Founding Research Scientist, Human Simulation

Background

Listen is building a human-preference model that companies and AI agents query to predict what people think, want, and decide. We're hiring a founding researcher to lead our simulation initiative, the model that lets AI systems predict what humans would think, want, and decide. Sequoia-backed, $100M raised, customers include Anthropic, Google, and Cursor.

Company Highlights

• Series B with $100M raised from Sequoia, Conviction, Ribbit, AI Grant, and Pear VC
• Selective team of
• Clients include Anthropic, Cursor, Perplexity, Google, Microsoft, Robinhood, Nestlé, P&G, and Sweetgreen
• Post-PMF growth: 20x year-over-year revenue
• Huge market: clear path to $1M+ contracts at over 50% of the Fortune 2000

Research Challenges

• Modeling Humans: What does it take to actually understand a person? Which questions yield the most signal, how do we combine long-form interviews, demographics, and behavior into a useful model, and how do we predict a specific person's response to a question they've never been asked?
• Multi-Agent Dynamics: People don't form opinions in isolation. They influence each other, deliberate, and shift in groups. Can we simulate cohorts of synthetic humans deliberating, reaching consensus, or splitting into camps?
• Generalization and Active Learning: With millions of interviews, how can we learn from patterns across people, contexts, and questions? When the model is uncertain, how do we go back to real humans to update the model?

What We Look For

• A strong research track record. Published work in LLMs, post-training, RLHF, behavioral modeling, simulation, or adjacent fields. Or equivalent industrial impact at a frontier lab.
• Genuinely curious about humans. Want to understand what people actually want, how they decide, and why preferences shift.
• Make research real. Train models, write evals, and collaborate with our research engineers to put the model into production.
• Communicate complex ideas in writing. Share the roadmap and vision for this initiative.

Life at Listen Labs

• Top of market compensation with meaningful equity
• Comprehensive healthcare and dental
• Flexible time off
• A culture that values balance and trust