People Research Scientist

Crusoe•Seattle, WA

1d•$160,000 - $195,000

About The Position

Crusoe is seeking a People Research Scientist to join its People Science and Workforce Intelligence team. The role will lead research for the wider People organization, applying scientific rigor to questions about hiring effectiveness, employee retention and growth, and the impact of people-related investments. It combines organizational science, behavioral research, and people strategy to develop frameworks and systematic research that inform decisions as the company scales. The position studies a diverse workforce spanning a high-growth technology company, distributed manufacturing operations, and international data center field teams. The scientist will design and conduct rigorous research, evaluate people programs, support selection and hiring practices, scale employee listening, and communicate findings through clear visualizations and actionable recommendations. The role also partners with the People Science and Workforce Intelligence team to develop self-service analytics and products for HR business partners and People team members.

Requirements

Master's or PhD in I/O Psychology, Organizational Behavior, Behavioral Science, or a related research field.
Intellectual humility that balances rigor with pragmatism.
Experience with applied experimental design, hypothesis testing, longitudinal methods, and causal inference.
Experience with survey design, psychometric methods, and employee listening programs.
Ability to work with structured and unstructured data using SQL, Python, or R.
Experience in statistical analysis.
Comfort working with cross-functional partners across a wide range of business functions.
Excellent communication skills and ability to influence stakeholders at every level using data visualization and storytelling.
Willingness to challenge assumptions with data and change established practices through objective analysis.
Enjoyment of teaching and learning from others.

Nice To Haves

At least 5 years in research, analytics, or related quantitative work, with demonstrated depth in research methods.
Background in people analytics.
Selection and assessment experience, including validation studies, adverse impact analysis, and familiarity with the Uniform Guidelines and SIOP Principles.
Experience evaluating HR or L&D programs with quasi-experimental designs.
Deep knowledge of manager effectiveness research and organizational science.
Experience studying frontline, field, skilled-trades, or operations workforces.
Experience at a high-growth technology, AI/ML, energy, or infrastructure company.
Familiarity with network analysis, NLP for open-text feedback, or advanced statistical methods.
Experience with BigQuery, Snowflake, or similar tools.
Experience with Workday, Rippling, Ashby, Lattice, or TeamOhana.

Responsibilities

Form and test hypotheses about people programs, employee behavior, and workforce outcomes using experimental and quasi-experimental methods.
Run longitudinal studies to understand the factors that contribute to long-term success, engagement, and retention.
Synthesize external research and industry evidence about people interventions to identify best practices and gaps.
Partner cross-functionally to design and conduct systematic studies of employee experience, manager effectiveness, and organizational health across corporate, engineering, and field teams.
Apply sound research ethics and data privacy practices to employee research.
Build evaluation plans into people programs, including onboarding, manager development, learning, recognition, retention, and compensation programs.
Estimate program impact using quasi-experimental methods such as staged rollouts, difference-in-differences, matching, and regression discontinuity.
Define success measures and leading indicators that connect people programs to business outcomes, including time to productivity, retention of critical talent, and site readiness.
Recommend which programs or practices to scale, change, or stop.
Partner with Talent Acquisition to design and validate structured interviews.
Conduct validation studies linking hiring signals to job performance and retention.
Monitor adverse impact and fairness across hiring stages and advise on legally defensible, job-related selection practices.
Evaluate AI-assisted hiring tools for validity, fairness, and candidate experience before and after rollout.
Serve as a point of contact for assessment vendor relationships when additional support is needed for scale or speed.
Help scale employee listening, including engagement, pulse, and lifecycle surveys.
Use psychometric methods to validate survey instruments and assess measurement reliability across job families and locations.
Address response and sampling challenges when reaching frontline and field employees in a distributed workforce.
Translate findings into recommendations and actions that leaders can own.
Build clear visualizations that make complex findings understandable to different audiences.
Present findings and actionable recommendations to executive leadership.
Partner with the People Science and Workforce Intelligence team to build self-service analytics and products for HR business partners and the People team.