Perceptual Audio Engineer (Research)

HARMAN International; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 134,000 - 197,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee discounts on JBL, Harman Kard

HARMAN University training

Wellness benefits

Tuition reimbursement

Be Brilliant program

Job summary

HARMAN Research Intelligent Audio is seeking a Perceptual Audio Engineer to define perceptual targets, validate metrics, and build reusable evaluation datasets. You will translate what listeners hear into practical criteria that researchers, engineers, and product teams can act on, driving rapid deployment of sound-quality improvements across Harman products.

Reporting to the Director of Intelligent Audio, you will design perceptual studies, develop metrics, and apply AI methods to accelerate

Qualifications

• An advanced degree in acoustics, psychoacoustics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Typically at least five years in perceptual audio, audio quality evaluation, or related research.
• Strong command of psychoacoustics, experimental design, and statistical reasoning.
• Experience selecting listening test methods and documenting validity.
• Experience validating perceptual models against human tests and scaling performance.
• Fluency with Python, MATLAB, or equivalent, with reproducible code and reporting.
• Ability to translate findings into practical criteria adopted across teams.
• Demonstrated use of modern AI methods to improve perceptual evaluation workflows.

Responsibilities

• Define perceptual targets and translate experiences into measurable success criteria.
• Design a perceptual research program addressing business and product needs.
• Develop and validate perceptual metrics and calibration methods.
• Build reusable evaluation assets: datasets, tests, and benchmarks.
• Transfer perceptual evidence into product requirements and tests.
• Improve the research workflow with AI to increase speed and scale while maintaining rigor.
• Explain practical significance and uncertainty to cross-functional teams.

Skills

Psychoacoustics

Experimental design

Python / MATLAB

Data analysis

Research-to-product

Education

Advanced degree in acoustics or related field

Tools

Python

MATLAB

Job description

A Career at HARMAN

As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA. When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do every day.

Introduction: A Career at HARMAN Corporate

We’re a global, multi-disciplinary team that’s putting the innovative power of technology to work and transforming tomorrow. At HARMAN Corporate, you are integral to our company’s award-winning success.

• Enrich your managerial and organizational talents – from finance, quality, and supply chain to human resources, IT, sales, and strategy
• Augment your comprehensive skillset with expert training across decision-making, change management, leadership, and business development
• Obtain 360-degree support throughout your career life cycle, from early-stage to seasoned leader

About the Role

The HARMAN Research Intelligent Audio team is working to set a new standard for audio: create experiences that understand the listener, adapt to their environment, and become more personal and useful over time. This can only be achieved when our customers can hear and experience the difference. As a Perceptual Audio Engineer in HARMAN Research, you will define what better sounds like and turn human listening into quantitative guidance for research and product decisions.

Reporting to the Director of Intelligent Audio, you will define perceptual targets, validate metrics, and build reusable evaluation methods and datasets. You will translate what people hear into practical criteria that researchers, engineers, and product teams can use. This is a hands‑on research role for someone excited to combine psychoacoustics, experimental rigor, AI tools, and real-world product impact. Success means sound quality and tuning technology is rapidly deployed into products with confidence that listeners will hear the difference.

What You Will Do

• Define what good sounds like: Translate target user experiences into perceptual attributes and measurable success criteria.
• Design a perceptual research program: Build an ambitious program that advances perceptual audio science while addressing clear business and product needs.
• Develop and validate perceptual metrics: Create measures of perceived audio quality, validate them against independent listening data, and define their limits.
• Build reusable evaluation assets: Create datasets, test methods, analysis tools, and benchmarks that other teams can trust and reuse.
• Transfer evidence into products: Turn perceptual findings into product requirements, acceptance criteria, and regression tests in partnership with research and product teams.
• Improve the research workflow: Use AI and automation to make perceptual research faster and more scalable without sacrificing rigor.
• Explain practical significance: Communicate what results mean, how confident we are, and what teams should do next.

What You Need to Be Successful

Essential

• An advanced degree in acoustics, psychoacoustics, hearing science, auditory science, psychology, human factors, statistics, electrical engineering, computer science, or a related field, or demonstrated equivalent experience.

• Significant relevant experience, typically at least five years, in perceptual audio, audio quality evaluation, or related applied research and engineering.

• Strong command of psychoacoustics and experimental design, including sample size reasoning, controlled and blinded studies, repeated measures analysis, effect sizes, confidence intervals, reliability, and transparent treatment of exclusions and multiple comparisons.

• Experience selecting and applying recognized listening test methods, adapting them to the decision at hand, and documenting where a method is valid or unsuitable.

• Experience developing or validating perceptual models against independent human tests, including calibration, generalization, and clustering/subgroup performance.

• Practical fluency with Python, MATLAB, or equivalent analysis tools, together with reproducible code, data, and reporting practices.

• Ability to convert findings into practical criteria and gain adoption across research, engineering, validation, integration, and product teams.

• Demonstrated use of modern AI methods to improve a perceptual evaluation system or research workflow. You can explain what you built, how it was validated, and how it improved quality, speed, scale, or product outcomes.

Preferred

• Experience evaluating loudspeakers, headphones, automotive audio, voice quality, or adaptive audio experiences.
• Knowledge of auditory physiology, neuroscience, or cognitive factors that materially affect listening behavior, sound quality, spatial perception, comfort, or fatigue.
• Experience creating perceptual metrics and methods that become shared organizational standards and improve decision speed and quality.
• Familiarity with embedded constraints for metrics built with machine learning and with the product validation systems that consume perceptual criteria.
• Patents, publications, or standards work in perceptual audio or audio quality evaluation. Demonstrated product impact matters more than credentials alone.

What Makes You Eligible

• Successfully complete a background investigation and drug screen as a condition of employment after an offer.

What We Offer

• Access to employee discounts on world‑class products from JBL, HARMAN Kardon, AKG, and more.
• Extensive training opportunities through HARMAN University.
• Competitive wellness benefits.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• The Be Brilliant employee recognition and rewards program.
• An inclusive and diverse work environment that encourages professional and personal development.

An inclusive and diverse work environment that fosters and encourages professional and personal development

_ Salary Ranges: _

$ 134,250 - $ 196,900

HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affiliated Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard torace, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.