Preclinical R&D Scientist - Drug Development

Job Description

Job Description

About the job

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark , General Catalyst , Peter Thiel , Adam D'Angelo , Larry Summers , and Jack Dorsey .

Position: Preclinical R&D Expert – In-house Drug Development
Type: Contract
Compensation: $60–$100/hour
Location: Remote
Commitment: 10 hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Review technical materials and real-world R&D data in your area of expertise.
• Label, classify, and annotate scientific data and model outputs to improve model performance.
• Provide expert perspective on key scientific and development decisions, including target/modality selection and optimization.
• Help define structure and quality standards for the client's dataset pipeline .
• Participate in expert discussions, interviews, and research engagements.
• Interface directly with the client team to ensure alignment and progress.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• Hands-on, non-administrative preclinical R&D experience at a company developing its own drug assets.
• Experience in core R&D functions : discovery biology, medicinal chemistry, protein/antibody engineering, computational, in vivo/translational, pharmacology/PK-PD, toxicology, or CMC/formulation.
• Hands-on experience with one or more drug modalities: small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, peptides, ADCs, bispecifics, mRNA, siRNA, ASOs, PROTACs, molecular glues, cell therapies, gene therapies, radioligand therapies, etc.
• 5+ years of relevant industry R&D experience .

Preferred

• Experience taking a program through lead optimization or IND- enabling/preclinical development.
• Experience at mid-sized, emerging, or resource-constrained biotech, ideally outside the top-20 pharmaceutical companies.

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

• Upload resume
• AI interview based on your resume
• Submit form

Resources & Support

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PS: Our team reviews applications daily. Please complete your AI interview and application steps to be considered for this opportunity.