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LLM Research Scientist (Pre-training & Computer Vision & Adversarial Robustness)

Mercor Experts · Remote · Research / analysis

LLM Research Scientist (Pre-training & Computer Vision & Adversarial Robustness) is an open role at Mercor Experts, available remotely, with pay listed as $100–$120/hr.

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At a glance

Pay
$100–$120/hrStated by Mercor Experts
Location
Remote
Listed
Since Aug 6, last confirmed Oct 28

How the pay compares

This role$120
Mercor Experts median$105
Science / STEM roles median$80
All roles median$60

Higher than 76% of the 120 distinct hourly rates advertised for Science / STEM roles right now. Hourly USD, top of each advertised range, one count per distinct rate. Same method as the Pay Index.

From Mercor Experts’ listing

“We're looking for experienced machine learning researchers with hands-on experience training and improving deep learning models end-to-end, across vision and language. You'll work on well-scoped empirical open-ended ML research problems.”
Show the full listing

We're looking for experienced machine learning researchers with hands-on experience training and improving deep learning models end-to-end, across vision and language. You'll work on well-scoped empirical open-ended ML research problems.

Responsibilities

  • Train image classifiers and generative image models from scratch, and fine-tune open-weight language models.
  • Get the most out of limited data, compute, and model-size budgets.
  • Make models robust — to adversarial inputs and to adversarial conversations.
  • Compress models to meet hard size and latency constraints without sacrificing accuracy.
  • Diagnose and resolve training issues.

Requirements

We are looking for candidates with strong expertise in one or more of the following areas:

Adversarial Robustness

Experience with:

  • Adversarial training of image classifiers (e.g. PGD-based training, TRADES).
  • Evaluating robust accuracy under standard threat models (e.g. L∞ attacks, AutoAttack) and avoiding gradient-masking pitfalls.
  • Managing the robustness–accuracy trade-off and robust overfitting.

Efficient Computer Vision

Experience with:

  • Training image classifiers end-to-end, especially for fine-grained recognition (many visually similar classes, few examples per class).
  • Model compression: quantization, pruning, and knowledge distillation from large teachers into small students.
  • Deploying models under hard size or latency budgets (on-device, edge, or embedded settings).

Generative Image Modeling

Experience with:

  • Training image generative models from scratch: diffusion models, GANs, VAEs, or flow-based models.
  • Iterating against sample-quality metrics such as FID.
  • Training-efficiency tricks that produce good generators quickly and at small parameter counts.

LLM Post-Training & Behavioral Robustness

Hands-on experience with one or more of:

  • Supervised fine-tuning and preference optimisation (DPO, RLHF, RLAIF) of open-weight language models, including building your own da

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Frequently asked questions

How do I apply for the LLM Research Scientist (Pre-training & Computer Vision & Adversarial Robustness) role at Mercor Experts?

Applications go through Mercor Experts's own portal - HumanSourcer links to the listing and never collects applications or handles hiring. Mercor Experts's access model is "Apply" (Profile / role application). This listing was first seen here on August 6, 2026 and was still live at the last check.

Is the LLM Research Scientist (Pre-training & Computer Vision & Adversarial Robustness) role at Mercor Experts remote?

Yes - Mercor Experts lists this role as remote.

What does the LLM Research Scientist (Pre-training & Computer Vision & Adversarial Robustness) role at Mercor Experts pay?

Mercor Experts lists this role's pay as $100–$120/hr, quoted from the listing rather than estimated.

What kind of work is LLM Research Scientist (Pre-training & Computer Vision & Adversarial Robustness)?

Research / analysis. Law, medicine, finance, engineering, operations and AI evaluation

Is Mercor Experts a legitimate AI-training platform?

Direct expert network - and that relationship is rated "Confirmed" here because it can be checked against www.mercor.com rather than taken on Mercor Experts's word. Confidence describes how well the ownership is evidenced. It is not a rating of how the platform treats the people who work for it, which no public source covers reliably.

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