Research Collaborator – STEM PhD at Mercor

Research Collaborator – STEM PhD | $50–$80/hr | Worldwide Remote | Part-Time

Join a cutting-edge research initiative focused on improving AI model performance in STEM disciplines. As a Research Collaborator, you will design and validate challenging benchmark tasks within Agentic workflows, helping push the frontier of machine learning capabilities in data science, finance, and coding domains.

Responsibilities

• Task Design & Development: Create challenging, real-world data science problems that rigorously test model capabilities.
• Content Generation: Integrate problems into an Agentic development environment, preparing all necessary components using Python.
• Evaluation & Analysis: Assess cross-model performance on designed tasks and benchmark scenarios.
• Failure Identification: Pinpoint tasks where target models fail to pass all defined tests.
• Loss Extraction: Analyze agent trajectories to identify and document core capability loss patterns within the model.

Qualifications

• Strong expertise in data science, machine learning, finance, or software engineering with a deep STEM background.
• PhD students or recent graduates from top-tier institutions are strongly preferred.
• Availability of 30+ hours per week on weekdays.
• Active and high-quality GitHub contributions are a significant plus.

About the Employer

This role is employed through Cincinnatus LLC, an enterprise staffing company partnering with leading technology firms. Cincinnatus serves as the employer of record, providing W-2 employment, payroll, benefits, and compliance. This is a structured, role-based position — not a freelance or project-based engagement — involving close collaboration with client teams on high-impact AI research initiatives.

Cincinnatus is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer committed to diversity, inclusion, and providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.