Most people who don't get in fail the screening, not the CV. Five minutes here first: How to pass the micro1 AI interview with Zara.
What the work is
Role Title: Principal Engineer / Professor — Technical Expert
Role Type: Contractor
Location: Remote
Opportunity Snapshot
Pay: $80- $185/hour
Commitment: Flexible — fits alongside your current role
You’ll need:Master’s or PhD in an engineering or physical science field, plus principal-level industry experience or a faculty appointment
Your tasks: Build challenging technical problems from your own domain and define what makes an answer correct
micro1 is engaging principal-level engineers, scientists, and faculty to design the technical problems that measure what AI systems can actually do. Your domain expertise is what matters here — no prior AI experience required.
We’re building this across four areas: aerospace, semiconductors, manufacturing and industrial engineering, and materials science. If your work sits in one of those — or across two of them — this is for you.
The work draws on what you already know: the problems where the textbook answer isn’t enough, where the right approach depends on reading the constraints correctly, where a plausible-looking solution is quietly wrong.
What you’ll do
- Design difficult technical problems from your own area, with realistic constraints and supporting data.
- Provide the correct solution and walk through the reasoning that gets there.
- Define objective criteria for correctness, so another expert reviewing the work would reach the same verdict.
- Review problems built by other contributors for technical accuracy and soundness of method.
- Flag problems that turn out to be ambiguous or ungradable rather than submitting them.
Who gets hired
- Master’s or PhD in engineering, physics, materials, or a closely related field.
- Principal, staff, or fellow-level experience at a major engineering organization, a national lab, or a faculty appointment at a leading university.
- Deep technical depth in at least one area, with hands-on ownership of the work.
- Able to explain why an answer is correct clearly enough that another expert could verify it.
- Publications, patents, or a record of technical leadership is a strong plus.
How the selection process works
- Apply and complete the screening questions
- Complete the AI interview for this role
- Profile review
- Onboarding — our Talent Ops team will get you set up
The platform posted this on 31 Oct 2026.