Lead Research Scientist

Reporting to the Director of Research, the Lead Research Scientist will be responsible for guiding Harmony Labs’ research design and execution; and translating complex questions about audiences, narratives, and media systems into actionable and technical findings. This role leads the research team day-to-day, advances Harmony Labs’ best practices, and collaborates closely with the Director of Research to develop research plans, innovate methodologies, and connect findings to Harmony Labs’ mission and partners’ strategic goals.

Please submit a resume and cover letter, clearly describing your interest and experience to jobs@harmonylabs.org. Due to the number of emails we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond to each one.

Position Detail

What You Will Do

• Lead research design and execution
  • Lead and manage the research components of data-driven Harmony Labs projects, from design through execution and delivery.
  • Collaborate with the Director of Research to develop research plans that provide valid, reliable answers to complex questions about how media works and how Harmony Labs and its partners can use that knowledge to achieve their goals.
  • Conceive and execute methodologically sound research using a range of approaches (e.g., survey design and analysis, predictive modeling, community detection, natural language processing, neighborhood analysis, clustering, and network analysis) and research tools, including R, Python, and AI, aligned with Harmony Labs’ standards for rigor, innovation, and AI.
  • Work across projects and teams to improve research methods, including data retrieval, modeling, archiving, and visualization practices.
• Grow team capacity and support delivery
  • Supervise, mentor, and support Research Scientists and other research staff to build team capacity in advanced methods, experimental design, and interdisciplinary research.
  • Develop and manage research schedules and staffing plans in coordination with the Director of Research and data science leadership, ensuring timely, high-quality deliverables.
  • Provide regular feedback, coaching, and opportunities for growth, fostering a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and excellence in research.
  • Manage external analytic and research resources, including contractors, consultants, annotators, and vendors, ensuring their work meets Harmony Labs’ standards and integrates smoothly into project workflows.
• Translate findings into actionable insight
  • Synthesize and present research findings in ways that are actionable, understandable, and usable for both technical and non-technical audiences inside and outside Harmony Labs.
  • Partner with Strategy and Communications teams to produce clear, coherent written and verbal explanations of methods, findings, and implications for practice.
  • Tailor communication of methods, results, and implications to the needs of different stakeholders, connecting insights to decisions and next steps.
  • Communicate with project stakeholders and organizational leadership about research progress, key insights, risks, and opportunities, and develops and shares mitigation and change plans as needed.
• Drive innovation in research methods
  • Independently and in collaboration with the Director of Research, drive innovation and experimentation in research and data science methodologies, tools, and technologies to improve research outcomes and deliver actionable insights.
  • Evaluate and integrate new methods, tools, and data sources relevant to cultural and media dynamics, ensuring Harmony Labs’ research remains at the leading edge.
  • Stay abreast of and participate in relevant scholarly, industry, and practitioner communities to bring new ideas and best practices into Harmony Labs’ work.
• Undertake other duties and responsibilities as needed

Who You Are

• You are curious, independent, strategic, brave, and kind
• You thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative research environment with a high-volume workload often requiring short turnaround times.
• You are deeply collaborative. You bring your own expertise to team projects and create solutions that makes use of the expertise of others
• You are curious. You do research because you really want to know the answer, and you want to answer big questions about how media affect us and we affect media
• You have a strong intuition for what makes research good from sample specification to question design to survey daypart selection.
• You are flexible and you know how to keep your eye on the goal when plans don’t work or problems arise.
• You possess advanced statistical knowledge and the ability to select and implement appropriate methodologies to deliver analyses that support project outcomes.
• You are comfortable working as part of a fully remote team.
• You are able to manage your own time and work with teams across multiple time zones.

Desired Experience

• You have at least 7 years of professional experience designing and conducting quantitative and mixed-methods research in fields such as media studies, computational social science, communication, sociology, or related disciplines. -You have demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary research teams and manage complex, multi-stakeholder projects from conception through execution and delivery.
• You have advanced proficiency with research tools and programming languages such as R and Python, including experience applying machine learning, statistical modeling, natural language processing, or network analysis to cultural or media data.
• You have a proven ability to translate research findings into strategic insights and clearly communicate them to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• You have a strong background in research design, experimental methods, and validation techniques to ensure rigor and reproducibility.
• You have familiarity with emerging methods in AI-assisted research, data ethics, and responsible data use.

Details & Compensation

• This is a full-time, exempt position reporting to the Director of Research
• This is a Level 4 position with a salary between $145 - 160K
• There is a generous benefits package, including:
  • Health, dental and vision insurance, employer paid across all categories, including for partners, children, and families
  • Unlimited paid time off, with minimum thresholds for use
  • 401(k) with 100% match of up to 6% of salary per pay period, with immediate vesting
  • Pre-tax spending plans for commute, parking, dependent care, healthcare
  • Professional development stipends, paid parental leave, sabbaticals
  • Harmony Labs is a 100% remote workplace, with home office set up and annual reimbursements, periodic in-person retreats, and access to conference space at WeWork
  • Harmony Labs provides a laptop

Broad perspectives and diverse experiences are key to serving society, and innovating in a way that responds to our complex, interdependent global context. While Harmony Labs employs only United States citizens and those non-U.S. citizens authorized to work in the United States, in compliance with national regulations, we strongly encourage people from backgrounds currently underrepresented in tech, research, media, and data science to apply. Harmony Labs is an equal opportunity employer. We value and welcome diversity in the workplace and strongly encourage all qualified persons to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

About Harmony Labs

About Harmony Labs

We are a media research lab, using science, data, and creativity to research and reshape our relationship with media. For more than a decade, Harmony Labs has helped storytellers and strategists, decision makers and dreamers, harness the immense power of media to shape a positive, pluralistic future. With the Narrative Observatory, for the first time ever, we're harnessing powerful industry relationships to deliver one-of-a-kind data infrastructure that empowers partners to find, reach, and resonate with the right audience in today's media minefield. The Narrative Observatory delivers audience-based insights, narrative and network analysis, and empirical validation of cultural strategy and content---all derived from the actual behavior of real people and true audiences, not survey results, demographic groups, or inauthentic online activity.

We work with a wide range of partners on issues of existential importance, like climate, gun violence, political corruption, artificial intelligence, and more, using an approach to research that is rigorous, participatory, and public. One of the first papers we co-authored looked at fracking narratives in documentary film. The outputs we've created with our partners include websites, presentations, peer-reviewed publications, toolkits, curriculum, interactives, white papers, and media. And our work has been covered in the press, like in this recent New York Times article.

Founded by John S. Johnson in 2008, Harmony Labs is a 501(c)3 incorporated in New York State. Funders include Atlantic Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Google, and more.