Computational Chemistry, Structural Biology & Drug Discovery Scientist (PhD)

$45–90/hr

rate as listed

Workload: ~15h/week
Engagement: Project-based
Location: Worldwide
Field: Sciences

Create expert scientific problems and evaluate AI outputs across computational chemistry, structural biology, and drug discovery. This remote contractor role requires a relevant PhD, hands-on research experience, professional English, and practical Python capability.

The work

You would design challenging scientific problems with verifiable solutions, then review AI-generated answers for factual accuracy, methodological rigor, and depth of reasoning. Day-to-day tasks may include writing reference answers, building scoring rubrics, checking claims against primary literature, documenting subtle scientific errors, and revising work through feedback and peer review.

Scientific scope and screening

The platform is likely to verify your PhD research, individual contributions, publications or other research outputs, and command of relevant methods under detailed follow-up. Relevant areas include molecular simulation, free energy methods, protein structure prediction and design, docking and virtual screening, QSAR/QSPR and ADMET modeling, cheminformatics, proteomics, metabolomics, and molecular machine learning. Preferred tool experience includes GROMACS, AMBER, NAMD, OpenMM, AlphaFold, Rosetta, AutoDock, Glide, Schrödinger Suite, MOE, RDKit, MaxQuant, and LC-MS/MS workflows.

Communication and programming

Professional written and spoken English at C1 or higher is required. Python is required in practice, while R and Bash are additional listed programming languages. Strong performance depends on explaining assumptions, validation choices, uncertainty, and failure modes clearly enough for another expert to reproduce or audit the reasoning.

Logistics

This is a contractor role open remotely worldwide. The listing does not specify whether work is fully async or state typical weekly hours, so candidates should confirm scheduling, workload, and turnaround expectations during screening. Pay band: $45–90/hr

What they look for

Computational Chemistry
Structural Bioinformatics
Cheminformatics
Proteomics & Metabolomics
Documentation
Verbal communication
Drug Discovery
Biology
Metagenomics

Included with this listing

Interview prep — 10 questions

Matched to what this platform's screening actually measures. Answer each out loud in 60–90 seconds: claim → concrete example → implication.

What it tests: This tests whether you can distinguish your own work from the laboratory's broader program and defend the methods and validation behind a specific research claim.
A strong answer: Anchor the response in one defined research question, then identify your personal experimental or computational work, the relevant controls or benchmarks, and a concrete output such as a paper, dataset, method, or validated finding. Be ready to explain one limitation and how it affected the conclusion.
Where people lose it: Candidates lose points by summarizing the entire lab's research without identifying which analyses, code, experiments, or decisions were personally theirs.

Summary, eligibility guidance and screening preparation are prepared by Sidequest from the platform's posting. Check the source listing before applying.