Chemical Engineer, AI Model Evaluation

What you'll do

You give frontier models realistic chemical engineering problems (scenarios, calculations, process questions) and grade what comes back. The checks are the ones you would run on a junior engineer's work. Do the material and energy balances close? Are the assumptions stated and defensible? Would the separation sequence actually work, and would the safety reasoning hold up on a real plant? Where the model is wrong, you write the reason in the terms a colleague would use.

Part of the project is about how models should talk about engineering at all, including when to stop and tell the user to bring in a licensed engineer. Judging scope is part of the job along with checking the arithmetic.

Sovrano runs this as its process engineering panel. Toxicology, hazard classification and chemical security go to a separate panel, CBRN Specialist, AI Safety Review.

Who fits

• A bachelor's degree in chemical engineering or a close field; a master's, a PhD, or PE or Chartered status is strongly preferred
• At least 4 years of professional chemical engineering, hands-on rather than purely academic
• Residence in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the EU
• C1 English or above, written and spoken
• Time for a paid Monday bootcamp, production from Tuesday and roughly 10 hours of work before the batch closes on Sunday
• A Discord account and readiness to work and invoice as an independent contractor

The experience bar is a year higher than on Sovrano's nuclear and CBRN panels, and it is the only one of the three that spells out industry experience. Process design, scale-up and process safety engineers who have checked heat and mass balances for a living are the obvious fit; process control and thermodynamics are on the skills list too.

What it pays

$35 to $49 an hour, according to your background, with the exact rate confirmed in writing before the bootcamp. You are paid for hours worked, bootcamp included, and you invoice Sovrano directly; Sovrano does not file or submit tax forms for you. A first batch of about 10 hours works out to roughly $350 to $490.

Worth knowing

Good:

• A fixed batch week and a confirmed rate, which Sovrano's waitlist roles do not offer
• PE or Chartered status is preferred, not required
• You set your own hours inside the batch window

Less good:

• The certain work is about 10 hours; more depends on how the first batch goes
• The 4-year, hands-on bar rules out recent graduates and researchers without plant or design experience
• Discord is required and you are expected to stay reachable during the batch
• Residence outside the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the EU rules you out

About this listing

Sovrano posted this ad on 21 September 2026; we read it from Sovrano's signed-in job list on 1 November 2026, when it was open. Pay, requirements and batch terms are Sovrano's. The ad does not name the industries the scenarios are drawn from. See Sovrano AI.

How to get hired

• Apply with a CV or LinkedIn profile and complete the expert survey that follows. A bootcamp seat is offered only after you pass it, with the invitation and guidelines sent by email.
• Lead your CV with plant or design work and dates: the units you designed, scaled up or ran, and any PE or Chartered registration. Four hands-on years is the line Sovrano draws.
• Before the survey, solve a worked example from an old project or textbook, then write three sentences a reviewer would need in order to accept your assumptions. The evaluation is about stated assumptions as much as the final number.
• See our interview prep page for how AI training screenings usually run.