People Research Scientist

OpenAI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a People Research Scientist to lead advanced research in design, measurement, experimentation, and applied data science for People programs. You will design studies, evaluate processes, and deliver actionable recommendations to strengthen employee experiences.

This high-ownership IC role combines hands-on research with methodological leadership and scalable people science capabilities. Location: SF or Mountain View, with occasional travel to SF.

Qualifications

• Expertise in study design and measurement for people programs.

Responsibilities

• Design rigorous research and evaluation strategies for recruiting, organizational health, manager effectiveness, employee experience, and talent outcomes.
• Apply advanced statistical modeling, ML, and research methods to inform program design and quantify business impact.
• Partner with People Operations, data engineering, and people systems to define data requirements, improve data quality, and ensure reproducible research datasets.
• Build scalable people science infrastructure, including self-service tools and automated validation workflows.
• Develop research playbooks establishing standards for study design, measurement, validation, and documentation.

Skills

Research design

Experimentation

Measurement

Causal inference

Statistical modeling

Psychometrics

Survey methodology

Structural equation modeling

Multilevel modeling

A/B testing

Randomized experiments

Quasi-experimental design

Machine learning evaluation

R

Python

SQL

Education

Advanced degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Advanced degree in Organizational Behavior or related field

Statistical/data science background

Tools

R

Python

SQL

Job description

OpenAI’s People team hires, engages, and retains world-class talent to safely build and deploy AGI that benefits all of humanity. The People Analytics team helps leaders make better, evidence-based talent decisions.

About the Role

As a People Research Scientist, you will bring deep expertise in research design, measurement, experimentation, and applied data science to OpenAI’s most important People programs. You will design studies, evaluate people processes, and help leaders better empower employees, strengthen organizational systems, and deliver exceptional employee experiences.

This is a high-ownership individual contributor role combining hands‑on research, methodological leadership, and scalable people science capabilities. We’re looking for an experienced researcher who can turn ambiguous People questions into rigorous designs, validated insights, and actionable recommendations.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA or Mountain View, CA, with occasional travel to our San Francisco office.

What You’ll Do:

Design rigorous research and evaluation strategies for recruiting, organizational health, manager effectiveness, employee experience, and talent outcomes.

Apply advanced statistical modeling, machine learning, and research methods to inform program design, evaluate effectiveness, and quantify business impact.

Partner with People Operations, data engineering, and people systems teams to define data requirements, improve data quality, establish documentation standards, and ensure research datasets are governed, reproducible, and privacy-preserving.

Build scalable people science infrastructure, including self‑service agentic tools, automated validation workflows, reusable research datasets and analytical pipelines.

Develop research playbooks that establish rigorous standards for study design, measurement, validation, and documentation, enabling high‑quality, repeatable, and scalable research across the organization.

Communicate findings through concise, executive‑ready narratives.

What We’re Looking For

Deep curiosity, strong attention to detail, and passion for solving ambiguous and complex problems with creativity.

Exceptional strength in research design, experimentation, measurement, causal inference, and statistical modeling, including hands‑on experience with psychometrics, survey methodology, structural equation modeling, multilevel modeling, randomized controlled experiments, A/B testing, quasi‑experimental design, validation studies, and machine learning evaluation.

High proficiency in R or Python and SQL, with experience working across complex, messy datasets.

Experience building measurement systems, research programs, data products, reusable analytics frameworks, self‑service tools, and governed analytical workflows.

Ability to communicate complex methods and tradeoffs clearly to senior leaders, technical partners, and non‑technical audiences.

Sound judgment in handling sensitive employee data, including privacy, fairness, bias, and responsible research practices.

Preferred qualifications

Experience evaluating AI‑assisted workflows, algorithmic systems, and human‑AI decision processes in operational contexts, including familiarity with model evaluation methods.

Advanced degree in Industrial‑Organizational Psychology, Organizational Behavior, Quantitative Psychology, Behavioral Economics, Statistics, Economics, Data Science, or a related field.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general‑purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US‑based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non‑public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link .

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.