Materials Science Expert

Role Overview \
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Mercor is partnering with leading AI labs on Project Atlas - an initiative to build realistic enterprise environments that frontier AI agents are trained and evaluated in. We're seeking experienced materials-science professionals from Fortune 500 R&D organizations, major national labs, and top R1 universities (e.g., Corning, 3M, DuPont, Dow, Intel, Applied Materials, national labs, leading materials-science departments) to recreate the digital workspaces they run every day and design the tasks that genuinely challenge state-of-the-art AI.\
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You'll bring your expertise in materials R&D, characterization, process development, or reliability engineering to build a high-fidelity environment that mirrors the tools, files, and workflows of a serious materials-science organization - and then author tasks grounded in the programs you actually run today.\
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Key Responsibilities \
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- Build a realistic digital workspace centered on the Drive folders you use day-to-day - the experimental write-ups, characterization reports, simulation results, technology transfer memos, IP disclosures, project proposals, and email threads that reflect how you actually organize your work - with some representation of the platforms that support it (e.g., VASP or Materials Studio (Biovia), LabVantage LIMS, ANSYS Fluent)\
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- Design multi-step tasks grounded in your real workflows that require navigating multiple apps, files, and stakeholders in a way that meaningfully challenges frontier AI agents\
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- Collaborate with other materials-science experts in your field to design the environment, shape task scope, and review each other's scenarios for realism and rigor\
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- Work asynchronously with research teams to refine task designs and evaluation criteria for materials-science agent benchmarks\
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- Contribute to frontier AI research and benchmarking - the work you produce directly informs how leading labs train and evaluate the next generation of AI systems\
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Ideal Qualifications \
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- MS / PhD in materials science, chemistry, physics, or related discipline\
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- 3+ years of full-time experience at a Fortune 500 R&D organization, national lab, or R1 university materials research group \
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- Background in one or more areas such as:\
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- Metals, polymers, ceramics, composites, or semiconductor materials\
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- Characterization (XRD, SEM/TEM, spectroscopy, thermal analysis)\
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- Computational materials science / DFT / MD\
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- Process development and scale-up\
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- Reliability / failure analysis in advanced materials\
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- Day-to-day use of VASP / Materials Studio (Biovia), LabVantage / LabWare LIMS, and ANSYS Fluent / STAR-CCM+\
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- Strong analytical thinking and writing - able to translate materials-science workflows into structured task specs\
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Compensation Note \
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- Task Completion Pay: Competitive and based on task quality (~$1,150 - $1,450 per completed task, subject to change as the project evolves)\
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- Performance Bonus: Top performers receive a weekly bonus incentive on top of their per task rate!\
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- Hourly Opportunity: Top performers may be invited to transition to an hourly compensation model based on sustained quality and throughput.