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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