Research Scientist, Perceptual Science

Employer

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 Research (FRLR), our goal is to explore, innovate and design novel interfaces and hardware subsystems of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experiences. We are looking for a skilled and motivated researcher to join our team, whose mission is to create and apply scientific knowledge about the perceptual system to improve human experiences in the augmented world. We are specifically looking for a candidate with experience in executing research with a human behavioral focus. The successful candidate will work with a team of researchers who are identifying perceptually- motivated solutions for haptic and multisensory rendering to achieve perceptual-motor control in human computer interactions with future AR and VR experiences. More broadly, the chosen candidate will work with a diverse and highly interdisciplinary team of hardware and software engineers, interaction designers, and researchers of UX, HCI, ML and other disciplines. They also will have access to cutting edge technology, resources, and testing facilities. Facebook promotes employee growth through career and personal development programs, including Employee Resource Groups, diversity and inclusion programs, training, family leave, and mentorship programs.

Responsibilities
  • Devise and execute research plans that are aligned with team goals.
  • Work with others to investigate ways to improve the perception and experience of virtual interactions through multi-sensory integration or individual modalities (vision, audition, haptics).
  • Work effectively with a diverse, interdisciplinary group of researchers & engineers within and across teams.
  • Mentor MS/PhD interns, contribute to your peers’ projects and work closely with external academic groups to advance our research goals.
Minimum Qualification
  • PhD degree in the field of perception, cognitive psychology, or related area.
  • 4+ years experience with data analysis and applied statistics for behavioral science.
  • 4+ years experience with scientific programming languages such as Python, MATLAB, or similar.
  • Experience using communication and personal management skills to achieve outcomes.
  • Experience with interdisciplinary research that spans perceptual research and engineering.

Preferred Qualification
  • 2+ years of experience in industry applying perceptual knowledge to solve engineering problems.
  • Experience with research on multisensory integration.
  • Experience with haptics especially in the domain of sensorimotor, neuro-motor, or motor learning and/or control.
  • Experience in virtual reality, psychophysics, engineering psychology, or computational modeling.
  • Track record of achieving results, including first-authored journal publications.
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.