PhD Physicist — Frontier Reasoning Trajectory Writer
Mercor • Remote
Education
Any
Type
hourly
Pay Rate (by country)
$80–$120/hr
Listed
61d ago
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About this Role
From the Mercor listing
Produce "golden trajectories" for hard physics problems: complete, step-by-step solution walkthroughs where every reasoning step is sound, the final answer is correct, and the work is organized around a sensible upfront plan. You'll work in Studio, iterate with a frontier LLM to draft and refine the reasoning, and produce trajectories that are clean enough to use as training data. The problems are provably hard — we screen them by running a frontier LLM on each problem five times and requiring it to fail at least once.
We need physicists with a theoretical or computational specialization in one of:
- Astrophysics (theory / numerical)
- Condensed matter (theory)
- Quantum physics / quantum information
- Particle / high-energy physics
- PhD in physics, or in the final 1-2 years of a PhD program, from a credible research institution
- Daily-driver fluency in LaTeX (for derivations) and Python (for numerical sanity checks and plotting)
- Comfort with iterative LLM workflows — willing to nudge models with hints, identify reasoning errors, and shape an exploration into a clean trajectory
- Detail-oriented; comfortable producing publication-grade derivations
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
Shape the "brain" of future AI. By working as a PhD Physicist — Frontier Reasoning Trajectory Writer, you ensure that future models understand the nuance of your field. At $100/hr, it's a lucrative way to preserve the integrity of your profession in the digital age.
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Why do these AI training roles pay so much?
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What does STEM work look like for a PhD Physicist — Frontier Reasoning Trajectory Writer?
Tasks here are scoped to STEM, not generic labeling. As a PhD Physicist — Frontier Reasoning Trajectory Writer, 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.
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