User Study Researcher

OSI Engineering; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 55,000 - 96,000; Part time

Job summary

OSI Engineering seeks a User Study Researcher contractor to support data collection, labeling, and validation for sensor-based interactions. The role emphasizes high-quality participant recruitment, in-person studies, and tool-assisted labeling to improve user experiences.

The ideal candidate has strong qualitative research skills, meticulous data handling, and proficiency with Mac Terminal. Experience with ML labeling workflows and LLMS is a plus.

Qualifications

• Qualitative user research skills including interviews and usability testing.

Responsibilities

• Manage recruitment and scheduling of qualified candidates based on study requirements.
• Facilitate, conduct, and lead in-person user studies
• Prepare, troubleshoot, and maintain study specific equipment for data collection efforts
• Assist with development of instructional materials as needed
• Develop and distribute surveys, review and collate survey responses and other feedback
• Set up and break down study session areas
• Engage and communicate with participants
• Ensure appropriate participant compliance with protocol
• Manage participant data including transferring data from test devices or session notes to secure storage
• Validate auto-labeled data and machine-generated transcripts against source recordings, correcting errors and flagging recurring or systematic issues for the team
• Perform manual annotation of data (audio, video, sensor, and/or text) according to established labeling guidelines when auto-labeling is not available or requires human review
• Use LLM-based tools, where appropriate, to accelerate labeling, transcript review, and preliminary analysis, applying human judgment to verify and QA model-generated output
• Track labeling/annotation quality and consistency, and contribute feedback to refine labeling guidelines and workflows

Skills

Qualitative user research

Attention to detail

Data labeling validation

Manual data annotation

Ergonomics/usability knowledge

Mac Terminal proficiency

Motion capture hardware

Python

R

MatLab

LLM tools for labeling

Data annotation tools

Education

Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree

UX research certificate / training

Tools

Mac Terminal

Job description

Job Summary : A globally leading consumer device company headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA is looking for a User Study Researcherto join their. We strive to achieve surprises and delight for every one of our millions of customers around the world. We are currently looking for a contractor to join the Interaction & Human Factors team to support data collection and data labeling/validation for development of sensor-based interactions. An ideal candidate for this role will have outstanding interpersonal communication skills, high attention to detail, and a passion for conducting impactful research in support of creating better user experiences.

Responsibilities

• Manage recruitment and scheduling of qualified candidates based on study requirements.
• Facilitate, conduct, and lead in-person user studies
• Prepare, troubleshoot, and maintain study specific equipment for data collection efforts
• Assist with development of instructional materials as needed
• Develop and distribute surveys, review and collate survey responses and other feedback
• Set up and break down study session areas
• Engage and communicate with participants
• Ensure appropriate participant compliance with protocol
• Manage participant data including transferring data from test devices or session notes to secure storage
• Validate auto-labeled data and machine-generated transcripts against source recordings, correcting errors and flagging recurring or systematic issues for the team
• Perform manual annotation of data (audio, video, sensor, and/or text) according to established labeling guidelines when auto-labeling is not available or requires human review
• Use LLM-based tools, where appropriate, to accelerate labeling, transcript review, and preliminary analysis, applying human judgment to verify and QA model-generated output
• Track labeling/annotation quality and consistency, and contribute feedback to refine labeling guidelines and workflows

Key Qualifications

• Qualitative user research skills including interviews and usability testing
• High attention to detail & great note taking skills
• Experience reviewing, validating, and correcting labeled data and transcripts, with a consistent eye for accuracy and edge cases
• Ability to perform manual data annotation against defined labeling guidelines when automated labels are unavailable or unreliable
• Knowledge of ergonomics or usability of consumer products
• Comfortable with executing commands in Mac Terminal

Preferred Skills

• Familiar with motion capture hardware & software.
• Experience with quantitative analysis tools or languages such as Python, R, MatLab, or JMP.
• Experience validating auto-labeled data and machine-generated transcripts (e.g., speech-to-text, activity/event detection)
• Familiarity with data annotation tools and workflows, and the ability to interpret and apply labeling schemas/guidelines
• Experience using LLM-based tools to assist with data labeling, transcript review, or qualitative analysis (e.g., drafting annotations, summarization, categorization, or QA of model output)

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree or Master's degree. Preferred disciplines: Human Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Mechanical Engineering, Psychology, Marketing, Computer Science, or other related discipline.
• Completion of certificate, training, or “boot camp” program for UX research, human-computer interaction, or human subjects research.
• 1-3 years of hands-on work in human factors, industrial engineering, cognitive engineering, experimental psychology, and/or human-computer interaction.
• Hands-on experience with data annotation, transcript validation, or dataset QA in a research, ML, or operations context