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.

The perception of audio is at the center of our research, as it informs our work in spatial audio, speech intelligibility, defining audio quality, and many of the AR/VR systems. As a Research Scientist on the Advanced Audio Technologies Team at Facebook Reality Labs, you will be tackling the psychoacoustic challenges that define cutting-edge augmented & virtual reality, conducting research at the intersection of basic and applied science, as it informs our technology directions and identifies opportunities for revolutions in our audio quality metrics and audio experiences.We are seeking a Research Scientist who is an expert in psychoacoustics and audio perception, and is excited about doing research that helps us inform AR/VR audio requirements and metrics for new technologies. We seek out specific expertise in one or a combination in the following areas: spatial audio, speech intelligibility, audio perceptual evaluation, experimental design, computational modeling of the audio system, audio quality metrics, intensity and loudness perception, ML/AI applications to perceptual audio, audio-visual perception.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research in how new audio technologies, and/or acoustic systems can impact perceived audio quality on current and future products.
• Derive novel experimental and/or modeling approaches to assess the impact of distortion, compression, spatial and temporal properties, and perceptual artifacts on audio quality in AR/VR.
• Work with cross-functional partners in both research and product development to understand and prioritize perceptual needs.
• Employ existing knowledge of human sensory encoding and audio quality metrics to help guide hardware and software engineering efforts for new technologies.
• Communicate the findings from modeling, psychoacoustics, & empirical experiments to help set target requirements for acoustic systems in AR/VR.
• Explore opportunities and requirements to create new audio experiences and perform research necessary to deliver them.
  

Minimum Qualification

• PhD in hearing science, acoustics, acoustic engineering, perceptual psychology, psychoacoustics, neuroscience, or a related field with an emphasis on perceptual modeling, psychoacoustics/physics, and/or metrics evaluating perceptual performance.
• Knowledge of how display characteristics interact with visual encoding processes in the generation of visual artifacts.
• 2+ years experience with MATLAB, Python, or similar program for stimulus presentation and analysis.
• 4+ years of experience with experimental methodology, psychophysics, and/or related statistical analysis.
• Experience with research publicized in high-impact journals and international conference presentations or publications.
• Knowledge of the human auditory system and experience applying this model to novel situations and predict how the ear, brain, and body will respond.
  

Preferred Qualification

• 2+ years of postdoctoral training, or industry experience conducting research investigating audio quality or audio perception.
• Knowledge of standard audio quality metrics, and deriving new metrics for novel environments and/or display architectures.
• Experience with MATLAB, R, Python, and/or C++.
• Experience with user studies (psychoacoustics) and human factors.
• Familiarity with VR, MR, AR platforms.
  

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.