Job Description
Experimental Biology Scientist, AI Trainer (Remote)100% Remote | Part-Time or Full-Time | Freelance Contract | $40 to $125 per hour
Work on your own schedule. Get paid for what you already know.
A leading AI research company that works with large AI companies is seeking experienced bench scientists to work as remote AI trainers and evaluate how frontier AI models handle real laboratory work: experimental design, assay QC, troubleshooting a failed run, reading raw instrument output and deciding whether data are usable. You bring the judgment you have built at the bench. This is project-based, fully remote work you can do alongside a current job, including evenings and weekends.
What the Work Involves - Design realistic tasks from your own practice, such as a plate QC and go or no-go call on a cell-based assay, a flow panel gating review, a cloning strategy check or a Western blot interpretation
- Assemble the files a bench scientist would actually use: plate maps and reader output, instrument exports, gel and blot images, flow summaries, protocols, notebook entries
- Run those tasks through frontier AI agents and grade the QC summary, plan, troubleshooting memo or results they produce
- Compare two model outputs on the same task and document where each fell short
- Write grading rubrics covering the right controls checked, wells excluded and diagnosis of a failed run
- Flag concrete failures: misread controls, missed edge effects and outliers, wrong normalization, troubleshooting stories the raw data contradict, fabricated values
Areas of ExpertiseYou need depth in at least one of these, plus enough working knowledge of the others to judge work in adjacent areas:
- Molecular biology and cloning
- Cell culture and cell-based assays
- Protein biochemistry
- Immunology and flow cytometry
- Imaging and histology
- Microbiology or virology
- In vivo and preclinical work
Who This Is For - 2+ years designing and running experiments in a pharma, biotech or academic research lab (time after your undergraduate degree)
- Degree in biology or a directly related field (molecular or cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, biochemistry and similar)
- You design and troubleshoot experiments, not only execute established SOPs, and can explain what each control is for
- You generate and QC primary data and can judge whether a run is usable from raw instrument output
- Working knowledge of adjacent techniques, enough to judge work outside your own specialty
- Hands-on practitioner: you currently do, or recently did, the work yourself as an individual contributor, not solely as a manager
- Strong written English; you can explain clearly why a result is wrong, not only that it is
- Familiar with AI tools such as Claude or ChatGPT, with the judgment to tell a well-reasoned answer from a plausible-sounding wrong one
- Comfortable working independently, following detailed written instructions and incorporating feedback
Pay, Hours and Location - Pay: $40 to $125 per hour, depending on project and expertise. Paid via PayPal on a regular schedule. You are paid for every step you complete
- Hours: Minimum 10 hours per week with no maximum; full-time hours are available. Multi-day task timers let you spread work across days
- Location: Remote. Must be based in the United States, Canada, or the UK
- Tools: Access to the AI models you will evaluate is provided; no personal subscription needed
How to Apply - Apply here with your resume
- We review your background against the role
- If it's a fit, we send you a link to take the client's skills assessment. It's unpaid, takes about 2 to 4 hours and tests domain judgment and careful reading. The assessment must be entirely your own work; AI-assisted submissions are detected and rejected
- If you pass, you complete onboarding and a short training project, then propose and build tasks from your own professional experience, with expert review and written feedback at each stage
Crucial Recruiting and Sidebar Talent are working together on this search on behalf of a client in the AI research space. The client name is confidential and will be shared before any work begins. Questions: nick@crucialrecruiting.com.
Job Tags
Hourly pay, Full time, Contract work, Part time, Freelance, Remote work, 10 hours per week, Afternoon shift