[Hiring] Applied Chemistry Expert @24-MAG

Role Description

We are sharing a specialised part-time consulting opportunity for chemists, chemical engineers, and scientific researchers with advanced expertise in applied chemistry, reaction mechanisms, materials, industrial processes, or quantitative chemical analysis. This role supports an AI research initiative focused on developing rigorous chemistry benchmarks. Selected experts will author or verify challenging multiple-choice assessment content, evaluate scientific accuracy and solution quality, develop well-supported reference solutions, and help establish high-quality evaluation standards for advanced AI systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Chemistry Question Authoring
  • Create original multiple-choice questions that test deep chemical understanding rather than surface-level recall.
  • Develop challenging problems within relevant areas of chemistry expertise.
  • Ensure questions are self-contained, precise, unambiguous, and independently solvable.
  • Design questions appropriate for undergraduate, advanced undergraduate, and postgraduate difficulty levels.
  • Produce one correct answer alongside nine plausible and carefully constructed distractors.
• Question Verification & Scientific Review
  • Review pre-written chemistry questions for correctness, clarity, rigour, and completeness.
  • Identify conceptual errors, ambiguous assumptions, quantitative mistakes, or solvability issues.
  • Edit questions and answer choices where required.
  • Verify calculations, mechanisms, chemical reasoning, and designated correct answers.
  • Document substantive changes and explain the scientific reasoning behind them.
• Materials, Polymer & Electronic Chemistry
  • Develop assessment content involving materials chemistry, polymers, and electronic materials.
  • Create problems involving structure–property relationships, synthesis, processing, and characterisation.
  • Evaluate polymerisation mechanisms, molecular architecture, and material performance.
  • Develop questions involving electronic, conductive, or functional materials.
  • Apply chemical reasoning to realistic materials-development scenarios.
• Industrial & Process Chemistry
  • Create problems involving chemical manufacturing and industrial process chemistry.
  • Evaluate reaction conditions, yields, selectivity, scale-up considerations, and process efficiency.
  • Develop scenarios involving separation, purification, catalysis, and process optimisation.
  • Apply quantitative reasoning to industrial chemistry workflows.
  • Assess safety, practicality, and chemical feasibility where relevant.
• Energy Storage & Environmental Chemistry
  • Develop questions involving batteries, electrochemistry, energy-storage materials, and related technologies.
  • Apply chemical principles to electrochemical reactions, transport, degradation, and performance.
  • Create problems involving environmental chemistry, pollutants, remediation, and chemical fate.
  • Evaluate chemical processes relevant to sustainability and environmental systems.
  • Interpret quantitative and experimental evidence within energy and environmental contexts.
• Pharmaceutical & Agrochemical Chemistry
  • Develop assessment content involving pharmaceutical and agrochemical compounds.
  • Create problems involving synthesis, reaction mechanisms, molecular properties, and chemical optimisation.
  • Evaluate structure–activity relationships and chemical design considerations where relevant.
  • Apply organic, medicinal, and analytical chemistry principles to realistic development scenarios.
  • Assess chemical reasoning across complex multi-step synthesis or formulation problems.
• Consumer, Food & Specialty Chemicals
  • Develop rigorous questions involving consumer products, food chemistry, and specialty chemical applications.
  • Evaluate formulations, ingredients, functional additives, and chemical interactions.
  • Create problems involving stability, compatibility, processing, and performance.
  • Apply analytical and physical chemistry principles to product-related scenarios.
  • Assess chemical behaviour within practical commercial and manufacturing contexts.
• Academic Research & Benchmark Quality
  • Provide 1–5 academic references per question where required.
  • Use reputable sources such as peer-reviewed journals, academic publications, and university repositories.
  • Develop clear, structured solution explanations supporting the correct answer.
  • Rate question difficulty according to defined Medium, Hard, and Expert standards.
  • Help maintain consistent scientific and academic quality across benchmark content.
  • Contribute to gold-standard evaluation materials used to assess advanced AI capabilities.

Qualifications

• PhD or current doctoral candidacy in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Chemistry, or a closely related discipline.
• Master's degree may be considered for candidates with exceptional expertise in a relevant chemistry subdomain.
• Strong command of graduate-level chemistry, reaction mechanisms, and quantitative analysis.
• Expertise in one or more areas including Materials Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, Electronic Chemistry, Industrial Chemistry, Process Chemistry, Energy Storage, Environmental Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Agrochemical Chemistry, Food Chemistry, or Specialty Chemicals.
• Strong ability to analyse mechanisms, quantitative relationships, and experimental evidence.
• Excellent written English and ability to communicate complex chemical concepts clearly and precisely.
• Academic research publications are highly valued.
• Laboratory, industrial, pharmaceutical, materials, or chemical manufacturing experience is advantageous.
• Experience with chemistry olympiad writing, examination development, or advanced problem design is highly valued.
• Strong attention to scientific precision, logical consistency, and problem solvability.

Engagement Details

• Part-time independent contractor engagement.
• Fully remote and asynchronous.
• Expected availability of at least 10 hours per week.
• Flexible scheduling based on project requirements.
• Compensation: $50–$70/hour.
• Contributors may be assigned either question-authoring or question-verification workstreams.
• Projects may be extended, shortened, or concluded based on project needs and performance.
• Work must be completed without using confidential or proprietary information belonging to any employer, client, institution, or other third party.
• H1-B and STEM OPT support is unavailable for this engagement.