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Mercor · General projects

Drug Discovery Scientist

Listed on Mercor as “Drug Discovery Scientist”

$60-$90/hrRemoteContractPaid in USD
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How this rate compares

This listing

$60–$90 per hour

Typical in General projects

$55–$70 per hour

Within the typical range

Typical: the middle of the lowest and highest rates posted by 119 listings in this category on Seoulstart, in US dollars.

What this actually is

You complete short labeling tasks, record everyday activities, or evaluate AI outputs across general knowledge domains. Open to most backgrounds. The platform title (Drug Discovery Scientist) reflects the rate band and the expertise required, not the day-to-day work.

How Mercor picks people

  1. Upload your CV and answer the role's written questions.
  2. Do a video interview with Mercor's AI interviewer. Most take about 20 minutes, in English unless the role says otherwise.
  3. Some roles add a skills test. A test you pass once counts for similar roles.
  4. The project team reviews your results and sends offers to the people it picks.

Before you start

  • Take Mercor's free practice interview first. It does not count toward any application.
  • Use Chrome on a computer with a camera and microphone, in a quiet room.
  • You can retake an official interview up to 3 times, but hiring teams see how many times you retook it.

Not every applicant gets an offer. Prepare well for the interview.

How to prepare for the Mercor interview

Source: Mercor's help pages. talent.docs.mercor.com

Can you do this on your visa?

F-2 / F-4 / F-5 / F-6: open. E-1 to E-7: needs concurrent-employment permit. D-2 / D-4 students: S-3 permit, 20 hr/week cap. D-10 / D-8: case by case.

Korean tax on USD income

First 5 years in Korea: foreign-source income only taxed if remitted into Korea. After year 5: worldwide income. Full tax guide.

Original posting from Mercor

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.
  1. Build the world - assemble a data room from real, source-grounded data. Every decisive value traces to a real source.
  1. Write the grader - a grading document that scores a submitted memo on substance, not style or method.
  1. Validate it - run verification and calibration before submission.
  1. 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.

Quoted from Mercor's public listing on 2026-11-13. We don't edit platform copy; honest framing is in the title and the “what this actually is” block above.

Mercor pays MantaWork a fee if it hires you through this link. Your pay is the same.