Senior behavioral scientist job description

The Apple Media Products Engineering team is one of the most exciting examples of Apple's long-held passion for combining art and technology. These are the people who power the App Store, Apple TV, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple Books. And they do it on a massive scale, meeting Apple's high expectations with high performance to deliver a huge variety of entertainment in over 35 languages to more than 150 countries.

The Apple Media Products Evaluation team is looking for a Senior Behavioral Scientist to design, coordinate, execute, and monitor research studies which enable the development and validation of machine learning models. Moreover, the person in this role will work to identify new and innovative opportunities to apply behavioral science and achieve impact.

Behavioral Scientists work to answer the most challenging questions in design. In this role, you will reveal what our users need from our products by conducting both primary and secondary research, exploring the behaviors and motivations of our users, and working with teams of Data Scientists, Product Managers, Engineers, and others to develop new evaluation methodologies and user research studies. You'll inspire change at all stages of product development by delivering exciting oral, written, and visual presentations about our findings. Most importantly, your job as a researcher is to help the Evaluation team understand what would make a user's experiences feel more intuitive, accessible, fun-and even magical!

With considerable experience, you evaluate all the features contributing to user experience and behavior, providing expertise, collaborating internally and occasionally leading projects. You contribute new processes and identify product and use requirements.

You will combine broad skills in experimental design, qualitative methods, statistical analysis, programming, and behavioral science theory/methods to shape the product and research direction for products used and loved by all Apple customers.

You will identify and quantify problems, and embark on new research areas worth exploring through innovative methods by applying principles of rigorous and ethical research to build and improve products that satisfy users' needs and exceed their expectations.
Key Qualifications

* Experience applying behavioral science principles and methodologies in an industry, government, or nonprofit setting
* Expertise in applied qualitative methods (e.g., interview, focus groups, thematic analysis).
* Strong foundation in data collection, data management, statistical inference, and the application of advanced multivariate/causal modeling methods
* Expertise in experimental design and methods from A/B tests to multi-method behavioral science experiments, including field experiments
* Experience with survey design and analysis (specifically for the purposes of experimental and quantitative analysis)
* Fluent in at least one statistical programming language (E.g., R, Python, or similar); basic competency with SQL is a plus
* Comfort working within ambiguous problem spaces and working as part of a cross-functional team
* Ability to formulate and advocate for R&D objectives and results to cross-functional team members including executive business leadership and product management
* Knowledge of product development process for both hardware and software products, including data driven algorithm development process
* Exceptional oral, written, and visual storytelling skills. Can effectively communicate to both technical and non-technical audiences
* Ability to translate research findings into actionable data-driven recommendations
* Preferred qualification: Coding experience and working knowledge in machine learning concepts
* Preferred qualification: Established contributor and/or reviewer of research for top conferences and publications, ideally attracting invited talks and submissions to such

Description

Examine existing data, product designs, and prior research to identify research gaps.

Work on unusually complex technical problems, providing solutions that are highly innovative and inventive, impacting Apple and/or industry

Maintain up-to-date knowledge of academic research and attend conferences that are relevant to problems machine learning teams are working on, and determine approaches to apply that research to our work

Find opportunities to improve the capabilities we deliver in terms of revenue and profitability, performance, explainability, stability, robustness, etc.

Work with team leadership to set research and development roadmap to deliver benefit to Evaluation, designing and suggesting improvements across multiple domains

Disseminate behavioral science concepts and frameworks via workshops, presentations, and collaboration

Communicate at all levels of the company, presenting hypotheses, proposals, and experimental results, and making valuable contributions to the discussion of such contributions from colleagues in internal, Apple wide, and external professional settings

Draw on behavioral science literature to advise the team in taking scientifically informed and well-considered risks in our pursuit of solutions to difficult technical problems

Navigate across Apple, pulling in peers where needed and providing valuable expertise across the company

Education & Experience

PhD or Master's degree (PhD preferred) in Psychology, Behavioral Science/Economics, Cognitive Science, Statistics, Social Science, Human-Computer Interaction or related field.

• Passion and affinity for thinking innovatively about data sources and novel methods for collecting data on behavior, e.g. internet searches, social media, commercial data vendors
• Graduate degree in behavioral science or related field (PhD preferred, or master’s with equivalent professional experience)
• 2+ years’ private sector experience e.g. healthcare, life sciences, consulting, consumer research
• Technical knowledge and experience designing and implementing quantitative and qualitative research, using multiple research methods such as surveys and decision-making experiments to collect behavioral data
• Deep knowledge of interdisciplinary literature on behavior, and excellent ability to synthesize and evaluate evidence, and make recommendations
• Strong relationship management with a diverse set of partners, and collaborative work within the Surgo research team
• Entrepreneurial and curious in spirit, and a strong problem solver with a passion for applying your skills to tackle the most pressing health and social issues
• Excellent communication skills, including writing for academic and non-academic audiences, preparing and presenting compelling slide decks
• Ability to work in a fast-paced start-up environment, and to pivot quickly and make decisions under uncertainty

Location: Headquartered in Washington, DC / This role is remote friendly

Travel: Some travel possible

What you’ll love about Surgo:

• Fantastic colleagues and opportunity to solve tough challenges in healthcare
• Ability to be entrepreneurial and tremendous opportunities for growth
• Public Benefit Corporation with an impact and equity mission
• Competitive compensation and health benefits
• Generous PTO, 10+ holidays
• Highly competitive 401K
• 3 months paid parental leave
• Cell phone reimbursement
• Professional development opportunities
• Hybrid environment
• Fantastic colleagues and opportunity to solve tough challenges in health

Our hiring philosophy

We hire for passion and core competencies.

We look for problem solvers and lateral thinkers.

We love it if you have done different things with your time.

If you think you are ideal for this position, write to us even if your experience doesn’t match all the requirements listed above.

Application

• Interested applicants, please apply here.
• Short-listed applicants will go through several steps: screening interview, interview with the hiring manager, a take-home project, presentation, and an “on-site” (virtual or in person) with the team.

Equal Opportunity and Diversity Policy

Surgo believes a diverse, inclusive staff makes a stronger team and more impactful organization and we are committed to building and developing this team and environment. Qualified people of all races, ethnicities, cultures, ages, sex, genders, sexual orientation, gender identities and expressions, languages, social class, marital status, religions, veterans status, and disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.