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Physics Expert

Mercor Contract, part-time Posted 1 month ago US, UK, EU, CA, AU, NZ

Role details

The research teams behind the best-known AI models come to Mercor for physics 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 physicists 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 physicists in the network to projects like:

  • Writing a problem from your own area, with the system, the assumptions, and the regime, plus the reference answer a model's attempt gets graded against

  • Grading model-written derivations and numerical work: whether the approximation is valid in the regime claimed, whether the limiting cases check out, whether the units and scaling survive scrutiny

  • Flagging where a model reaches the right final expression through reasoning that would not hold if the assumptions changed

Past rates have run $70 to $100 an hour, set per project by scope and depth.

What we're looking for

  • A graduate degree in physics or a related field, with 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 did the derivations and the analysis 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 physics pool.

When a project needs physics 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.

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. 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.

More about Mercor: how it pays, what it does not say, and its referral terms.

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What the email looks like

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Physicists

The same work on another platform

Already have a Mercor account? A platform you have not signed up to yet is where this kind of work is still open to you. Each one screens and pays on its own terms, so check theirs before applying.

More roles for physicists

Every role we hold for physicists

Pays $70–100 an hour, below the $125 median top rate of the 15 other open hourly physicists roles listed here. Posted 6 weeks ago.

We read this listing on Mercor on 16 Sep 2026 and checked it again on 30 Oct 2026. We clean its formatting for readability and safety. View on Mercor