Innovation Lab Research Engineer

Consumer Reports; City of Yonkers (NY); Remote; USD 160,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Consumer Reports seeks a Research Engineer to join its Innovation Lab’s Experimental Engineering team. This remote role emphasizes leading high-impact research in AI and machine learning, involving collaborative prototyping, technical planning, and mentorship within an evolving team. Ideal candidates have a strong engineering background and a passion for innovative problem-solving.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience in design and building proofs of concept.
• Curiosity for solving challenging engineering problems.

Responsibilities

• Lead exploratory research engineering efforts in AI and ML.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams for technical planning.
• Mentor and manage junior research engineers.

Skills

Python

AI/ML

Prototyping

Software Engineering

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

FastAPI

React

Job description

Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to a fair and just marketplace for consumers. Our team is made up of truth tellers, change agents, and consumer advocates who investigate and build coalitions to fight for fairness and justice in the marketplace for consumers. We leverage our evidence-based approach to demand safer products, a healthier environment, and equitable services for everyone.

We're looking for a creative and highly capable Research Engineer to join our Innovation Lab’s Experimental Engineering team and drive forward exploratory research engineering with particular focus on innovative applications of AI, machine learning, and emerging technologies.

In this role, you’ll embark on ambitious early-stage engineering efforts, validate concepts through building prototypes, and translate timely experiments into actionable insights that will help guide the future of CR.

Research engineers operate 6+ months ahead of product roadmaps. Your work will be essential to identifying opportunities and pushing our technological boundaries.

This is a remote position. This position is not eligible for sponsorship.

How You'll Make An Impact

As a Research Engineer in the Innovation Lab, you will:

• Lead exploratory spikes, proofs-of-concept and early-stage prototyping to test high-impact, forward-looking ideas.
• Identify strategic opportunities in emerging technologies (notably AI/ML).
• Collaborate closely on technical planning, architecture, and implementation efforts for AskCR, our pro-consumer, expert-backed AI that offers advice using CR’s trusted information.
• Work collaboratively across cross-functional teams (Digital Product, Product Testing, User Research, Data Engineering, Advocacy) to find opportunities, solve problems and share insights.
• Establish and refine practices for documenting experiments and synthesizing research outputs.
• Mentor and potentially manage junior research engineers as the team grows.
• Cultivate a culture of curiosity, experimentation, rapid learning, and entrepreneurial discovery.

ABOUT YOU

You’ll Be Highly Rated If:

• You have the degree. A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).
• You have professional software engineering experience. 5+ years of experience, ideally across both backend and frontend with additional depth and interest in applied research, particularly within AI/ML domains.
• You've designed and built innovative proofs of concept, prototypes and products from the ground up.
• You have a demonstrated curiosity for solving challenging and non-straightforward engineering problems.
• You bring an expertise in Python, paired with strong fluency in frameworks like FastAPI and React.

You'll Be One of Our Top Picks If:

• You have a deep knowledge of AI orchestration and evaluation.
• You've worked on consumer-focused AI applications or chatbots.
• You have a passion for entrepreneurial challenges and experience in early-stage product development
• You are a strong communicator, able toclearly translate experimental findings and engineering insights to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• You bring a strong interest in consumer rights, ethical AI and responsible development.

FAIR PAY AND A JUST WORKPLACE

At Consumer Reports, we are committed to fair, transparent pay and we strive to provide competitive, market-informed compensation informed by location, as well as the candidate’s particular combination of knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience. It is expected that most qualified candidates will fall near the middle of the posted salary range. We have three locations: Yonkers, NY, Washington, DC and Colchester, CT.

Salary ranges

• NY/California: $160K-$180K annually
• DMW/Massachusetts: $150K-$170K annually
• Colchester, CT and additional approved CR locations: $130K-$145K annually

Consumer Reports is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in employment on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions or lactation), gender identity and expression (including transgender status), sexual orientation, marital status, military service or veteran status, protected medical condition as defined by applicable state or local law, disability, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. Consumer Reports will provide you with any reasonable assistance or accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process.

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