Senior Research Scientist, AI & Workforce Intelligence

Role Description

Wonderlic is seeking a Senior Research Scientist to sit at the precise intersection of I-O psychology and machine learning - someone who has spent time building real systems with real data who cares deeply about what those systems are predicting. This is not a role for an ML engineer who finds people data interesting as a side project, or for an I-O psychologist who has learned to code. We’re looking for someone who has genuinely lived in both worlds and is ready to own the problems that live between them.

Your Impact:

• Set the scientific and technical direction for how Wonderlic understands work at scale and translates assessment science into AI-powered insight.
• Your work will directly determine the quality, defensibility, and reach of the inferences our platform makes about jobs and people.
• Hold both the I-O science question and the production ML question in the same breath, and answer both.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the Continued Development of the Jobs Engine:
  • Own the architecture, integrity, and continuous expansion of Wonderlic’s AI job analysis system.
  • Build and refine the models that make inferences about work content from unstructured text.
  • Ensure all outputs are scientifically defensible and scalable as the nature of work evolves.
• Act as an Expert on AI Implementation Across the Organization:
  • Partner with product managers, engineers, and I-O psychologists to translate scientific requirements into AI-powered systems.
  • Advise on which approaches are best suited to specific implementation challenges.
  • Serve as an internal resource on what ML and AI can and cannot do in assessment and organizational contexts.
• Drive Scientific Rigor:
  • Apply I-O psychology principles to every system you build.
  • Ensure that Wonderlic’s AI products meet professional and legal standards for selection and development tools.
  • Push back when speed is being prioritized at the expense of defensibility.

What Success Looks Like

• In your first six months, you will have a deep understanding of the jobs engine architecture and shipped at least one meaningful improvement.
• Within a year, you will have materially expanded the jobs engine’s reach and accuracy.
• The long-term marker of success is a jobs engine that provides defensible, scaled job analysis inference across millions of roles.

What We’re Looking For

Skills & Capabilities:

• Applied NLP and ML engineering skills.
• Occupational data modeling.
• Responsible AI judgment in employment contexts.
• Generative AI evaluation skills.
• Product judgment for applied ML systems.
• Working fluency with assessment and I/O concepts.
• Ability to own ambiguous, high-complexity problems.

Mindset:

• You care about work - what makes it meaningful, who thrives in it, how to measure fit.
• You have a healthy relationship with “good enough.”
• You can hold both worlds simultaneously.
• You are genuinely curious about the problems that exist for both employee selection and development.
• You thrive in an environment that requires creativity and scrappiness.

Qualifications

• Graduate degree in I-O Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Organizational Development, or closely related field (quantitative focus strongly preferred); doctoral degree a plus.
• Demonstrated ML engineering experience with shipped, production-grade systems.
• Experience applying modern NLP methods to behavioral, assessment-based, or labor market data.
• Track record of work that had to be both technically sound and legally/professionally defensible.
• Minimum 3 years of applied industry experience; 5+ years preferred.
• Experience at the intersection of I-O science and algorithmic fairness strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with occupational taxonomies, vocational interests, or cognitive ability frameworks a significant plus.

Compensation

$95,000 to $110,000 based on experience and expertise.

Our Policy

Wonderlic is proud to be an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer. Here, diversity is valued and celebrated, and this is what makes us such a successful team. Wonderlic does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, pregnancy status, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, parental status, military/veteran status, or any other factor protected by law.