Research Scientist

Ntent - Carlsbad, CA

Full-time - Mid Level

Carlsbad, CA

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

About the position

The Research Scientist position at NTENT is a full-time role based in Carlsbad, California, where the successful candidate will be integral to the research and development efforts for the company's News Platform. NTENT is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider that specializes in integrating Voice Assistant and Search technologies into business-to-consumer offerings. The company employs a machine learning algorithmic approach to analyze vast amounts of information across the web, utilizing its proprietary search engine, ontology, and knowledge graph to deliver relevant answers and content through conversational interfaces or text. In this role, the Research Scientist will collaborate closely with product managers, machine learning scientists, and engineers to define and formalize research questions pertinent to the News Platform. The position requires conducting independent research, performing extensive literature reviews, and identifying potential solutions from prior published work. The Research Scientist will design experiments, lead data collection efforts, and work with large text datasets, applying statistical and machine learning methods to derive insights. Additionally, the role involves communicating and transferring solutions to production alongside scientists and engineers, as well as sharing ideas, methods, opportunities, and results with cross-functional partners. The ideal candidate will possess a graduate degree, preferably a PhD, in fields such as Computer Science, Linguistics, Statistics, or Computational Social Sciences, and have at least three years of professional experience or equivalent experience in a research lab. Recent PhD graduates are particularly encouraged to apply. The role demands broad experience in natural language processing (NLP) applications, machine learning, and statistical methods, along with proficiency in programming languages such as Python or R. Experience with Spark and PySpark is also required. The candidate should have exceptional communication skills and a keen interest in language processing, making them a valuable addition to the multi-disciplinary team at NTENT.

Responsibilities

• Partner with product managers, machine learning scientists, and engineers to formalize appropriate research questions relevant to the News Platform.
• Conduct independent research and perform extensive literature reviews to identify potential solutions.
• Design experiments and lead data collection efforts.
• Work with large amounts of text data and leverage statistical and machine learning methods.
• Communicate and transfer solutions to production together with scientists and engineers.
• Communicate ideas, methods, opportunities, and results to cross-functional partners.

Requirements

• Graduate degree (PhD preferred) in Computer Science, Linguistics, Statistics, Computational Social Sciences, or other quantitative field.
• 3+ years of professional experience or equivalent experience in a research lab.
• Broad experience with various applications of NLP (part-of-speech tagging, dependency parsing, entity recognition and extraction, etc.).
• Broad experience in machine learning and statistical methods, in at least one of the following areas: experimental design, causal inference, machine learning, reinforcement learning, deep learning.
• End-to-end experience in research projects, including study design, simulation/testing, data cleaning, data analysis, and reporting.
• Proficient with Python or R.
• Experience with Spark, PySpark.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and visual communication.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in the news domain (fact checking, detecting misinformation, etc.) and knowledge of journalistic principles.
• Experience in computational journalism.
• Publication track record.

Benefits

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Disability insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance