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Drug Discovery Scientist

Mercor Contract, part-time 16 openings US, UK, EU, CA, AU, NZ

Listed pay: $60 to 90 / hr

What the posting lists, in US dollars an hour.

Apply on Mercor

If you're hired through a link here and start paid work, Mercor pays this site a referral fee. Your pay is unaffected.

Prepare for the interview

Before you apply

Details from this posting, and how Mercor screens and pays.

  • LocationRemote, open to US, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ & Western Europe
  • Timeminimum 20 hours a week, as the posting states it
  • ScreeningAssessments and an AI interview of about 20 minutes. See what to expect
  • How Mercor paysWeekly, on Wednesdays, via Stripe. What Mercor does not say
  • PayoutsMercor's website says it pays out over $4M a day (read 5 Oct 2026)

Checked today

Source: Mercor

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Role details

About the role

This is an evaluation framework for frontier AI models in drug research and development. Domain experts write realistic research problems wrapped around messy evidence worlds. The model works offline in a sandbox with open-source scientific tooling, receiving incomplete, indirect and sometimes misleading data, and must reach a defensible conclusion. The answer is present in the evidence but never stated.

Your job is to build a research problem so realistic and well-constructed that the model has to genuinely reason to solve it — it can't pattern-match or look the answer up.

What you'll deliver

Three things per task: the prompt, the data room, and the grading document.

  1. Design the challenge — identify the hidden basin and the forcing chain that makes one conclusion inevitable.

  2. Build the world — assemble a data room from real, source-grounded data. Every decisive value traces to a real source.

  3. Write the grader — a grading document that scores a submitted memo on substance, not style or method.

  4. Validate it — run verification and calibration before submission.

  5. Revise it — you own the rework if a reviewer requests changes.

You are the final authority on every scientific and difficulty question in your task.

Who we're looking for

  • Working expertise in mechanistic enzymology, structure-guided peptide or antibody design, fragment-based discovery, or structure-based medicinal chemistry — PhD or equivalent industry track record.

  • You can pose a problem whose answer you can defend rigorously, but which a strong solver cannot shortcut.

  • Comfortable judging reasoning quality, not just final answers.

Commitment

Minimum 20 hours per week, up to 40.

Tooling

Work happens in a browser-based studio plus Claude Code. A Claude Max subscription is required and is fully reimbursed.

From the Mercor posting.

Applying on Mercor

What happens after you click

  1. The link opens this role on Mercor. Sign up and apply from there.
  2. Upload a resume, complete the assessments the role asks for and verify your work authorisation.
  3. An AI interview of about 20 minutes. The confirmation screen then shows the expected timeline for that role.
  4. If Mercor hires you, you are paid weekly, on the Wednesday after each work week, via Stripe. Mercor says first payouts are held for 7 days.
  5. The work is paid by the hour at $60–90 an hour as listed.
  6. Remote — open to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, Liechtenstein and Monaco.
Apply on Mercor Prepare for the interview

If you're hired through a link here and start paid work, Mercor pays this site a referral fee. Your pay is unaffected.

Red Pen Jobs is independent. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for Mercor in any way, and we do not recruit on its behalf.