway. A refused criticality-safety question counts as a failure.

Each task:

1. Write a single-turn prompt from fuel-cycle engineering, labelled benign, dual-use or adversarial
2. Assess the model's answer against a defined policy standard
3. Write the reference answer and the engineering reasoning behind it

The ad frames the expertise well: knowing which parameters are routine engineering and which only matter to someone heading somewhere else with them. Engineers rarely write that tacit knowledge down; here you do, per prompt, for a non-specialist reviewer.

Who fits

Engineers with direct fuel-cycle experience. The ad's examples:

• Enrichment, conversion or fuel fabrication engineering: process design, operations, throughput
• Reprocessing and the back end: separations, waste streams, spent fuel management
• Criticality safety: evaluations, limits and controls, accident analysis
• Fuel cycle systems analysis and modelling, including economics
• Safety analysis or licensing for a fuel-cycle facility

Red-teaming experience is preferred. Safety analysts and licensing engineers, who already write justifications for regulators, will find the rationale work natural. Include a sample or link.

What it pays

$65–75 per task, Mercor's published band and the same as every seat on the nuclear panel. No task length is published, so the hourly equivalent is yours to measure.

The listing does not include a payment schedule or visa eligibility terms.

Before you apply

Classified, export-controlled, NDA-covered and prepublication-review information may not be used. Fuel-cycle technology is heavily export-controlled in most countries, so be conservative about what you draw on and declare any obligations; Mercor says it will scope the work around them.

Expect to read and write about misuse scenarios for long periods. Mercor briefs experts beforehand and lets you pause or step away without penalty.

Worth knowing

Good:

• The panel's central profile, per Mercor's own umbrella ad
• Licensing and safety-analysis writing skills transfer directly
• No country restriction published

Less good:

• Export controls cover much of this field's detail
• 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 and flagged as a new opportunity. Related seats on the same panel: Nuclear Security Engineer, Forensic Scientist: Nuclear Materials and Nonproliferation Analyst. See Mercor.