Job Description

Facebook's mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Through our family of apps and services, we're building a different kind of company that connects billions of people around the world, gives them ways to share what matters most to them, and helps bring people closer together. Whether we're creating new products or helping a small business expand its reach, people at Facebook are builders at heart. Our global teams are constantly iterating, solving problems, and working together to empower people around the world to build community and connect in meaningful ways. Together, we can help people build stronger communities - we're just getting started.

At Facebook Reality Labs, we are inventing the future. We bring together a world-class team of researchers, developers, & engineers to build the future of connection within virtual and augmented reality. The right candidate will be an effective communicator, passionate about understanding people, curious about the evolving complex relationship between human sensory, perceptual, and cognitive systems and use of emerging technologies. As a Research Scientist at FRL for user safety, you are expected to have breadth and depth of scientific background in human perception, cognition, motor control and movement. You will be leveraging this in service of defining, assessing and enhancing the form, function and dynamics of our hardware and software. You must be a data expert, and able to creatively develop metrics for investigating novel challenges in use of MR. You will demonstrate your ability to break down ambiguous problems and master research methods, including design of experiments, expert review, psychophysics and threshold detection, and relevant health & safety research approaches. While strong candidates will have hands-on experience in conducting in-depth studies and improving product safety under an industrial or corporate setting, we are looking for researchers that take users’ health & safety in their heart for product design. A successful candidate will demonstrate the capability in driving insights into actionable health & safety measures, and collaborate closely with cross functional partners to help shape critical product and technology decisions across the product design and development life-cycle. You will work across multi-disciplinary hardware and software teams to push the boundaries of our MR products while enhancing users’ health & safety. Ultimately, your expertise and ingenuity in research must do more than just contribute to knowledge and assessment – you must also be skilled at driving measurable positive impacts on the product safety and user experience.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate and work with cross-functional product teams to identify safety goals and envision needs, create research framework and develop new methodologies for investigating novel challenges in use of MR
• Develop ergonomic, perceptual and psychological research studies for user safety by utilizing appropriate methods, including design of experiment, psychophysics and threshold detection, motion tracking and kinematics analysis, behavioral analytics, expert review and relevant health and safety research approaches
• Develop and track metrics for user safety and quality of performing fundamental tasks including spatial navigation, object interaction, and beyond
• Investigate effects of human multi-sensory interactions, attention, and control dynamics on performance and safety of doing such tasks
• Analyze rich and multidimensional data, develop descriptive and analytical models, and shape actionable insights from research findings
• Effectively communicate outcomes and insights from studies, support decision-making and help setting specifications for MR products, drive measurable positive impact on user safety and novel experience
• Create close partnerships with a variety of corporate, research and product stakeholders to ensure a broad understanding of the product needs and priorities while driving user safety goals
  

Minimum Qualification

• PhD in Cognitive/Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Science, Kinesiology, Human-Computer Interaction or a closely related scientific psychology field
• Demonstrated scientific background in human multi-sensory perception, cognition, motor control and movement, the experience applying such knowledge in analyzing and interpreting relevant human behaviors associated with novel systems
• 5+ years of experience in experimental design, psychophysics, behavioral analytics, and proficiency with statistics
• Proven track record of rigorous scientific research, including development of metrics for psychophysical and empirical behavioral measurements
• Demonstrated communication skills as well as proven interpersonal skill
• 2+ years of experience in conducting research for display technology, or novel products headed to market
  
  

Preferred Qualification

• Exhibited experience working on product safety research in relation to human multi-sensory integration, attention, and control dynamics
• Training and experience in related techniques such as eye tracking, body motion tracking, postural stability measures, human motor control and kinematics analysis, and physiology measures
• Experience in research for emerging technologies, AR/VR/MR or wearable technology
• Experience in research across full product life-cycle
  

Facebook is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Facebook is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at accommodations-ext@fb.com.