Biologist Talent Network

$60–80/hrrate as listed

Mercor is building a standing pool of biologists to write, review, and grade tasks that stress-test frontier AI models on molecular and cellular biology, experimental design, and life-sciences data analysis. This is an open application rather than a single project — you complete a profile, pass an AI interview, and get matched to contracts as labs request biology coverage.

Summary, eligibility guidance and screening preparation are prepared by Sidequest from the platform's posting. Check the source listing before applying.

What the work involves

Once matched to a project, your day-to-day is closer to writing hard exam questions than to bench work. Typical deliverables include authoring biology problems that a strong model gets wrong, building rubrics that separate a defensible answer from a plausible-sounding one, grading model outputs against those rubrics, and writing rationales that explain why a response fails — a mislabeled control, a conflated mechanism, a statistical test that doesn't fit the design. Some projects lean toward multi-turn conversations where you probe a model on protocol troubleshooting or data interpretation; others are batch review of existing responses. Subject matter tracks the raw posting: molecular and cellular biology techniques, experimental design, and life-sciences data analysis.

What the platform screens for

Mercor's screen is an AI-led video interview plus resume verification. It rewards specificity: named techniques you've personally run, the organism or system you worked in, what went wrong and how you diagnosed it. Vague claims get probed with follow-ups, and answers that stay general tend to end the conversation early. Reviewers are also assessing writing clarity — much of the deliverable is prose — and whether you can hold a defensible line on ambiguous questions instead of deferring to whatever the model said.

Logistics and pay

Fully remote and largely asynchronous, with deadlines rather than fixed shifts.
Typical commitments run 15–30 hours per week when you're on a project; the network itself carries no guaranteed volume.
Rates observed in this band run $60–80/hr, varying by project, seniority, and client. Not guaranteed — the actual rate is set per engagement.
Contract work, invoiced through Mercor. You may sit in the network for weeks before a matching project opens.

This suits practicing or recently practicing biologists — PhD candidates, postdocs, industry scientists — who want variable-hour contract work alongside existing commitments, and who are comfortable being evaluated on written reasoning rather than credentials alone.

What they look for

Graduate-level training or professional experience in molecular and cellular biology
Hands-on wet-lab technique experience (cloning, culture, imaging, assays, sequencing, or similar)
Experimental design fluency: controls, replication, confounds, appropriate statistical tests
Quantitative data analysis in a life-sciences context (R, Python, or equivalent tooling)
Clear technical writing — rubrics, rationales, and error explanations
Self-directed remote work with reliable turnaround on asynchronous deadlines

Before you apply

Would you pass this screen?

Drawn from what this listing actually requires. Answered in your browser — nothing is sent to us, and we do not store your answers.

Do you have at least two years of professional experience in molecular and cellular biology, experimental design, lab research, or life sciences data analysis—either in an academic, industry, or clinical setting?
Professional biology experience · required
Are you legally authorized to work remotely and earn income in your current location, and is your work location suitable for remote contract work?
Work authorization in your location · required
Can you provide a current resume or CV documenting your biology experience, education, and previous roles?
Resume and documentation · required
Have you personally performed molecular or cellular biology techniques (such as PCR, cell culture, microscopy, sequencing preparation, or similar bench work) as part of your professional work?
Hands-on lab experience · preferred

0 of 4 answered

Included with this listing

Interview prep — 11 questions

Matched to what this platform's screening actually measures. Answer each out loud in 60–90 seconds: claim → concrete example → implication.

What it tests: Whether you have genuine bench experience versus theoretical knowledge only; your ability to describe technical depth and troubleshoot real experimental challenges.
A strong answer: Name a specific, substantive technique (PCR, electrophoresis, cell culture, microscopy, flow cytometry, etc.), describe what you were trying to achieve and why it mattered, and explain either a successful result or a failure you diagnosed and corrected.
Where people lose it: Giving a vague or textbook description of a technique without evidence you've actually done it; claiming expertise in a procedure but unable to describe failure modes or how you'd optimize it under real constraints.