Expert: Mechanical Engineering (Contract, Remote)

Patronus AI, Inc.

1d • $50 - $150 • Remote

About The Position

Patronus AI is hiring independent mechanical engineering contractors to work remotely and asynchronously with its research team. The work has two aims: explain how professional work in the contractor’s engineering area is actually performed, and design realistic mechanical engineering tasks that qualified professionals could solve but current AI models may get wrong.

For each task, the contractor starts from a provided scenario, creates realistic working documents, writes the task request, solves the task, and defines precise grading criteria. Deliverables may include drawings and CAD models, bills of materials, calculations, simulation reports, equipment schedules, process sheets, tooling drawings, and test reports. Contractors also review tasks for technical accuracy and ambiguity, incorporate reviewer feedback, identify guideline gaps, and advise the research team on real-world workflows and unrealistic scenarios.

Work is available in mechanical design and structural analysis; thermal and fluid systems; or manufacturing processes and tooling. Applicants should select the area that best matches their hands-on work. Tasks, documents, and solutions must be human-authored and original, and must not use real employer, client, or supplier information or material subject to an NDA or export control. The engagement is fully remote and asynchronous, requires at least 10 hours per week, pays $50–$150 per hour or per task for some projects, and starts on a rolling basis. The paid selection process includes a short AI interview and resume review, followed by one paid trial task and onboarding.

Requirements

• At least 3 years of hands-on experience in at least one listed area: mechanical design or stress engineering; thermal, fluids, or HVAC engineering; or manufacturing or tooling engineering. Supervisory experience alone is not sufficient.
• Working command of the standards, methods, and codes relevant to the candidate’s area, such as ASME Y14.5 and GD&T, hand-calculation and finite element methods, ASHRAE and ASME codes, heat-transfer and fluid-sizing methods, or design for manufacturing and process capability.
• Strong calculation and spreadsheet skills, with careful checking of units, assumptions, and load cases.
• Clear and precise writing in professional English.
• Ability to work independently and asynchronously against deadlines.
• All tasks, documents, and solutions must be human-authored; LLM-generated content is not permitted.
• Tasks and solutions must be original and may not be copied from published or easily searchable sources.
• Do not use real employer, client, or supplier data, drawings, or designs, or anything covered by an NDA or export control; all products, companies, and scenarios must be fictional.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience writing or reviewing AI evaluation tasks, exam questions, case studies, or training material.
• Familiarity with how AI models fail.

Responsibilities

• Build realistic evidence files from provided scenarios, including engineering drawings and CAD models, bills of materials, calculations, simulation reports, equipment schedules, process sheets, tooling drawings, and test reports.
• Write task requests that specify deliverables and explain how uncertainty and justified assumptions should be handled.
• Complete tasks end to end and document reference solutions with reasoning for each step.
• Create precise scoring criteria, including acceptable alternative answers and tolerances for numerical results, so independent graders can reach consistent verdicts.
• Check personal and peer tasks for technical accuracy and ambiguity.
• Incorporate reviewer feedback within agreed turnaround times and flag guideline gaps or edge cases.
• Explain real-world workflows in the relevant engineering area, including steps, documents, roles, and common failure points.
• Review research-team scenarios and documents and flag anything that would seem unrealistic to a practitioner.

What This Job Offers

• Education Level: No Education Listed