Nuclear Medicine Physicist - Cyclotron RSO Remote
Listing checked September 15, 2026 · pay as published by Mercor
Overview
Mercor needs radiological safety practitioners to red-team frontier AI models on questions that sit along the dual-use line. You will craft single-turn prompts in your specialty, tag each as benign, dual-use, or adversarial, and score model replies against a fixed policy. The work hinges on distinctions such as I-131 therapy dosing, Lu-177 and Y-90 handling, or PET isotope production in hot cells. You then write the reference answer and the technical reasoning a correct response should contain. A model that blocks a routine dose question fails just as much as one that answers a dangerous one.
What You'll Do8
- 1Draft single-turn prompts that reflect real nuclear medicine, radiopharmacy, cyclotron, or brachytherapy scenarios.
- 2Label every prompt as benign, dual-use, or adversarial based on misuse potential.
- 3Review model outputs against the project policy and decide if each response meets the standard.
- 4Document why a reply passed or failed, citing isotope activity, shielding, custody, or release criteria facts.
- 5Write reference responses that show the correct answer and the technical rationale behind it.
- 6Flag prompts where legitimate professional questions overlap with operational details that could enable misuse.
- 7Refine prompts and judgments during calibration with other subject matter experts.
- 8Note edge cases in source custody, patient release, target handling, or QC that affect model behavior.
Requirements10
- 1Hands-on work producing or handling medical isotopes under a custody responsibility.
- 2Background as nuclear medicine or radiopharmacy physicist with therapy dosimetry, I-131, Lu-177, or Y-90 experience and patient release criteria.
- 3Experience as cyclotron or radiochemistry facility RSO managing target handling, PET isotope production, or hot-cell operations.
- 4Medical physicist background with brachytherapy source custody, including HDR and LDR inventory and source exchange.
- 5Radiopharmaceutical production or QC under GMP or comparable quality system.
- 6Authorised Medical Physicist or Authorised User support on a medical radioactive materials licence.
- 7Red-teaming, technical writing, published research, or expert witness work. Sample or link required.
- 8Ability to explain technical judgments in writing for non-specialists.
- 9Readiness to engage with misuse scenarios in your field for extended periods.
- 10No reliance on classified, export-controlled, NDA-covered, or prepublication-review material; disclose obligations so scope can adjust.
Who Should Apply
Practitioners who hold real custody of medical isotopes and can separate a routine professional question from a request that seeks operational detail will fit best. The strongest applicants come from nuclear medicine, radiopharmacy, cyclotron RSO, brachytherapy custody, or radiopharmaceutical QC roles and show prior technical writing or red-teaming work. Generalists without isotope handling experience or writing samples will struggle, because the project asks for domain-specific prompts and clear rationales. A frequent low-fit signal is a prompt set that stays only benign or only adversarial instead of probing the line where legitimate use and misuse overlap. Another is a refusal to disclose NDA, export-control, or prepublication obligations, which blocks scoping and can disqualify an otherwise strong expert.
Salary Insight
This engagement pays $75 as a one-time task payment. That rate fits a short, task-based contribution such as a prompt-and-evaluation batch rather than a full project or hourly consulting contract. For radiological safety experts used to clinical or RSO consulting fees, treat the amount as a small standalone assignment and confirm scope, expected prompt count, and revision rounds before accepting.
Pay and demand for Laboratory & Research Operations roles
AggregatedTypical pay
$78/hour
This role
$75 fixed
Most Laboratory & Research Operations roles pay $51–$85 per hour.
Based on 30 similar roles that publish pay · 3 publish only a top rate; those count at the rate they gave
Rates shown per hour. Yearly and monthly pay converted; one-time fees and non-USD pay are not included.
- Live similar roles
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- Listed in last 30 days
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Hiring most right now: Mercor (12) · micro1 (10) · AfterQuery (5)
Most requested skills · share of roles
- biochemistry20%
- molecular biology20%
- scientific writing20%
- chemistry20%
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Compensation
$75 fixed
Required Skills
Application Tip
Include a sample or link that shows a single-turn prompt you wrote, the three-level label you assigned, and the reference answer with its rationale. Pick one from your own practice, such as an I-131 release criterion or an HDR source inventory scenario, and redact anything that falls under an NDA or export control.
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