Applied Perception Scientist

Reality Labs Research at Meta is a leading research organization of world-class researchers, developers, and engineers who collaborate to actively create a future where virtual and augmented reality become as indispensable as todays smartphones and personal computers.

The mission of the Reality Labs Research Audio team is to engineer augmented audio that redefines human hearing capabilities. This will allow us to connect people by facilitating conversation in even the most challenging auditory environment.

We are seeking a contract applied research scientist specializing in the perception of tonal languages. This role is an integral part of our team contributing to our research and development efforts. The ideal candidate will help us explore and understand individualized audio quality preferences and experiences, enabling us to tailor our technologies to meet unique user needs.

Responsibilities

• Oversee and drive research projects on speech quality, statistically analyze results, and report findings.
• Monitor problems, facilitate resolution, and proactively keep projects on track.
• Implement and conduct pilot listening tests and other perceptual experiences.
• Regularly report on project progress, dependencies, and risks to stakeholders.
• Support research scientists and engineers within the team.
• Manage procurement projects for equipment and vendor services.
• Willingness to roll up sleeves and take on operational tasks in support of the teams goals.

Minimum Qualifications

• Interpersonal and communication skills with strong attention to detail.
• Proactive with ability to execute on multiple projects simultaneously.
• Strong organizational and time management skills.
• Track record of communicating research on speech perception, hearing sciences, or auditory perception in an academic or industrial setting.
• Experience with data collection with human participants.
• Experience working in a fast-paced research and/or product development environment.
• Experience with scientific programming languages such as Matlab, Python, C, or R.
• Masters degree or equivalent experience in Computational Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Electrical Engineering, Perception, Experimental Psychology, Audio Engineering, Acoustics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Audiology, or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with tonal languages.
• PhD degree or equivalent experience.
• Experience with AI generative speech.
• Experience with modeling audio quality.

Candidate Requirements

Must-Have Skills

• Experience with statistical analysis of behavioral data (e.g., mixed-effects models, signal detection theory, psychometric methods).
• Work experience in perceptual or psychophysical research with a track record of successful project completion.
• Experience with scientific programming languages such as Python, MATLAB, R, or C.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Advanced Education (PhD degree or equivalent experience).
• AI Experience (Experience with AI generative speech).
• Audio Modeling (Experience with modeling audio quality).

Ideal Candidate Looking for someone with extensive academic experience, the ideal candidate is a card-carrying perception scientist, typically cognitive science, neuroscience, or neural engineering, who has personally designed and ran lots of perception studies and who has at least dabbled in computational models of perception. Someone who is currently a postdoc, a professor, or a senior PhD student.