Survey Research Expert - Methodology

Obsidian; New York (NY); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor seeks experienced professionals in survey research to evaluate and improve sophisticated survey-based research. You will assess methodological quality, detect biases, and ensure data quality in survey design and fielding contexts.

Ideal candidates have hands-on experience designing and fielding surveys across market research, consumer insights, behavioural science, or related fields, with strong written communication to justify design decisions.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional experience in survey research or related field.
• Hands-on experience designing and/or fielding surveys.
• Strong understanding of questionnaire design and bias sources.
• Experience with respondent panels, sampling, screeners, quotas, or fieldwork.
• Ability to critically evaluate survey methodology rather than execute a predefined questionnaire.
• Strong written communication and ability to explain design decisions.
• High attention to detail and comfort making nuanced judgments with incomplete information.
• Experience with major survey platforms is helpful but not required.

Responsibilities

• Review and evaluate surveys for methodological quality, clarity, and fitness for purpose.
• Assess questions for leading language, ambiguity, bias, and respondent burden.
• Evaluate screeners, eligibility criteria, flows, scales, and questionnaire structure.
• Identify potential sampling, measurement, response, and selection bias.
• Assess whether surveys will yield reliable data from the target population.
• Review fielding approaches, recruitment, quotas, and data-quality controls.
• Apply practical judgment to ambiguous survey-design problems.
• Provide clear rationales and recommendations for improvements.
• Help evaluate AI-generated survey content against professional standards.

Skills

Survey design

Fielding surveys

Questionnaire design

Bias assessment

Data quality control

Research platforms

Market research

Written communication

Tools

Qualtrics

SurveyMonkey

Alchemer

Decipher/Forsta

QuestionPro

Job description

Mercor is partnering with a leading AI research organisation to engage experienced professionals in survey research, market research, consumer insights, and behavioural science for a project focused on evaluating and improving sophisticated survey-based research. We are looking for individuals who have professionally designed, fielded, managed, or evaluated surveys and understand what separates a rigorous, decision-useful survey from one that produces noisy, biased, or misleading results. This opportunity is intentionally open to professionals from a range of research backgrounds. Candidates do not need to be academic survey methodologists; strong practitioners from market research agencies, consumer insights teams, behavioural science organisations, polling/research firms, or in-house research functions are highly encouraged to apply.

What You’ll Do

• Review and evaluate surveys for methodological quality, clarity, and fitness for purpose.

• Assess survey questions for issues such as leading language, ambiguity, double-barreled questions, response-option problems, ordering effects, and respondent burden.

• Evaluate screeners, eligibility criteria, survey flows, skip/display logic, scales, and questionnaire structure.

• Identify potential sources of sampling, measurement, response, and selection bias.

• Assess whether surveys are likely to generate reliable and interpretable data from the intended respondent population.

• Review approaches to survey fielding, respondent recruitment, quotas, sample composition, and data-quality controls.

• Apply practical research judgment to ambiguous survey-design problems where there may not be a single objectively correct answer.

• Provide clear, structured rationales explaining methodological issues and recommended improvements.

• Help evaluate AI-generated survey content and research reasoning against professional research standards.

What We’re Looking For

We are open to candidates from several backgrounds, including:

• Market Research / Consumer Insights: Professionals who have designed and fielded quantitative surveys at market research firms, insights consultancies, research agencies, or internal consumer/customer insights teams.

• Survey Methodology: Survey researchers or methodologists with deep expertise in questionnaire design, sampling, measurement, fieldwork, or survey statistics.

• Behavioural Science: Researchers who have used surveys, experiments, or structured questionnaires as a meaningful part of applied behavioural research.

• UX / Customer Research: Quantitative or mixed-methods researchers with substantial hands-on survey design and fielding experience.

• Polling / Social Research: Professionals experienced in public opinion, political, social, policy, or population-based survey research.

Ideal Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional experience in survey research, market research, consumer insights, behavioural science, UX research, or a closely related field.

• Meaningful hands-on experience designing and/or fielding surveys professionally.

• Strong understanding of questionnaire design and common sources of survey error and bias.

• Experience working with respondent panels, sampling strategies, screeners, quotas, or survey fieldwork is highly valuable.

• Ability to critically evaluate survey methodology rather than execute a predefined questionnaire.

• Strong written communication skills and the ability to explain why a survey design decision is methodologically strong or weak.

• High attention to detail and comfort making nuanced judgments with incomplete or ambiguous information.

• Experience with platforms such as Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Alchemer, Decipher/Forsta, QuestionPro, or similar research tools is helpful but not required.

Particularly Strong Profiles

Strong candidates may include Senior Research Managers, Consumer Insights Managers, Market Research Managers, Survey Researchers, Survey Methodologists, Quantitative Researchers, Behavioural Scientists, Insights Consultants, Research Directors, UX Researchers, or Research Scientists. Experience at established market research and insights organisations, research-intensive technology or consumer companies, academic survey centres, behavioural science organisations, or polling/social research institutions is especially relevant.

Why Join

• Apply professional research expertise to cutting-edge AI research.

• Work on problems that require genuine methodological judgment rather than routine survey administration.

• Help improve how advanced AI systems understand survey design, research methodology, respondent behaviour, and evidence quality.