Chemical Engineer, AI Model Evaluation

About the role

Sovrano AI builds evaluation and training data for frontier AI labs, and this project tests how well those models actually reason about chemical engineering. You give them realistic scenarios, calculations and process problems, then judge what comes back: whether the material and energy balances close, whether the assumptions were stated and defensible, whether the separations logic is feasible, whether the safety reasoning would survive contact with a real plant. Where the model is wrong you write down why, in the terms a colleague would use. Part of the work is also shaping how these models talk about engineering at all, including when they should stop and tell the user to bring in a licensed engineer. The work is remote and hourly, and the first batch runs about ten hours. This is the process engineering panel. If your ground is toxicology, hazard classification and chemical security rather than plant reasoning, apply to CBRN Specialist, AI Safety Review instead.

Key responsibilities

• Evaluate AI answers across chemical engineering topics for technical accuracy, logical soundness and completeness.
• Push models with realistic scenarios: plant troubleshooting, scale-up questions, sizing logic, process control reasoning.
• Mark up model output where assumptions are missing, constraints are ignored, units are inconsistent or the recommendation is unsafe.
• Review and refine prompts, step-by-step solutions and the explanations attached to them.
• Cover material and energy balances, phase behavior and thermodynamic property use, unit operations and sizing, distillation and separations feasibility, process control, process safety, and operability at scale.
• Set the standard for how models state assumptions, limitations and professional judgment.
• Say clearly when the right answer is to escalate to a licensed engineer or a site expert.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering or closely related, Master's/PhD or PE/Chartered strongly preferred
• Minimum 4 years of professional chemical engineering experience, hands-on rather than purely academic
• Based in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the European Union
• English at C1 or above, written and verbal
• Passes the expert survey before a bootcamp seat is allocated
• Available for the paid bootcamp on Monday and production from Tuesday
• Able to commit roughly 10 hours inside the first batch window, closing Sunday
• Joins the Sovrano Discord before the bootcamp
• Independent contractor, invoices Sovrano directly

Ideal qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering or a closely related field. A Master's or PhD, or PE or Chartered status, is strongly preferred.
• Four or more years of professional chemical engineering experience with real hands-on work: process design, plant and operations engineering, process safety, scale-up, manufacturing, utilities, EHS, quality, R&D, or controls and automation interfaces.
• Deep command of the fundamentals: material and energy balances, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, reaction engineering, separations and process control.
• Comfort with engineering calculations and with defending them, including uncertainty, safety factors and where a method stops applying.
• English at C1 or above, since the rubric and all written feedback are in English.
• Based in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the European Union.

Nice to have

• Working familiarity with PFDs and P&IDs, Aspen Plus or HYSYS, CHEMCAD, PSM documentation, HAZOP or LOPA.
• PE or Chartered Engineer status.
• Prior AI data training, red-teaming or technical content evaluation.

What success looks like

• You clear the bootcamp on your own merit and start producing on day one of the batch.
• Your judgment on what is safe to answer, and what is not, matches a senior reviewer's without needing a second opinion.
• Your written reasoning tells a reviewer why an answer is wrong, not just that it is.
• You catch the ordinary professional question the model refused for no good reason, as reliably as you catch the dangerous one it answered.
• You hold the quality bar across the whole batch, including the last task on Sunday.
• You are reachable on Discord during the batch and flag ambiguous cases instead of guessing.

Payment terms

• $35 to $49 per hour, based on your background. Your exact rate is confirmed in writing before you start the bootcamp. Paid hourly for time worked, as an independent contractor.
• The first batch is roughly 10 hours of work. A paid bootcamp runs on Monday, production opens Tuesday, and the batch closes Sunday. There is a good chance the work is extended beyond the first batch, and the people who deliver well on it are the ones we go back to.
• Payment runs through Sovrano directly. You invoice us, we do not file or submit tax forms on your behalf.
• Fully remote, on your own schedule inside the batch window. No fixed shifts and no standing meetings.
• How to apply: apply here with your CV or LinkedIn profile, then complete the short expert survey we send you. Shortlisted applicants get the bootcamp invitation and the project guidelines by email.