Research Scientist, Demography and Survey Sciences

Job description

The Demography and Survey Science team's mission is to improve the way we make decisions and measure impact both within and outside of Meta. We collect and analyze rich survey and behavioral datasets to understand new challenges, solve problems, and shape decisions. We are looking for quantitative social scientists with experience answering complex research questions to join us in this effort. Our interdisciplinary team includes those with expertise in statistical inference, survey methodology, causal inference and econometrics, regression modeling, exploratory data analysis, and mathematical demography, among other areas.

In this role, you’ll own research end-to-end. This means you’ll navigate trade-offs while designing projects, proposing appropriate methodologies, analyzing data, and communicating results to broad audiences in order to drive impactful decisions. Strong candidates may include social scientists, applied statisticians, or other applied researchers with expertise in quantitative research methods, experience working with large datasets and relational databases, and experience with survey methodology (e.g., bias correction, sampling).

We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate methodological rigor, experience communicating research findings in writing and in presentations to technical and non-technical stakeholders, and the ability to make research design choices that balance competing tradeoffs effectively.

Responsibilities

• Develop a research agenda and drive research projects from end-to-end
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams across the company to define relevant research questions
• Design and deploy appropriate research methodologies to answer those questions
• Develop innovative new approaches to resolve challenging problems
• Provide teams with usable measurement strategies and methodologies to make better decisions
• Deliver insights and recommendations clearly to relevant audiences

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in quantitative research, data analysis, or a related field Bachelor's, Master's or Ph.D. in the social sciences (e.g., Economics, Political Science, Sociology, Psychology, Communication), or in a quantitative field (e.g., Statistics, Informatics, Econometrics)
• Demonstrated experience in designing original research to address complex questions
• Demonstrated expertise in data manipulation and analysis software and programming languages (Python/R, SQL) Expertise and applied experience in measurement (e.g., survey design and analysis, experiment design, bias correction, measurement models, data collection, log data) and statistical inference (e.g., causal, Bayesian, machine learning) Experience initiating and driving research projects to completion with minimal guidance Experience communicating analyses and results to broad audiences
• Demonstrated ability to distill and communicate research insights to influence others' thinking, decision-making, and actions
• Demonstrated ongoing AI skill development (e.g., prompt/context engineering, agent orchestration) and staying current with emerging AI technologies Experience adhering to and implementing responsible, ethical AI practices (e.g., risk assessment, bias mitigation, quality and accuracy reviews)
• Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize/redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (e.g., efficiency gains, quality improvements)
• Familiarity with qualitative research (e.g., focus groups, interviews, cognitive testing)