Sr. Data Scientist | $100/hr PT

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:
Researcher and Technical Expert
Type:
Contract
Compensation:
$50–$100/hour
Commitment:
30+ hours/week
Role Responsibilities

• Design challenging, real-world STEM problems to evaluate model reasoning and problem-solving.
• Implement tasks using Python in an agentic development environment.
• Analyze model/agent behavior to diagnose reasoning gaps and improve performance.
• Develop reproducible and testable deliverables with clear specifications and deterministic tests.
• Collaborate with AI research teams to enhance model outputs and training data quality.
• Work independently and asynchronously to meet deadlines and project goals.

Qualifications
Must-Have

• Deep expertise in data science, machine learning, finance, and/or Python-based coding.
• Active or recently graduated PhD (Top 20 U.S.-based school).
• Strong research background in frontier STEM topics.
• Ability to engage reliably for 30+ hours/week, primarily on weekdays.
• Demonstrated technical output such as high-quality open-source contributions.
• Comfort reading and reasoning about agent behavior traces to diagnose failure modes.

Preferred

• Familiarity with agentic frameworks and OSS ecosystems like LangChain, MetaGPT, AutoGen, AutoGPT, CrewAI, LlamaIndex, BabyAGI, SuperAGI, CAMEL, AgentGPT, Dify.

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

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

Resources & Support

• For details about the interview process and platform information, please check: https://talent.docs.mercor.com/welcome/welcome
• For any help or support, reach out to: support@mercor.com

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