Pod lead - Chemistry Science (Terminal Bench Science)

Hello,

Greetings from ZettaMine!!!

Freelancing Opportunity: We are hiring a POD Lead Chemistry Expert (Terminal Bench Science) for a short-term Frontier AI Research, Computational Chemistry & AI Model Evaluation initiative.

Location: India

Role: POD Lead Chemistry Expert (Terminal Bench Science)

Educational Eligibility: PhD, postdoctoral experience, or equivalent advanced research experience in Chemistry or a closely related field, preferably Computational Chemistry, Theoretical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, or Chemical Informatics.

Mode: Remote-Freelancing

Start: Expected next week

Duration: 3 Weeks

LinkedIn Account is Mandatory to Apply

Mandatory Eligibility Criteria

Technical Qualification:

• Strong programming skills in Python, C/C++, Julia, or Fortran, with proficiency in Linux and terminal environments.
• Hands-on expertise in Computational Chemistry, Molecular Simulation, Cheminformatics, or Chemical Data Analysis.
• Strong understanding of quantum chemistry, molecular structures, chemical thermodynamics, numerical methods, and computational modeling.
• Experience reviewing code, scientific analyses, computational models, manuscripts, or research outputs.
• Ability to validate molecular structures, stereochemistry, charge states, spin multiplicity, energy calculations, geometry optimization, and simulation results.
• Experience checking numerical convergence, force-field parameters, software dependencies, reproducibility, and scientific accuracy.
• Experience designing or reviewing automated tests, scientific benchmarks, or computational evaluation tasks is preferred.
• Experience mentoring technical teams, reviewing deliverables, and maintaining quality standards.
• Excellent written communication skills for providing precise technical feedback and documenting requirements.

Availability

• Minimum 40 hours per week.
• At least 4 hours of availability per day.
• Minimum 4 hours of overlap with PST business hours.

What Youll Work On

• Lead and mentor a pod of approximately 5–10 technical trainers developing realistic, terminal-based scientific tasks for a frontier AI training and evaluation initiative.
• Review tasks end to end, including task statements, molecular structures, spectra, datasets, force-field parameters, computational environments, reference solutions, and automated tests.
• Validate tasks involving quantum chemistry, molecular simulation, reaction mechanisms, spectroscopy, cheminformatics, computational thermodynamics, and molecular properties.
• Ensure tasks reflect authentic chemistry research workflows and require meaningful multi-step scientific reasoning.
• Verify software versions, computational methods, basis sets, functionals, dependencies, and environment configurations for reproducibility.
• Validate chemical correctness, unit conversions, charge and spin multiplicity, stereochemistry, SCF convergence, geometry optimization, and vibrational frequency calculations.
• Review automated graders to ensure they evaluate scientific outputs such as energies, molecular geometries, thermodynamic properties, rate constants, spectral assignments, and molecular properties.
• Identify scientific inaccuracies, unrealistic assumptions, incorrect tolerances, and opportunities to bypass intended calculations.
• Screen tasks for chemical safety and escalate hazardous or dual-use content when necessary.
• Provide actionable technical feedback, track revisions, and ensure quality issues are resolved before task approval.
• Onboard and mentor trainers, allocate work, monitor quality and productivity, and resolve technical blockers.
• Maintain technical documentation, task design guidelines, and best practices throughout task development.

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with PySCF, Psi4, ORCA, xTB, CP2K, NWChem, GROMACS, OpenMM, AmberTools, RDKit, Open Babel, ASE, or MDAnalysis.
• Experience with free-energy calculations, reaction mechanism analysis, machine-learned potentials, or spectroscopy simulation.
• Familiarity with Docker, Git, CI/CD systems, automated testing, and HPC environments.
• Experience designing scientific benchmarks, programming tasks, or simulation-based evaluations.

Interested candidates: Please share your updated CV and LinkedIn profile at karthik.k@zettamine.com.

Thanks & Regards,

Karthik K

ZettaMine