Research Scientist Intern, Audio User Experience (PhD)

Meta; Redmond; On-site; AUD 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Meta Reality Labs Research Audio invites interns to explore how users perceive audio in AR/VR environments. You will engage in deep qualitative studies, diaries, interviews, and longitudinal research to understand emotion, immersion, and memory related to audio experiences.

Successful candidates have a PhD in a relevant field and strong skills in qualitative methods, with demonstrated ability to communicate insights across teams.

Qualifications

• PhD in psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, sociology, communication, HCI, or similar field.
• 2+ years of qualitative or mixed-methods human subjects research experience.
• Experience designing qualitative protocols and interpretive analysis at a doctoral level.
• Familiarity with AR/VR technologies and hearables.

Responsibilities

• Conduct qualitative research to understand how users emotionally experience audio and immersion.
• Design and implement qualitative studies, diaries, interviews, and longitudinal research.
• Translate insights for engineering and cross-functional teams.

Skills

Qualitative Research

Longitudinal Studies

Interview Techniques

Elicitation Interviews

Interpretive Analysis

Cross-functional Collaboration

Education

PhD in psychology / cognitive science / anthropology / sociology / HCI

Tools

Dovetail

NVivo

ATLAS.ti

Dedoose

Spreadsheets

Job description

The Meta Reality Labs Research Team brings together a world-class team of researchers, developers, and engineers to create the future of virtual and augmented reality, which together will become as universal and essential as smartphones and personal computers are today.

In particular, the Meta Reality Labs Research Audio team is focused on two goals: creating virtual sounds that are perceptually indistinguishable from reality, and redefining human hearing.

These two initiatives will allow us to connect people by letting them feel together despite being physically apart, and to converse in even the most difficult listening environments. We are seeking interns to help us understand, in depth and in context, how future users make sense of and live with these audio technologies — what they notice, what they struggle to describe, and what matters to them in their own words.

This role requires a background in psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, sociology, communication, human-computer interaction, human factors, or a similar field.

Successful candidates will have strong skills in qualitative human subjects research, with an interest in how people emotionally experience audio, how immersion and presence feel from the inside, and how those experiences are remembered and recounted afterward. Relevant methods include in-depth and elicitation interviewing, diary and longitudinal studies, contextual inquiry, field and in-home research, think-aloud protocols, and interpretive analysis of rich experiential data.

Our internships are twelve (12) to twenty-four (24) weeks long and we have various start dates throughout the year. Specific projects will be designed in collaboration with successful applicants to align the intern's skills and experience with current research needs.

• Currently has, or is in the process of obtaining, a PhD in psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, sociology, communication, human-computer interaction, human factors, or a similar field
• 2+ years of experience conducting qualitative or mixed methods human subjects research, preferably with a focus in or adjacent to emotional, sensory, or immersive experience
• 2+ years of experience designing qualitative protocols and conducting interpretive analysis at the doctoral level, including hands-on experience with qualitative analysis tools or practices such as Dovetail, NVivo, ATLAS.ti, Dedoose, or systematic coding in spreadsheets
• Expertise in one or more of the below research areas: emotion and affective experience, presence and immersion, autobiographical or episodic memory and how experiences are recalled and recounted, attention and distraction, interpersonal connection and social closeness, or sensory and listening experience
• Must obtain work authorization in the country of employment at the time of hire, and maintain ongoing work authorization during employment
• Experience studying how people experience sound, listening, or music, including research on listening effort, soundscapes, or audio-mediated communication
• Familiarity with AR/VR technologies and/or hearables and wearable audio technologies
• Experience with longitudinal, diary, in-home, or in-the-wild research, including recruiting and building rapport with participants from varied backgrounds
• Experience eliciting hard-to-articulate experience, for example emotional reactions, bodily or sensory responses, or recollected moments, using methods such as think-aloud, elicitation interviews, photo or audio diaries, or participatory sessions
• Proven track record of achieving significant results as demonstrated by grants, fellowships, patents, as well as first-authored publications at leading venues such as: ACM CHI, CSCW, Frontiers in Virtual Reality, or similar
• Experience working and communicating cross functionally in a team environment, and translating qualitative insight for engineering and quantitative audiences
• Intent to return to a degree program after the completion of the internship/co-op