Remote | Materials Engineer — Up to $80/hour

We are sharing a specialised consulting opportunity for senior materials engineering professionals with doctoral-level expertise and substantial industry experience in materials selection, failure analysis, testing, or process development.

This role supports an advanced AI research initiative focused on creating challenging, expert-level engineering problems grounded in realistic industry scenarios. Selected professionals will author original free-response materials engineering questions, develop complete technical solutions, and evaluate their difficulty against frontier AI models.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Problem Development

• Author original, technically rigorous free-response problems in materials engineering
• Develop questions based on realistic industrial and engineering scenarios
• Design problems that require advanced reasoning rather than straightforward textbook recall
• Incorporate practical constraints, engineering trade-offs, and professional judgment

Materials Engineering Analysis

• Develop problems involving areas such as materials selection, failure analysis, testing, and process development
• Apply advanced knowledge of materials science, metallurgy, and engineering behaviour
• Incorporate relevant mechanical, chemical, thermal, structural, or manufacturing considerations
• Ensure technical assumptions and problem conditions are realistic and internally consistent

Expert Solution Writing

• Produce complete expert-level solutions for each authored problem
• Clearly document calculations, reasoning, assumptions, and engineering methodology
• Ensure solutions are technically rigorous and independently verifiable
• Explain relevant materials behaviour and engineering decisions with appropriate depth

AI Difficulty Validation

• Evaluate each problem using multiple frontier language models
• Assess whether current AI systems can correctly solve the problem
• Refine questions where necessary to maintain an appropriately demanding level of difficulty
• Document model errors, reasoning failures, or incomplete technical approaches
• Validate that each problem meaningfully tests advanced materials engineering reasoning

Ideal Profile

Strong candidates may have:

• A PhD in Materials Science & Engineering, Metallurgy, or a materials-focused Mechanical or Chemical Engineering discipline
• At least 5 years of hands-on professional or industry experience
• Substantial expertise in materials selection, failure analysis, materials testing, or process development
• Strong understanding of practical engineering workflows and industry constraints
• Ability to formulate complex technical problems requiring multi-step reasoning
• Excellent technical writing and analytical communication skills
• Experience translating real engineering challenges into structured technical problems

Educational Background

• PhD in Materials Science & Engineering, Metallurgy, or a closely related materials-focused engineering discipline is required
• Materials-focused doctoral training within Mechanical Engineering or Chemical Engineering may also qualify
• Strong academic foundations combined with substantial practical industry experience are particularly important for this engagement

Nice to Have

• Experience within a major industrial, manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, energy, technology, or engineering organisation
• Advanced expertise in materials characterisation or testing
• Experience conducting root-cause or failure analysis
• Background in process development or manufacturing engineering
• Experience selecting materials for demanding performance or reliability requirements
• Prior experience authoring technical assessments, engineering problems, or training materials
• Familiarity with AI models or structured technical evaluation

Why This Opportunity

• Apply advanced materials engineering expertise to challenging AI research
• Create original problems based on realistic engineering practice
• Work on technical questions specifically designed to test sophisticated reasoning
• Combine industry experience with rigorous engineering problem-solving
• Help identify limitations in current frontier AI systems
• Participate in flexible remote consulting work with competitive compensation

Contract Details

• Independent contractor role
• Fully remote with flexible scheduling
• Compensation of up to $80 per hour depending on expertise and project scope
• Work may include engineering problem authoring, expert solution development, technical validation, and AI model evaluation
• Weekly payments via Stripe or Wise
• Projects may be extended, shortened, or adjusted depending on scope and performance
• Work will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution

About the Platform

This opportunity is available through 24-MAG LLC. We connect experienced professionals with remote consulting opportunities across technical, evaluation, and project-based workstreams.

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