UX Research Scientist Intern, Contextual AI (PhD)

Summary:

Meta Reality Labs Research (RL-R) is looking for a PhD researcher who brings two skill sets together: computer science AI development, and social science and experimental design. You should be equally comfortable building AI-powered prototypes and running rigorous studies of how people experience them. Contextual AI uses what a person sees, hears and does, as captured by wearable devices such as the Aria Gen 2 research glasses, to deliver help that is relevant, timely and appropriately presented. In this role, you will help define what success looks like for these systems and how to measure it. You will lead a research project from start to finish, including:- Defining a research question about proactive, always-available AI- Building or extending a functional prototype using real-world wearable and contextual data- Designing and running user studies with the prototype- Turning findings into actionable design guidance and evaluation metrics for research and engineering teamsOur internships are 12 to 24 weeks long and we have various start dates throughout the year. Some projects may require a minimum of 24 consecutive weeks.

Required Skills:

UX Research Scientist Intern, Contextual AI (PhD) Responsibilities:

1. Plan and run a research project from question to impact: navigate trade-offs, choose methods, analyze data, and communicate results to technical and non-technical audiences.

2. Build functional prototypes of contextual AI experiences, such as LLM agents, proactive assistants or companion apps, using wearable sensor data, personal timeline APIs and modern AI tools.

3. Design and run user studies (lab, field or longitudinal), combining behavioral data, device and interaction logs, and self-report.

4. Develop and validate measures of experience quality, for example the right assist, the right time and the right way, along with trust, interruption cost and correction burden, and help define how good is good enough.

5. Design human evaluations of AI systems, including rating protocols, inter-rater agreement and calibration of automated judges against human judgment.

6. Work closely with research scientists, engineers, designers and product managers to turn findings into design guidance and technical requirements.

7. Share results in internal readouts, and where appropriate, in peer-reviewed publications.

Minimum Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

1. Currently has or is in the process of obtaining a PhD degree in Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Information Science or a related field, with research that combines computational and social or behavioral science methods

2. Experience developing AI systems, for example building applications on LLMs or agents (prompting, tool use, retrieval), or training and evaluating machine learning models

3. Experience with Python, C++, or other related languages

4. Experience building working interactive prototypes or research systems

5. Training in social science research methods, including experimental design: forming hypotheses, operationalizing constructs, choosing between-subjects or within-subjects designs, controlling confounds, and planning sample size and power

6. Experience running studies with people (controlled experiments plus field, interview or diary methods), including data collection protocols for behavioral and sensor data, and analyzing results with appropriate statistics (e.g., mixed-effects models) and qualitative methods

7. Research experience in human-AI interaction, conversational agents, wearable or ubiquitous computing, AR/VR or a related area

8. Experience working and communicating cross functionally in a team environment

9. Must obtain work authorization in the country of employment at the time of hire, and maintain ongoing work authorization during employment

Preferred Qualifications:

Preferred Qualifications:

1. Proven track record of achieving significant results as demonstrated by grants, fellowships, patents, as well as publications at leading workshops or conferences such as HCI or AI venues (e.g., CHI, UIST, CSCW, IUI, Ubicomp/IMWUT, NeurIPS, ACL)

2. Experience with multi-agent systems, or with evaluating LLM agents on real-world tasks

3. Experience with proactive or mixed-initiative systems, notification timing, or interruption management

4. Experience with egocentric or multimodal sensor data (video, audio, eye tracking, motion, physiological signals, device logs), including combining it with self-report

5. Experience evaluating AI systems with people: human evals, rubric design, inter-rater reliability, or calibrating LLM judges to human labels

6. Experience with longitudinal or in-the-wild deployments, including experience sampling and adoption or retention measures

7. Experience studying multiparty interaction, social acceptability, bystander privacy, or trust in AI

8. Responsible AI practice (e.g., risk assessment, bias mitigation) and keeping current with AI tools such as prompt/context engineering and agent orchestration

9. Strong scientific writing, and the ability to communicate complex findings to cross-functional partners

Public Compensation:

$7,650/month to $12,667/month + benefits

Industry: Internet

Equal Opportunity:

Meta is proud to be an Equal Employment 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. Meta participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. Please note that Meta may leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in connection with applications for employment.

Meta 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 [email protected].