Research Associate

Location: 5x/week onsite Pittsburgh, PA – Either Strip District or Oakland location

Shift: M-F 2:30pm-11pm EST - 40 hours/week

Pay Rate: $22/hr

PTO: 15 days (10 days PTO 5 sick days)

Exact compensation may vary based on several factors, including skills, experience, and education.

Benefit packages for this role will start on the 1st day of employment and include medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as HSA, FSA, and DCFSA account options, and 401k retirement account access with employer matching. Employees in this role are also entitled to paid sick leave and/or other paid time off as provided by applicable law.

Program Overview:

This opportunity is to join a research team who is supporting a long-term effort to make person-to-person communication in Virtual Reality indistinguishable from real life.

This team's core function is to collect user data, which in this case is scans of the persons face and body. We capture facial expressions, eye movement, voice, etc.; to then build a virtual model of that person. From there, A.I. uses cameras embedded in the VR headset to predict their movements based off the data we collected. The result is a hyper realistic model of that person whose expressions (face, mouth, eyes, forehead wrinkles, etc.) change in real time even when they have a headset on.

Day-to-Day

The Research Associate will collect face and body data gathered from large-scale capture domes and VR headsets by:

• Staging and setting-up equipment for the study, which may include engaging with engineering, external equipment vendors, internal and external safety evaluators, and the research study team to ensure the equipment is set up properly.
• Conducting the study, including participant coaching and interaction, operating complex, experimental capture systems, and debriefing with team leadership as necessary
• Performing basic troubleshooting of capture systems (hardware and software) and escalate any bugs or issues using internal tools.
• Providing research study support, including data collection, tracking of participants, and tracking of equipment and procedures.
• Contributing to and/or update existing documentation.
• Serving as a participant for studies and being captured in various systems as needed.
• Completing project work related to captures such as recording and updating capture scripts.
• Attending all required trainings, meetings, and standups
• Providing feedback for process improvement areas

Expectations for Success

To be able to successfully execute on the day-to-day responsibilities above, the Research Associate is expected to:

• Review SOPs and other any other relevant documentation and consult with the responsible Lead for any questions or clarifications in advance of the capture.
• Stay up to date with process and SOP changes for frequently used systems.
• Arrive on-time for captures and allow additional time, if needed, to review unfamiliar systems or SOPs and for operational set up
• Arrive on-time and prepared with relevant information or materials for all required trainings, meetings, and standups.
• Approach each capture and project with ability and flexibility. Be prepared to quickly pivot to new tasks, approaches to capture, or steps in documented processes to keep the team moving forward, even during blocking events.
• Provide a comfortable and professional experience for participants (both internal and external) through all interactions including providing updates and breaks during troubleshooting or other capture-blocking events.
• Ensure highest quality and accuracy of data captured by maintaining a sterile and distraction-free capture environment.
• Escalate any issues to the Engineer Team and properly documenting, in-detail, the nature of the issue.
• Address any areas for improvement of the capture process in scheduled meetings and/or via internal feature request tools.
• Identify (or partner with the Team Lead(s) projects and tasks that can be completed during larger blocking events and during planned and unplanned system downtime.