What the work involves
You author biology scenarios end to end: an experimental setup, the data it produces, and the interpretive question a competent researcher would face. Then you write the reference answer — not just the conclusion, but the mechanistic chain that gets you there, including the alternative explanations you ruled out and why. The second half of the job is grading: model output comes back, and you judge it for mechanistic accuracy, evidence handling, and whether the reasoning survives a follow-up. The failure mode you are hired to catch is fluent-but-wrong — an answer that names the right pathway, uses correct vocabulary, and reaches a conclusion the data does not support.
What the platform screens for
AfterQuery's screen is AI-led and follow-up heavy. Expect it to ask for your specific subfield, then probe inside it until you either show depth or run out. Naming a technique is not enough; you will be asked what the controls were, what the artifact looks like, what you would conclude if the result went the other way. It also tests evaluation judgment separately from domain knowledge — whether you can articulate why a plausible-sounding wrong answer is wrong, in terms a grader other than you could apply consistently. Written clarity matters because your reference answers are the artifact; a correct conclusion documented vaguely is not usable.
Logistics
- Fully remote and asynchronous — no scheduled calls, no fixed shifts
- Minimum commitment of 10 hours per week; scale up or down between weeks
- Weekly payment via Stripe, rate assigned from credentials and demonstrated depth
- Work is routed toward your declared specialty (genetics, ecology, microbiology, physiology, and adjacent areas)
The $60–120/hr band reflects rates observed on the platform, not a guarantee — placement within it depends on degree, publication record, and how the screening tasks are assessed.