Is this job worth applying to?

Pay

Above typicalTops out at $105/hr. The typical top rate across 106 priced science listings is $90/hr.

Getting in

Some screening~30 min: resume upload + 20-min AI interview. Resume showing real experience in your field.

Steady work

Work is patchyProjects can pause or end with little notice.

Payout record

Pays on timeSchedule: weekly, every Wednesday. Paid via Stripe (Wise in a few countries).

Freshness

Older postPosted 7w ago. Still listed on Mercor on Nov 6, 2026.

Where you live

Not statedThe listing names no country.

The job description

The research teams behind the best-known AI models come to Mercor for chemistry judgment they can't generate on their own. Your standards and expertise become the rubric that frontier AI is graded against.

This is a standing listing for chemists who want AI training and evaluation work, not a specific job opening. It stays open whether or not a matching project is running this week.

New projects start on short notice, so instead of posting and pulling a listing each time, we keep one open per field and draw from it when one begins.

What the work looks like

We match chemists in the network to projects like:

Writing a synthesis or characterization problem from your own work, with the substrate, the conditions, and the analytical data, plus the reference answer a model's attempt gets graded against
Grading model-proposed routes and mechanisms: whether the disconnection is sensible, whether the selectivity claim is supported, whether the spectra match the structure assigned
Flagging where a model proposes something that works on paper and fails in the flask, given side reactivity, workup losses, or what the reagent tolerates

Past rates have run $65 to $105 an hour, set per project by scope and depth.

What we're looking for

A graduate degree in chemistry or a related field, with laboratory or computational research experience
Clear written communication, since most of the work involves explaining your reasoning
Comfort with ambiguous tasks, and willingness to flag unclear instructions

Where you trained matters less than whether you ran the reactions and interpreted the data yourself, recently enough to explain the calls you made.

How it works

Apply here with your resume and confirm where you work from, then take a short AI interview, about 20 minutes total.

We verify your background and add you to the chemistry pool.

When a project needs chemistry expertise, we invite matching people from the pool to that specific listing. It names the rate, the hours, and the client, and any hiring decision is made there.

What to expect

This listing does not accept or reject candidates, so you will not get a decision on it. We reach out when a project matches your background. Depending on what our clients are running, that can be within a week or several months.

Finishing the domain expert interview and joining every network you qualify for both improve your odds of being matched. You only need to sign up once to be eligible across all of them.

How do you apply to Mercor?

Apply on Mercor

The Apply button opens this post on Mercor's own site. You apply with them, not with Rubric. Budget about 30 min: resume upload + 20-min AI interview.

Get through screening

What Mercor asks for after you apply:

Take the recorded AI video interview (practice round available)
Complete any role-specific assessment and the ID check
Accept the offer and sign the contract

Start work and get paid

Pay schedule: weekly, every Wednesday. Paid via Stripe (Wise in a few countries). You're paid for the work they hand out, not a fixed salary.

Mercor also needs

Resume showing real experience in your field
Webcam with your full face visible for the AI interview
Government ID

Red flags

Red flagLong waits with no offer after passing the interview
Red flagProjects ending abruptly with little warning

What is Mercor like to work for?

Hiring marketplace that screens professionals with an AI video interview and places them on hourly contracts training and evaluating models for AI labs.

Advertised pay	$20–200/hr
Getting in	Some screening
Application takes	~30 min: resume upload + 20-min AI interview
How you get paid	Weekly, every Wednesday, via Stripe (Wise in a few countries)
Payout record	Pays on time
Countries	Hires in many countries and runs its pay week on India Standard Time; Mercor keeps a list of locations it cannot onboard, and some projects are US-only.

Most listings sit around $50–100/hr; healthcare, legal and finance roles pay the most, language and generalist roles the least.