Survey Research Lead (PhD)

VRTO; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 76,000 - 131,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote (US)

Job summary

VRTO Research is seeking a credentialed researcher to own the methodology for consumer surveys. You design instruments, sampling plans, verify data integrity, and sign the methodology under your name. Fully remote, 8–15 hours per month, long-term if it works.

You will work with AI systems to draft and review studies, ensuring rigorous limitations language and transparency, with public attribution as the reviewing methodologist.

Qualifications

• PhD in quantitative social science, statistics, survey methodology or related field.
• Hands-on experience designing and analyzing surveys on research panels (Prolific, MTurk, Qualtrics, or national panels).
• Fluency on nonprobability panels and limitations language.
• Willingness to be publicly named as the reviewing methodologist on every study.
• Experience working with AI systems to draft and review research outputs.

Responsibilities

• Design instruments and sampling plans for consumer surveys.
• Review questionnaires for wording, order effects, and denominator traps before fielding.
• Verify data integrity after fielding: deduplication, branch logic, completion-time screens, multi-select denominators, disclosure review.
• Write the methodology and limitations sections at a level a journalist or academic reviewer would accept.
• Sign each published study as the named reviewing methodologist.

Skills

Survey design

Data analysis

Quality control

Nonprobability panels

Academic writing

Education

PhD in quantitative social science or related field (ABD considered)

Tools

Prolific

MTurk

Qualtrics

National panels

Job description

VRTO Research runs original consumer studies: real surveys of US consumers about what they buy, how they pay, and how they decide. We recently fielded a 2,000-person holiday shopping study in a weekend, had it independently audited, and published it with the aggregate data attached. We publish studies like this monthly and want a credentialed researcher owning the methodology. You design the instrument and sampling plan, catch problems before fielding, verify data integrity after, and sign the methodology under your own name. Roughly 8 to 15 hours per month, fully remote, long-term if it works.

This is a fully remote contract position: Remote (US).

What you will do:

• Design instruments and sampling plans for consumer surveys fielded on the Prolific panel, including when census-matched sampling is worth it.
• Review questionnaires for wording, order effects, and denominator traps before fielding.
• Verify data integrity after fielding: deduplication, branch logic, completion-time screens, multi-select denominators, disclosure review.
• Write the methodology and limitations sections at a level a journalist or academic reviewer would accept.
• Sign each published study as the named reviewing methodologist.

What we are looking for:

• PhD in a quantitative social science, statistics, survey methodology, marketing research, or a related field (ABD considered with published survey research).
• Hands-on experience designing and analyzing surveys on research panels (Prolific, MTurk, Qualtrics, or national panels).
• Fluency in what a nonprobability panel can and cannot claim, and limitations language that survives scrutiny.
• Willingness to be publicly named, with your credentials, as the reviewing methodologist on every study you sign off — this is a condition of the role.
• Working with AI agents is the job, not an option: our fielding, analysis, and drafting run through AI systems, and you supply the judgment on top, directing, auditing, and correcting what the AI produces. Just as important: you know when NOT to use AI, and can say where a human judgment, a hand check, or a walk away is the right call.
• Clear plain-language communicator, comfortable async.
• The dream candidate is also a strategic thinker: you connect single studies into a research program, knowing what to study next, what claim each study can carry, and what compounds into authority over time.
• And you understand how research travels through networks: search, press citations, and AI retrieval, so you design studies that get found, cited, and reused.
• Also valued: experience building or leading a research team; this role can grow into leading our research bench as the program scales.
• Sustained availability of 8 to 15 hours per month.

Compensation: $55 to $95 per hour, ongoing.