Research Scientist

Essential functions

• Taxonomy Development: Design, refine, and maintain safety-relevant taxonomies that capture risk categories, content types, and policy distinctions, achieved through collaborations with subject matter experts who bring knowledge across languages and cultural contexts. You will work collaboratively to ensure taxonomies are comprehensive, internally consistent, and actionable for downstream evaluation work.

• Exemplar Curation: Develop and validate exemplar sets that illustrate taxonomy categories, edge cases, and boundary conditions. Collaborate with language and cultural experts to ensure exemplars are culturally appropriate and representative across target markets.

• Policy-to-Data Translation: Partner with policy, product, and engineering teams to translate responsible AI policies and guidelines into concrete data requirements, annotation schemas, and evaluation criteria that can be operationalized across markets.

• Documentation & Communication: Produce clear, detailed documentation of taxonomies, sampling methodologies, and design rationale. Present findings and recommendations to cross-functional stakeholders including engineering, product, and policy teams.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in an applied research setting related to evaluation design, AI ethics, Responsible AI, AI safety, computational social science, content analysis, or a closely related field.

• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Linguistics, Information Science, Computational Social Science, Cognitive Science, or a related socio-technical field.

• Strong understanding of taxonomy design, classification systems, and annotation methodology.

• Experience developing evaluation guidelines and exemplar sets for human annotation or labeling tasks.

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with subject matter experts (e.g., linguists, cultural consultants, multi-lingual annotators) to inform research design.

• Able to work independently to drive outcomes among cross-functional teams, with minimal direction.

• Organized, highly attentive to detail, and manages time well.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills.

• Experience working in industry.

Would be a plus

• Experience designing evaluation frameworks for multilingual or cross-cultural contexts.

• Familiarity with responsible AI, AI safety, or content moderation policy frameworks.

• Experience with experimental design methodologies, inter-rater reliability data analysis and annotation quality assessment methods.

• Prior experience working with localization, internationalization, or language service teams.

• Experience with survey design, psychometrics, or structured content analysis methodologies.

We offer

• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects
• Work with a highly motivated and dedicated team
• Competitive salary
• Flexible schedule
• Benefits package - medical insurance, vision, dental, etc.
• Corporate social events
• Professional development opportunities
• Well-equipped office

About us

Grid Dynamics (NASDAQ: GDYN) is a leading provider of technology consulting, platform and product engineering, AI, and advanced analytics services. Fusing technical vision with business acumen, we solve the most pressing technical challenges and enable positive business outcomes for enterprise companies undergoing business transformation. A key differentiator for Grid Dynamics is our 8 years of experience and leadership in enterprise AI, supported by profound expertise and ongoing investment in data, analytics, cloud & DevOps, application modernization and customer experience. Founded in 2006, Grid Dynamics is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices across the Americas, Europe, and India.