What the work involves

You write prompts in German at the level of a working scientist — not textbook questions, but the kind of thing a graduate student or postdoc in your subfield would actually ask when they were stuck. Then you evaluate what the model returns: is it scientifically correct, is it useful, and does it handle sensitive material the way a responsible expert would? A third strand of the work is classification: applying a structured rubric to sort prompts and conversations into defined categories, consistently, across long batches.

The safety dimension is the reason PhDs are hired rather than generalist German speakers. Much of chemistry and biology is dual-use, and the judgment call — is this a legitimate synthesis question or a route request, does this microbiology prompt cross into enhancement territory, is a refusal here appropriate or is the model being unhelpfully skittish about a routine question — cannot be made from a keyword list. Radiological and nuclear coverage is explicitly in scope, and chemists with radiochemistry, nuclear chemistry, energetic materials, or radiation physics backgrounds are wanted for it.

What the platform screens for

Mercor's screen is AI-led and follow-up heavy. Expect it to establish your PhD field and stage, then push into a specific subfield until it finds the edge of your knowledge — naming techniques, instruments, reagents, organisms, or decay schemes you have actually worked with. German fluency is tested by having you produce technical German, not by asking whether you speak it; be prepared to explain a method in German and to translate terminology accurately. Judgment scenarios about dual-use content are near-certain, and the screen is watching for calibration in both directions: over-refusal is treated as a failure mode, not as safe.

Logistics

  • Fully remote and largely asynchronous; work is drawn from a queue rather than scheduled in shifts.
  • Observed band is $58–62/hr, stated as observed and not guaranteed; rates vary by project and coverage area.
  • Start is immediate, with onboarding and rubric training provided.
  • Germany or wider Western Europe is a stated preference only — applicants elsewhere are explicitly welcome.
  • Expect to commit meaningful weekly hours; sporadic single-hour availability rarely converts into steady task flow.