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STEM mercor

LLM Research Scientist (Pre-training & Post-Training)

Mercor Remote

Education

Any

Type

hourly

Pay Rate (by country)

$100–$120/hr

Listed

21d ago

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About this Role

From the Mercor listing

We're looking for experienced machine learning researchers with hands-on experience training and improving language models end-to-end. You'll work on well-scoped empirical open-ended LLM research problems.


Responsibilities

  • Train transformer-based language models from scratch and fine-tune open-weight models.

  • Get the most out of limited data and compute.

  • Construct training corpora from raw web-scale sources.

  • Build post-training pipelines.

  • Diagnose and resolve training issues.


Requirements

We are looking for candidates with strong expertise in one or more of the following areas:

Foundation Model Pre-training

Experience with:

  • Training transformer-based language models from scratch, end-to-end.

  • Data- and compute-constrained regimes: allocating a fixed budget across model size, tokens, and epochs.

  • Diagnosing optimisation failures, convergence issues, and training instabilities.

Pre-training Data

Experience with:

  • Corpus construction from raw web crawls and other large unfiltered sources.

  • Data filtering, deduplication, quality classification, and mixture/ordering optimisation.

  • Measuring data interventions rigorously.

LLM Post-Training

Hands-on experience with one or more of:

  • Supervised fine-tuning, including building your own datasets via synthetic generation, noisy or weak supervision, and rejection sampling.

  • Preference optimisation (DPO, RLHF, RLAIF) and reward modelling / human-preference prediction.

  • Alignment fine-tuning: shaping refusal behaviour, truthfulness, and unbiased reasoning while preserving general capability.

  • Fine-tuning for narrow, verifiable domains (math, code, games, structured prediction) where outputs can be checked programmatically.

Additional Areas of Interest

Experience in any of the following is a plus:

  • Scaling laws and training-efficiency research.

  • Curriculum learning and data ordering.

  • LLM evaluation: benchmark construction, contamination control, statistically sound comparisons.

  • Reinforcement learning for language models.

  • Model alignment and AI safety.

General Qualifications

  • 3+ years of machine learning research experience (PhD research counts toward this requirement).

  • Strong experience with PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, or similar ML frameworks.

  • Degree from a top-100 university, experience at a FAANG or comparable AI company, or an equivalent research track record through publications or impactful open-source contributions.


Why Join

  • Work on cutting-edge foundation model research.

  • Collaborate with leading AI researchers on challenging, high-impact projects.

  • Flexible, project-based work with competitive compensation.

Requirements

  • Must be eligible to work in Remote
  • Fluent proficiency in English (Written & Verbal)
  • Reliable high-speed internet connection
  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience
  • Demonstrated expertise in STEM

Why This Role

Few remote roles pay $110/hr for STEM judgment on your own schedule. As a LLM Research Scientist (Pre-training & Post-Training), this is that role: real income, flexible hours, and direct exposure to how AI labs are building the next generation of models.

Skills & Categories

Explore other opportunities in related specializations:

STEM Expert

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Mercor for freelancers or full-time contractors?

Mercor places you with one client for a defined engagement, like 'Python Tutor for 3 months', rather than having you grab small tasks from a shared queue. Most roles function as steady contract work, not one-off gigs.

Does Mercor's application require an on-camera interview?

Yes, every applicant records a video interview with an AI interviewer that asks questions about your resume. Clients review that recording to judge communication skills before matching, so there's no way to apply without going on camera.

Does it cost money to apply to Mercor?

No, applying and joining Mercor is free. Mercor's revenue comes from a fee it charges the client on top of your hourly rate, not from applicants. Treat any request for payment to join as a red flag.

Is AI training work the same as traditional consulting?

No. Instead of client deliverables, you're given complex scenarios to evaluate: grading the AI's logic, correcting its hallucinations, and supplying expert-level reasoning it doesn't have on its own. The job is closer to teaching than consulting.

Why do these AI training roles pay so much?

Because general knowledge isn't what's being tested. The model already knows the basics; what it needs is expertise on edge cases, the rare, difficult, highly technical judgment calls only a senior professional in the field would make correctly.

What does the day-to-day workload look like for elite-expert AI training roles?

Slow and deep, not fast and repetitive. A single task can take 45-60 minutes of researching citations or verifying complex calculations. Quality is what's being measured here, not throughput.

What does STEM work look like for a LLM Research Scientist (Pre-training & Post-Training)?

Tasks here are scoped to STEM, not generic labeling. As a LLM Research Scientist (Pre-training & Post-Training), expect to draw on real domain judgment (evaluating outputs, correcting errors, or providing expert reasoning specific to STEM) rather than following a one-size-fits-all rubric. If you don't have hands-on STEM background, this is likely not the right listing to start with.

What happens when I click Apply on this listing?

You'll be taken to Mercor's external site to complete your application there. This listing links through a referral, but the process is identical to applying directly; the link just routes you correctly. Create an account on their site and follow their onboarding steps.

How soon will I start working after applying to Mercor?

Not immediately. Mercor is a talent marketplace, not a task queue, so applying puts you in a pool of candidates. You start working only once a specific client, like a major AI lab, selects your profile, and that matching process can take weeks.