STEM Expert: Chemistry & Computational Chemistry (PhD)

What you'll do

You write, test and pick apart the chemistry problems that AI models are benchmarked against. The brief spans the whole discipline: reaction mechanisms and synthesis planning, spectroscopy interpretation, molecular simulation and electronic structure methods. You judge whether a model's reasoning chain actually holds, check whether a simulation setup or an experimental protocol would reproduce, and turn chemical, spectroscopic or simulation data into concrete recommendations.

Two parts of the ad go beyond grading. You are expected to help guide the development and validation of chemistry AI tools, and to explain your reasoning verbally as well as in writing, to collaborators who may not be chemists. That points to some contact with the customer's team rather than purely solo tasks. The work is remote and contractor based; no weekly hours are stated.

Who qualifies

• A PhD in chemistry, computational chemistry, chemical biology, materials science or a closely related field
• Hands-on research: wet lab work if your subfield is experimental, or extensive simulation-heavy research if it is computational
• Deep expertise in at least one of seven areas: organic synthesis and mechanisms, inorganic and organometallic, physical and theoretical, analytical chemistry and spectroscopy, computational chemistry and molecular dynamics, cheminformatics and drug discovery, materials and polymer chemistry
• Python, or the standard tools of your subfield (the ad names Gaussian, ORCA, Psi4, GROMACS, LAMMPS and RDKit)
• English at C1 or above, written and spoken

Nice to have

• Postdoc, research scientist or faculty experience, which micro1 says it strongly prefers
• Publications, patents or contributions to open-source scientific software
• Experience with AI/ML-assisted chemistry workflows or benchmarking
• A background in drug discovery, reaction prediction or retrosynthesis

What it pays

micro1's listing states $45–90/hour. Nothing on the ad explains what places someone at $45 rather than $90; subfield scarcity and seniority are the obvious candidates, but that is our guess, so plan around the bottom of the band until you have an offer. No payment schedule or method is published on the listing.

Worth knowing

Good:

• A wide door: seven subfields qualify, and computational chemists do not need wet lab time
• 50 openings, marked New and High demand when we read it
• No country restriction; the ad says Remote (Worldwide)
• The work uses real chemical judgment (mechanisms, spectra, method choice) rather than generic text rating

Less good:

• A 2x pay spread with no published basis for placement
• The floor sits below micro1's older Chemistry Specialist listing, which shows $70–90/hour
• Verbal communication is part of the brief, so expect some live interaction, not fully asynchronous tasks
• No hours, project length or start date published
• Contractor terms: no benefits, and your own tax to manage

About this listing

Posted by micro1 on its referral jobs board; we read it on 18 October 2026, three days after it went up. The pay band, the 50 openings, the worldwide location and every qualification above come from the ad. We could not verify hours, project duration, the end customer or how the rate within the band is set. See micro1.