Human Factors and Social Computing Researcher

HushOne, Inc.; Kirkland (WA); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

401(k) match

Health, dental, vision

Gym membership

Referral program

Job summary

HushOne, Inc. seeks a research-minded professional to study how people and agents cooperate without compromising judgment or privacy.

You will design and conduct consented interviews and usability studies, translate findings into product changes, and evaluate impacts on user understanding and agency. In the first 90 days you will deliver a study of a household or professional workflow and test a design addressing observed failures.

Qualifications

• HCI, human factors, cognitive science, social computing, or related research experience
• Careful observation and methodological rigor over assumptions about user behavior
• Ability to design studies that could contradict what the company hopes
• Turn findings into product actions

Responsibilities

• Design a study that distinguishes appropriate trust in an agent from increasing willingness to accept its suggestions

Skills

HCI research

Observational studies

Study design

Ethics awareness

Job description

You study how people and their agents can cooperate without weakening human judgement or personal boundaries. That includes the outcomes nobody markets: over-reliance, the quiet erosion of a skill somebody used to have, and the ways a system that knows a lot about a person can make them feel exposed or judged. Our founder's directive is that we serve people without ever humiliating them, and this research is how we find out whether we are.

The work: Study trust calibration, consent comprehension, shared-device use and collaboration between people. Conduct consented interviews and usability studies with appropriate ethics review. Translate observations into product changes and evaluate whether the changes improve understanding and agency.

What good looks like: In your first 90 days, deliver a study of one household or professional workflow and test a design that addresses an observed failure.

Evidence we look for: Bring HCI, human factors, cognitive science, social computing or related research experience. Value careful observation and methodological rigor over assumptions about how users should behave.

Required:

• HCI, human factors, cognitive science, social computing, or related research experience
• Careful observation and methodological rigor over assumptions about how users should behave
• You design studies that could contradict what the company hopes
• You can turn a finding into something a product team acts on

Nice to have:

• Research on trust, reliance, or automation bias
• Mixed-methods work
• You have studied a technology inside people's homes

The exercise: Design a study that distinguishes appropriate trust in an agent from increasing willingness to accept its suggestions.

How we work: We work together in the office, five days a week, and you can be based at any of our garages: Kirkland Garage (Kirkland, WA); UAE Garage (Dubai, Dubai). We hire across the United States, India and the UAE. We are remote-friendly around family: if you need to work from home some days to look after the people you love, we arrange that with you one person at a time, and we encourage people to use it rather than tough it out.

Pay: We publish what we pay. Indicative ranges by market and level are on our compensation page, and they are realistic going market rates rather than headline numbers. Wherever we hire we pay at least the local market rate, and for full-time roles our floor is a living wage, never the statutory minimum. Compensation is reviewed every year and on promotion.

Equity: Every full-time teammate gets stock options. Four-year vesting with a one-year cliff, sized to role, level and impact, and confirmed in writing at offer. High performers earn refresh grants.

Bonus and commission: An annual performance bonus tied to clear company and personal goals, indicatively 10 to 20 percent of base for non-sales roles. Customer-facing roles carry on-target earnings, typically a 50/50 split of base and variable, with uncapped commission and accelerators above quota.

Health and peace of mind: Medical, dental and vision for you and your family, plus life and disability cover. We have chosen the highest plan tier available to us rather than the cheapest one that clears the bar, because the point of this is that you never have to think about it. The specific plan numbers are confirmed in your offer letter.

401(k) with company matching: A 401(k) with a company match, so the years you spend here compound into something that is yours whatever happens next. The match formula is confirmed in your offer letter.

AI tokens: A budget of AI tokens of your own, because a company that says you should own your AI cannot be the company that rations it. Use them on the work and on whatever you are curious about.

Gym, and the everyday things: A gym membership, and a corporate benefits programme with its own app, where you redeem real discounts with a long list of retailers on the ordinary purchases of a life.

Family: We are remote-friendly around your family, arranged one person at a time, and we would rather you took it than toughed it out.

Referrals: Refer someone we hire full-time who stays a year and you get $1,000 plus $10,000 in referral stock-based equity, on top of your own package.