# Principal Engineer / Professor — Technical Expert

- Platform: Micro1
- Pay: $85–$185/hour
- Location: Remote, Worldwide
- Contract: contract
- Last verified open: 2026-11-03
- Listing on SOJI (apply here): https://hiring.sojistudio.com/jobs/principal-engineer-professor-technical-expert

Contract role designing and verifying hard engineering and science problems to evaluate AI systems. Remote, $85-$185/hr.

## About the Role
micro1 is looking for principal-level engineers, scientists and faculty to design the hard technical problems that measure what AI systems can really do. The work spans four areas: aerospace, semiconductors, manufacturing and industrial engineering, and materials science. These are problems where the textbook answer is not enough and a plausible-looking solution can be quietly wrong. No prior AI experience is required.

## What You'll Do
- Design difficult technical problems from your own area, with realistic constraints and supporting data.
- Write the correct solution and walk through the reasoning that reaches it.
- Define objective criteria for correctness so another expert would reach the same verdict.
- Review problems built by other contributors for technical accuracy and sound method.
- Flag problems that turn out to be ambiguous or ungradable instead of submitting them.

## Requirements
- Master's or PhD in engineering, physics, materials or a closely related field.
- Principal, staff or fellow-level industry experience, or a faculty appointment at a leading university.
- Deep technical depth in at least one subdomain, with hands-on ownership of the work.
- Able to explain why an answer is correct clearly enough for another expert to verify it.
- Publications, patents or a record of technical leadership are a strong plus.

## Compensation & Logistics
Pay is $80-$185 per hour in the listing text (the structured rate field shows $85-$185) as a contractor. Fully remote, flexible hours that fit alongside your current role. Selection: apply and answer the screening questions, complete the AI interview, profile review, then onboarding with the micro1 Talent Ops team.

Source: SOJI (hiring.sojistudio.com), an independent job board. Pay is the range shown by the platform when the role was collected; confirm on the application page.