Drug Discovery Scientist

Posted 31 Aug 2026

$60–90/hr

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Work

Remote · Contract · 20 hrs/wk

Eligibility

No stated location restriction

Field

Medicine & healthcare

Skills

Drug DiscoveryMechanistic EnzymologyStructure-Guided Peptide DesignAntibody DesignFragment-Based Drug DiscoveryStructure-Based Medicinal ChemistryScientific Evidence EvaluationClaude Code

About this role

About the role

This is an evaluation framework for frontier AI models in drug research and development. Domain experts write realistic research problems wrapped around messy evidence worlds. The model works offline in a sandbox with open-source scientific tooling, receiving incomplete, indirect and sometimes misleading data, and must reach a defensible conclusion. The answer is present in the evidence but never stated.

Your job is to build a research problem so realistic and well-constructed that the model has to genuinely reason to solve it — it can't pattern-match or look the answer up.

What you'll deliver

Three things per task: the prompt, the data room, and the grading document.

  1. Design the challenge — identify the hidden basin and the forcing chain that makes one conclusion inevitable.
  2. Build the world — assemble a data room from real, source-grounded data. Every decisive value traces to a real source.
  3. Write the grader — a grading document that scores a submitted memo on substance, not style or method.
  4. Validate it — run verification and calibration before submission.
  5. Revise it — you own the rework if a reviewer requests changes.

You are the final authority on every scientific and difficulty question in your task.

Who we're looking for

  • Working expertise in mechanistic enzymology, structure-guided peptide or antibody design, fragment-based discovery, or structure-based medicinal chemistry — PhD or equivalent industry track record.
  • You can pose a problem whose answer you can defend rigorously, but which a strong solver cannot shortcut.
  • Comfortable judging reasoning quality, not just final answers.

Commitment

Minimum 20 hours per week, up to 40.

Tooling

Work happens in a browser-based studio plus Claude Code. A Claude Max subscription is required and is fully reimbursed.

Disclosure: Skillora is independent of Mercor. The apply button carries our referral code, and if you are placed, Mercor pays Skillora a fee. It does not change what you are paid, our ranking does not know which listings pay us, and selection is decided by Mercor’s own vetting.

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