
Scientific Computing Research Expert
Listing checked October 29, 2026 · pay as published by AfterQuery
Key details
- Pay
- $75/hr
- Location
- Remote
- Job type
- contract
- Posted
- September 14, 2026
Overview
AfterQuery is assembling a bench of PhD-level and PhD-pursuing researchers to write and calibrate evaluation tasks for AI models. Your source material is your own scientific computing work: data reduction, model fitting, simulation setup, instrument data processing, numerical solvers, or inverse problems you have run and debugged. Tasks span life, physical, earth, mathematical, and engineering sciences, and the challenge should come from the science rather than hidden information. Approved tasks pay $300 each, take about four hours, and you choose how many to take on.
What You'll Do4
- Design original evaluation tasks around computational research you have run, debugged, or been paid to deliver.
- Write the scoring criteria that a strong solution must meet, while keeping exact passing thresholds out of the published task.
- Revise each task in response to structured reviewer notes until it clears approval.
- Take on optional peer review and calibration for tasks from other experts in your field.
Requirements7
- Hold or pursue a PhD with hands-on research, or hold a master's with a research-active record: thesis enrollment, an RA or lab post, a publication, or a clear PhD path.
- Use Python at a working level to run and debug your own computational work.
- Turn your research computations into a clear evaluation task with defined inputs and expected outputs.
- Set your own schedule for task-based work with no fixed weekly hours.
- Show an active publication record as a PhD student, postdoc, or faculty member.
- Show experience with scientific computing, data analysis, simulation, or numerical methods.
- Bring prior work in data annotation, data labeling, or AI/ML evaluation.
Who Should Apply
Researchers across life, physical, earth, mathematical, and engineering sciences who can turn a real computational workflow into a well-defined AI evaluation task will find a strong fit here. A PhD in progress or completed, or a research-active master's, plus working Python skills, matters more than a job title from industry.
Salary Insight
The listing posts $75 per hour and $300 per approved task, with each task expected to take about four hours. That pay level sits above general annotation work and matches the expert scientific depth these tasks require.
Pay and demand for Science & Research roles
Market estimates from live NearSkill listings — separate from this job's published terms.
This role · as published
$75/hr
Taken from the listing itself.
Typical pay · estimated
$70/hour
Median of 1,361 similar roles that publish pay · 304 publish only a top rate; those count at the rate they gave
Most Science & Research roles pay $40–$100 per hour. This role's pay falls inside that range.
Rates shown per hour. Yearly and monthly pay converted; one-time fees and non-USD pay are not included.
- Live similar roles
- 1,565
- Listed in last 30 days
- 804
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- 97%
Hiring most right now: micro1 (455) · SME Careers (256) · Mercor (221)
Most requested skills · share of roles
- ai evaluation14%
- llm evaluation12%
- python12%
- data annotation12%
Figures from Science & Research roles live on NearSkill when this page loaded. A role can close before you apply, so check the listing itself.
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