Senior Psychometrician

NCSL International; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

MetaMetrics, Inc. seeks a Senior Psychometrician to ensure validity, reliability, and fairness of assessment products. You will guide psychometric research across research, product, engineering, and customer success teams to develop robust educational measurement solutions.

The role emphasizes leveraging advanced statistics, linking/equating, and machine learning considerations to impact learning outcomes for millions of learners.

Qualifications

• Doctoral degree in educational statistics, measurement, psychometrics, or related field with 5+ years of experience.
• Extensive experience with educational assessment and standard psychometric procedures (e.g., item analysis and calibration, score linking/equating).
• Familiarity with education technology infrastructure, relational databases, and development tools (e.g., REST APIs) and AGILE project management.

Responsibilities

• Develops plans and executes psychometric projects and research according to priorities and resources.
• Directs creation and maintenance of project schedules, client communication, evaluation of external data, and review of results.
• Conducts linking/equating studies and develops white papers and summaries.
• Implements and improves psychometric research methods and processes according to best practices.
• Provides expert consultation to clients and stakeholders regarding methods, results, and interpretation.

Skills

Rasch calibration

Item analysis

Advanced statistics

Data analysis

Education

Ph.D. in educational statistics / psychometrics

Tools

WINSTEPS

FACETS

R

Python

Job description

MetaMetrics, Inc.

Equal Employment Opportunity/M/F/disability/protected veteran status

At MetaMetrics, we believe every learner deserves the opportunity to succeed. Our mission is to empower educators, students, and families with trusted assessment solutions that provide meaningful insights and support learning. We're looking for a passionate and experienced Senior Psychometrician to help advance that mission.

As a Senior Psychometrician, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring the validity, reliability, and fairness of our assessment products. Working alongside talented colleagues across research, product, engineering, and customer success, you'll apply rigorous psychometric principles to develop innovative assessment solutions that improve educational outcomes for millions of learners.

This role offers the opportunity to influence the future of educational measurement while collaborating with a mission-driven team dedicated to making a lasting impact. The key responsibilities and qualifications for this position are outlined below.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Develops plans and executes psychometric projects and research according to priorities and resource availability.
• Directs the creation and maintenance of project schedules, communication with clients, evaluation of external data, and review of process and results produced by Research Analysts.
• Conducts independent linking/equating and research studies, supports the completion of studies by others, and develops white papers and research summaries.
• Implements and improves psychometric research methods and processes at MetaMetrics according to best practices, industry standards, and academic literature.
• Maintains awareness of psychometric literature and methods regarding test and delivery methods (e.g., fixed-form, computer adaptive, and linear-on-the-fly), statistical methods (e.g., simulation studies), and computational psychometrics (e.g., machine learning, Bayesian inference).
• Provides ad hoc or planned expert consultation to clients and their stakeholders (e.g., technical advisory committees) regarding methods, results, and interpretation of MetaMetrics products and services.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities

None. Provides support only in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws.

Requirements

Education and/or Experience

• A doctoral degree (Ph.D.) or equivalent in educational statistics, measurement, psychometrics, or related field is required, along with 5+ years of experience as a practicing psychometrician.
• Extensive experience with educational assessment and standard psychometric procedures (e.g., item analysis and calibration, score equating, scale linking).
• Familiarity with education technology infrastructure and development, including relational databases, software development languages (e.g., C++), and technologies (REST APIs), and program management (e.g., Agile).

Computer Skills

Extensive experience with standard office and productivity software (e.g., Google Suite, Microsoft Office).

Proficiency with general statistical software (e.g., R; Python) and specialized psychometric software (e.g., WINSTEPS, FACETS).

Other Qualities

Language Skills

Ability to read, analyze, and interpret common scientific and technical journals and reports. Ability to respond to common inquiries from researchers, customers, or members of the general public. Ability to write presentations and articles for publication that conform to prescribed style and format. Ability to effectively present information to colleagues, management, and/or public groups.

Psychometric Skills

Ability to apply advanced mathematical concepts such as exponents, logarithms, quadratic equations, and permutations. Ability to design and implement analyses related to test reliability and validity, analysis of variance, correlation techniques, sampling theory, and latent variable modeling. Ability to apply and interpret statistical procedures, including but not limited to Rasch calibration, linking, and equating.

Presentation Skills

Ability to clearly and succinctly present analyses results to internal stakeholders (e.g., Sales, Test Development), external partners, and respond to psychometric and measurement questions related to MetaMetrics' core business.

Reasoning Ability

Ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems. Ability to deal with a variety of abstract and concrete variables.

Publishing

Publishing - A track record of peer-reviewed research publications and conference papers is preferred.