Staff Behavioral Scientist

The Predictive Index; Westwood (MA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

The Predictive Index is building a new venture anchored in robust behavioral science. We seek a Staff Behavioral Scientist to lead scientific integrity from day one, shaping instrument development, validation, and evidence across pilot programs.

You’ll translate rigorous research into product decisions, collaborate with product and go-to-market teams, and help establish credibility with HR buyers, legal reviewers, and academics. This is a rare, ground-floor opportunity.

Qualifications

• PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Organizational Behavior, Psychometrics, or closely related field.
• 8-10 years of applicable experience, especially in early-stage companies or products without PMF.
• Deep hands-on experience in psychometric development: scale construction, IRT/CTT, validation design, norm development.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct applied validation research in real organizational settings.
• Fluency translating rigorous science into language usable by product teams and buyers.
• Comfort working at the frontier where research, product roadmaps, and GTM strategy evolve together.
• Passion for using AI across work processes with modern tools to move fast and extend team capacity.
• Builder’s mindset; operate lean and cover surface areas beyond title.

Responsibilities

• Provide scientific foundation and defensibility of the venture’s claims.
• Design and validate psychometric instruments, scales, or scoring models for the product.
• Run applied research with pilot customers to prove the product delivers expected outcomes.
• Translate peer-reviewed I/O and OB research into product features, UX, and messaging.
• Own the scientific defensibility, manuals, validity evidence, and white papers for credibility.

Education

PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology or related field

8-10 years relevant experience

Psychometric development experience

Applied validation research

Translating science for products

AI-forward mindset

Builder mindset

Job description

The Predictive Index, a leader in workplace behavioral science, is an award-winning best place to work (Inc., Glassdoor, Boston Business Journal, The Boston Globe).

Our mission is "Better work, Better world," and we take great pride in PI's power to supercharge workplace relationships and culture to achieve the unthinkable. We're our own best case study!

That includes how we work in an AI world. We're rethinking roles, teams, and careers around people and AI working together, and we’re applying what we learn inside PI to the products we build for our clients. You'll be working toward a mission that inspires you, and you'll be surrounded by fun, smart, driven people day in and day out.

There's a reason more than 10,000 companies, including The LA Clippers, Hugo Boss, Nissan, Pendo, AstraZeneca, and Bosch, trust PI to help them hire top talent, design winning teams, and develop leaders at every level. Come discover how we empower our clients to solve their biggest challenges and make their business dreams come true.

The Predictive Index is a place where people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives collaborate on amazing, important work. We celebrate our differences, knowing that they are fundamental to our success as an organization. "Better Work, Better World," starts here, in an organization where every member of the PI community is valued, respected, and welcome. We encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

We’re assembling a small, elite team to build something new — a venture that operates with the independence of a startup and the credibility of a 70-year-old science brand. This is a ground-floor opportunity to define what responsible, rigorous behavioral science looks like in a brand-new product.

The Opportunity

Science isn’t a feature on this team. It’s the foundation.

We’re looking for a Staff Behavioral Scientist to own the scientific integrity of a new PI venture from day one. You’ll be working on a lean, fast-moving team chartered to explore, validate, and build a new market — and you’ll be the person who makes sure every claim we make, every instrument we ship, and every insight we surface can withstand the scrutiny of the most skeptical HR buyer, legal team, or academic reviewer.

This role is for someone who sees I/O psychology not as a credential, but as a craft.

What you’ll do

Provide the scientific foundation and defensibility of the venture’s claims.

• Apply industrial-organizational psychology — assessment science, team dynamics, leadership, engagement, and job fit — to product, positioning, and research decisions.
• Design and validate any new psychometric instruments, scales, or scoring models the product requires, holding them to the same scientific bar as PI’s existing assessments.
• Run applied research with pilot customers — criterion and construct validation, efficacy studies, norm development — to prove the product produces the workplace outcomes it promises.
• Translate peer-reviewed I/O and organizational behavior research into product features, UX, and go-to-market messaging that HR leaders and business leaders will trust.
• Own the scientific defensibility of the venture’s claims — technical manuals, validity evidence, white papers — so the new product inherits the credibility bar PI is known for.

What you bring

If you’ve got all of the below, drop what you’re doing and apply. If you’ve got most of it, we still want to hear from you.

• A PhD (or equivalent applied experience) in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Organizational Behavior, Psychometrics, or a closely related field.
• 8-10 years of applicable experience, particularly in an early stage company or on an early stage product that does not yet have product market fit.
• Deep hands-on experience in psychometric development: scale construction, IRT or CTT, validation design, and norm development.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct applied validation research in real organizational settings — not only academic labs.
• Fluency translating rigorous science into language that product teams can build from and buyers can trust.
• Comfort working at the frontier, where the research agenda, the product roadmap, and the go-to-market strategy are all still being written.
• Passion for using AI in every aspect of your work — we're an AI-forward team that expects every member to take full advantage of modern tools to sharpen thinking, move faster, and extend the team’s capacity.
• A builder’s mindset. This team moves fast, operates lean, and expects every person to cover surface area beyond their title.

What it’s like here

This is not a support role embedded in a large organization. You’ll be one of thirteen people on a team operating like a venture-backed startup — with its own stack, its own cadence, and its own mandate to find and validate a new market. You’ll report directly to the venture lead and work alongside product, engineering, and go-to-market functions all operating at the same pace.

At The Predictive Index, we value flexibility. All PI employees have the choice to work either at our Westwood, MA headquarters, Remote, or a mix of both! Every PI employee gets access to AI tools and ongoing training to use them well.

Just as our employees are threads in the cultural fabric of PI, THREADS is our framework for understanding our core values.

Teamwork : Focus on the “we,” not the “me.”

Honesty : Follow your moral compass.

Reliability : Be someone others can count on.

Energy : Be balanced, be energized.

Action : Errors of action are better than errors of inaction. Be brave.

Drive : Own it.

Scope : Don't try to boil the ocean.

The Predictive Index participates in E-Verify. E-Verify is an Internet-based system that compares information from an employee's Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to data from U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records to confirm employment eligibility.

The Predictive Index is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

This position may be performed in our Massachusetts headquarters or remotely within the United States.
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