Astronomy Expert (PhD, Master's, or Olympiad Participants)

Role Overview

Mercor is collaborating with a leading AI research lab on a project to advance frontier astronomy problem-solving. We are looking for astronomy experts who hold a PhD or Master’s degree, or have experience participating in the International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO). The goal of this project is to create novel, clear, and challenging Olympiad-style astronomy problems that cause frontier AI models to fail (i.e., generate an incorrect response) and to support the training of cutting-edge AI reasoning systems. This is a short-term, high-impact, remote opportunity for those excited about applying their expertise to frontier AI research, with the possibility of extension based on performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Write original & advanced IAO-style astronomy problems to challenge frontier AI models
• Evaluate AI-generated solutions for correctness, clarity, and reasoning quality, and identify where models fail
• Identify logical flaws, incomplete reasoning, or insufficiently rigorous derivations
• Provide clear, concise, and correct solutions and reasoning, formatted in LaTeX
• Maintain extremely high standards of precision, scientific rigor, and problem difficulty

Required Qualifications

More About the Opportunity

Compensation & Contract Terms

Application Process

About Mercor

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