Preclinical R&D Scientist - Drug Expert

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark , General Catalyst , Peter Thiel , Adam D'Angelo , Larry Summers , and Jack Dorsey.

Position: Preclinical R&D Expert – In-house Drug Development

Type: Contract Compensation: $85–$142/hour Location: Remote

Role Responsibilities

• Review technical materials and real-world R&D data in your area of expertise to improve AI model performance .
• Label, classify, and annotate scientific data and model outputs to enhance model accuracy.
• Provide expert perspective on key scientific and development decisions, including target and modality selection.
• Help define structure and quality standards for the client's dataset pipeline.
• Participate in expert discussions, interviews, and research engagements to guide AI platform development .

Qualifications Must-Have

• Hands-on, non-administrative preclinical R&D experience at a company that develops its own drug assets.
• Work in a core R&D function: discovery biology, medicinal chemistry, protein/antibody engineering, computational, in vivo/translational, pharmacology/PK-PD, toxicology, or CMC/formulation.
• Hands-on experience with one or more drug modalities (small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, peptides, ADCs, bispecifics, mRNA, siRNA, ASOs, PROTACs, molecular glues, cell therapies, gene therapies, radioligand therapies, etc.).
• 5+ years of relevant industry R&D experience.

Preferred

• Experience taking a program through lead optimization or IND-enabling/preclinical development.
• Experience at mid-sized, emerging, or resource-constrained biotech.