Social Sciences PhD Expert at Mercor

Social Sciences PhD Expert | $60–70/hr | Remote Worldwide

Mercor is seeking PhD-level experts in history and adjacent social sciences to contribute to a cutting-edge supervised fine-tuning project with a leading AI lab. Help shape the future of AI by developing and evaluating complex prompts and responses across historical topics, enabling models to reason more accurately about past events, contexts, and narratives.

Role Overview

This large-scale initiative aims to push the boundaries of AI's ability to engage with nuanced, sourced historical content. You'll work remotely and asynchronously on your own schedule, contributing 10–20 hours per week over a 4+ month project duration with potential for continuation.

Key Responsibilities

• Create and refine historically accurate prompts and ideal responses across diverse time periods and geographies
• Assess and improve AI-generated outputs for factual correctness, depth, and clarity
• Develop content tailored to various system personas (academic experts, generalist learners, etc.)
• Generate question variants to explore style, instruction-following, and persona-based response changes
• Identify and construct tasks designed to expose weaknesses in current state-of-the-art models

Ideal Qualifications

• PhD in history or closely related field (American Studies, European History, Global History, Anthropology, etc.)
• Specialized expertise in a defined historical era, region, or methodology
• Experience in academic writing, curriculum design, or public history preferred
• Strong analytical and written communication skills
• Comfort working independently and iteratively with minimal oversight

Compensation & Contract Terms

• $60–70/hour for U.S.-based applicants; adjusted for other geographies
• Paid weekly via Stripe Connect
• Independent contractor classification
• Expected commitment: 10–20 hours/week

Application Process

Submit your resume to get started, complete a short form outlining your historical expertise, and Mercor will follow up within a few days with next steps.

About Mercor

Mercor is a talent marketplace connecting top experts with leading AI labs and research organizations. Backed by Benchmark, General Catalyst, Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers, and Jack Dorsey, thousands of professionals across domains have joined Mercor to work on frontier projects shaping the next era of AI.