Principal Engineer / Professor — Technical Expert
About the role
From micro1’s listing.
Pay: $85 - $185/hour
Role Title: Principal Engineer / Professor — Technical Expert
Role Type: Contractor
Opportunity Snapshot
Pay:$80- $185/hour
Commitment: Flexible — fits alongside your current role
Fully remote
You’ll need: Master’s or PhD in an engineering or physical science field, plus principal-level industry experience or a faculty appointment
Your tasks: Build challenging technical problems from your own domain and define what makes an answer correct
micro1 is engaging principal-level engineers, scientists, and faculty to design the technical problems that measure what AI systems can actually do. Your domain expertise is what matters here — no prior AI experience required.
We’re building this across four areas: aerospace, semiconductors, manufacturing and industrial engineering, and materials science. If your work sits in one of those — or across two of them — this is for you.
The work draws on what you already know: the problems where the textbook answer isn’t enough, where the right approach depends on reading the constraints correctly, where a plausible-looking solution is quietly wrong.
What you’ll do
- Design difficult technical problems from your own area, with realistic constraints and supporting data.
- Provide the correct solution and walk through the reasoning that gets there.
- Define objective criteria for correctness, so another expert reviewing the work would reach the same verdict.
- Review problems built by other contributors for technical accuracy and soundness of method.
- Flag problems that turn out to be ambiguous or ungradable rather than submitting them.
What we’re looking for
- Master’s or PhD in engineering, physics, materials, or a closely related field.
- Principal, staff, or fellow-level experience at a major engineering organization, a national lab, or a faculty appointment at a leading university.
- Deep technical depth in at least one area, with hands-on ownership of the work.
- Able to explain why an answer is correct clearly enough that another expert could verify it.
- Publications, patents, or a record of technical leadership is a strong plus.
How the selection process works
- Apply and complete the screening questions
- Complete the AI interview for this role
- Profile review
- Onboarding — our Talent Ops team will get you set up
Who can apply
The listing only says “Remote”. That doesn’t mean worldwide. Check country eligibility on micro1 before you spend time on it.
How micro1 screens people
- 01Apply on the listing page.
- 02Complete the AI recruiter interview. It asks about your experience and, for technical roles, tests the skill.
- 03If you pass, you are matched to a project when one opens.
Before you apply
- No real platform charges you to apply or to “unlock” work.
- Apply to two or three platforms, not one. Acceptance is never certain.
- It’s contract work in projects. Hours vary week to week.
Get new science & engineering AI training jobs by email
We’ll send you new roles like this one as they open, best paying first.
Free. Only new roles that match, no other mail. Unsubscribe in one click.
More science & engineering jobs
Mercor· Yesterday