Gravitation, Cosmology and Astrophysics Physicist (PhD)
Mercor
$80 – $110/hour · as listed
This remote position involves evaluating AI model performance on advanced physics research tasks as part of a rigorous benchmarking initiative. You'll assess whether frontier AI systems can tackle genuine research-level challenges in gravitation, cosmology, and astrophysics—moving beyond textbook problem solving to test authentic scientific reasoning. The work requires a PhD-level understanding of physics to evaluate model outputs, identify reasoning gaps, and contribute to AI evaluation data that pushes the boundaries of what we know about current AI capabilities in STEM domains.
This role suits experienced physicists who are interested in AI training and evaluation work. The position is entirely remote and offered on an hourly basis at $80–$110/hour, with a typical commitment of around 10 hours per week. You'll be working with Mercor's platform, which connects specialized talent to AI research projects. Familiarity with the CritPt benchmark framework—detailed in the referenced research paper—will give you a clear picture of the challenge types and expectations before you apply.
From the listing: Mercor marketplace · hourly · 10h/week. ## About the work CritPt is a public benchmark of research-level physics challenges, built to test whether frontier AI models can carry out genuine physics research reasoning rather than textbook problem solving. The benchmark paper is [arXiv:2509.26574](https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.26574) and we recommend reading it before applying. It will tell you quickly whether this work interests you.
Applications are completed on the listing’s own site. Pay is shown as posted by the source (“as listed”) or the aggregator’s estimate where marked — offers and availability change, and individual results vary.
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