Contra Labs
Research Scientist, Human Data & Evaluation
$150K–$200K
San Francisco · Remote · Full-time · Posted Aug 17, 2026
- Experience
- 3–5+ years of relevant research experience.
- Education
- Master’s, PhD, or equivalent industry research depth in HCI, Human-Centered AI, ML, design research, or a related field.
About the job
Independently lead human-centered AI research projects, from defining research questions and methodology to analyzing results and delivering recommendations, evaluations, benchmarks, and reports.
What you'll do
- Develop research proposals, study designs, human-data collection strategies, and evaluation protocols.
- Analyze qualitative and quantitative data and turn findings into insights, recommendations, and research outputs.
- Own research engagements from scoping through delivery, collaborating with internal teams and clients.
What they ask for
- 3–5+ years of relevant research experience, with a Master’s, PhD, or equivalent industry research depth in HCI, Human-Centered AI, ML, design research, or a related field.
- Strong qualitative and quantitative research skills, including experience with human evaluation, experimentation, data collection, UX/HCI, annotation, or model behavior research.
- Ability to independently design and execute rigorous research and turn findings into actionable recommendations.
- Comfort analyzing data with Python and/or SQL; based in San Francisco, California.
Nice to have
- Familiarity with modern ML and generative AI systems; understanding of RLHF, post-training, preference data, or model evaluation.
- Experience with multimodal or creative systems, prompt research, large-scale human-data programs, AI research teams, original research, or startup work.
Pay
$150,000 - $200,000 USD base salary
Tools
Python, SQL
AI focus
Research and evaluation for creative and multimodal AI, including human preference data, benchmarking, post-training, and model behavior.
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