Senior Research Scientist, AI's Impact on the Software Development Life Cycle

Google; Kirkland (WA); On-site; USD 174,000 - 252,000; Full time

Job summary

Google is seeking a Research Scientist to drive large-scale AI research, experiment design, and deployment of ideas across core products. You will setup experiments, apply cutting-edge theories, and contribute to real-world problems in machine learning, NLP, data mining, and AI safety.

You will publish findings and collaborate with universities and partner institutes, influencing product decisions and research directions across Google’s ecosystem.

Qualifications

• PhD degree in Economics, Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field.
• 2 years of experience leading a research agenda.
• Publications in economics or AI journals/conferences (e.g., ICSE, FSE).

Responsibilities

• Turn nebulous socio-technical AI impact questions into concrete, validated measurement strategies.
• Apply causal frameworks (e.g., diff-in-diff, IV, RDD, synthetic controls) to understand AI impact from data.
• Advise Product areas on data-driven system improvements for AI in software development and product strategy.
• Mentor junior quantitative researchers and data scientists, promoting reproducibility and best practices.

Skills

NLP/LLM frameworks

Python

Causal inference

ML research methods

Data analysis

Education

PhD in Economics/CS/ML or related

Tools

Job description

In accordance with Washington state law, we are highlighting our comprehensive benefits package, which is available to all eligible US based employees. Benefits for this role include:

• Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance
• Retirement Benefits: 401(k) with company match
• Paid Time Off: 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment
• Sick Time: 40 hours/year (increased to 69 hours/year for Seattle) including 5 discretionary sick days per instance
• Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28-30 weeks
• Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks
• Holidays: 13 paid days per year

Note: By applying to this position you will have an opportunity to share your preferred working location from the following: Kirkland, WA, USA; New York, NY, USA; San Jose, CA, USA.

Minimum qualifications

• PhD degree in Economics, Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field.
• 2 years of experience leading a research agenda.
• One or more publications in an economics or AI journal or conference (such as the ICSE or FSE).

Preferred qualifications

• Applied experience with NLP/LLM frameworks (e.g., embeddings, text classification, prompt engineering, fine-tuning/distillation) applied to quantitative research or social science problems.
• Demonstrated proficiency in Python and standard scientific computing/ML libraries (pandas, NumPy, PyTorch/JAX, scikit-learn, statsmodels).
• Deep theoretical and practical expertise in causal inference, experimental and quasi-experimental design, and econometrics.
• Track record of developing ML solutions for real world problems.

About The Job

As an organization, Google maintains a portfolio of research projects driven by fundamental research, new product innovation, product contribution and infrastructure goals, while providing individuals and teams the freedom to emphasize specific types of work. As a Research Scientist, you'll setup large-scale tests and deploy promising ideas quickly and broadly, managing deadlines and deliverables while applying the latest theories to develop new and improved products, processes, or technologies. From creating experiments and prototyping implementations to designing new architectures, our research scientists work on real-world problems that span the breadth of computer science, such as machine (and deep) learning, data mining, natural language processing, hardware and software performance analysis, improving compilers for mobile platforms, as well as core search and much more.

As a Research Scientist, you'll also actively contribute to the wider research community by sharing and publishing your findings, with ideas inspired by internal projects as well as from collaborations with research programs at partner universities and technical institutes all over the world.

Our team works across all of Google to architect the foundational intelligence layer for Google's agentic ecosystem, engineering the data, insights, and feedback loops that empower developers and autonomous agents. Our work powers product decisions within our organization and helps Google to understand the impact of AI on the socio-technical systems that drive our business.

We value technical curiosity, collaborative visioning, and a bias toward action that celebrates fast failures that lead to clear learnings.

The Core team builds the technical foundation behind Google's flagship products. We are owners and advocates for the underlying design elements, developer platforms, product components, and infrastructure at Google. These are the essential building blocks for excellent, safe, and coherent experiences for our users and drive the pace of innovation for every developer. We look across Google's products to build central solutions, break down technical barriers and strengthen existing systems. As the Core team, we have a mandate and a unique opportunity to impact important technical decisions across the company. Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $174000 - $252000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

Responsibilities

• Take nebulous socio-technical AI impact questions and turn them into concrete, validated, measurement strategies. Scale research strategies through Data Science and UXR partnerships.
• Apply causal frameworks (e.g., difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, synthetic controls, quasi-experiments) to understand AI impact from observational and behavioral data.
• Advise Product areas and Product teams on data driven system improvements e.g., how to better utilize AI in the software development lifecycle, how to improve product strategy to meet new development approaches, etc.
• Mentor junior quantitative researchers and data scientists, establishing best practices for statistical inference, study design, and empirical reproducibility.

Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google's EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form .