Senior Human-Centered AI Researcher

What We Do:  

At the SEI AI Division, we conduct research in applied artificial intelligence and the engineering questions related to the practical design and implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and systems. We currently lead a community-wide movement to mature the discipline of AI Engineering for Defense and National Security. 
 

As our government customers adopt AI and machine learning (ML) to provide leap-ahead mission capabilities, we:  

• build real-world, mission-scale AI capabilities through solving practical engineering problems. 

• discover and define the processes, practices, and tools to support operationalizing AI for robust, secure, scalable, and human-centered mission capabilities. 

• prepare our customers to be ready for the unique challenges of adopting, deploying, using, and maintaining AI capabilities. 

• identify and investigate emerging AI and AI-adjacent technologies that are rapidly transforming the technology landscape. 

Are you creative, curious, and collaborative? Do you enjoy doing meaningful and complex work? Are you interested in making a difference by bringing innovation to government organizations and beyond? Apply to join our team today!  
 

Position Summary: 

As a Human-Centered AI Researcher in the Trust Lab, you will lead research to support the operationalization of trustworthy, human-centered, and responsible AI (RAI) systems. You will collaborate with technical staff and government customers and help shape the AI Division’s approach to current national initiatives and make a difference for our government customers. You will apply your user experience (UX) expertise to contribute directly to government projects on important and challenging problems. The work environment in the AI Division is dynamic and flexible, with opportunities to develop new skills, learn about new frameworks and techniques, and collaborate with other human-centered researchers in the Trust Lab and across CMU. 

Duties: 

• Lead Research: You will lead research and facilitate human-centered research processes with project teams and customers to understand contexts and yield actionable insights. You will identify, plan, conduct, and analyze research studies that meet the goals of the effort. You will utilize diverse research methods (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods) to understand and articulate the goals, needs, attitudes, and behaviors of users. Research may include human-computer interaction (HCI) studies such as interviews, observations, usability studies, card sorting, heuristic evaluations, surveys, and others as appropriate. You will lead secondary research efforts reviewing resources from industry, government agencies, academia, and other sources on topics such as RAI, UX, and human-centered design. You will create new research methods and practices that support the efforts of teams developing advanced technologies such as AI systems, robots, and augmented and/or virtual reality systems. 

• Transition Knowledge: You will translate quantitative and qualitative research data into actionable insights, tangible artifacts, and useful recommendations. You will communicate concepts and ideas through storytelling and useful visualizations such as journey maps, workflows, diagrams, and other artifacts. You will create interactive prototypes that represent the needs identified during research, to instantiate recommendations, and/or as experiments to build understanding. You will present research in compelling ways and craft impactful experiences and presentations that showcase our work. 

• Community Engagement and Publishing: You will write white papers, articles, training materials, blogs, and other artifacts to transition knowledge to our customers. You will communicate and share research findings internally and externally through conference presentations, published papers, blogs, podcasts, and more.  

• Collaboration and Facilitation: You will collaborate with your colleagues in the Trust Lab who have HCI-related backgrounds; with AI Division researchers who have expertise in machine learning, engineering, mathematics, product management, and other subjects; as well as with colleagues across the SEI, CMU, and our government customer organizations. You will design and facilitate working sessions and workshops with various audiences to prioritize research, collect technical information and define requirements, explore problems, generate ideas, create alignment and engagement, and define impactful strategies. 

Requirements: 

• Experience: You have extensive experience leading human-centered research studies and have conducted research for highly complex and/or advanced technologies such as AI. You have broad knowledge of hum