Research Assistant

About Nuance Labs

Nuance Labs is building photorealistic, real-time AI avatars with emotional intelligence: a full-duplex audiovisual system that can listen, speak, react, interrupt, and respond like a real person.

We're a research company, with PhDs from MIT, UW, Oxford, CMU, and Johns Hopkins, and industry experience from Apple, Meta, Amazon AGI, and more. The team is small, the work is real, and the problems are unsolved.

How Nuance Differentiates

Most conversational AI avatars today are hacks — a face slapped on a speech-to-speech pipeline, stuck in the uncanny valley: emotionless, mechanical, one-turn-at-a-time. Current systems take 2–5 seconds to respond; natural conversation requires sub-500ms. That's a 10x improvement, and it demands rethinking the entire stack.

That rethinking starts with full-duplex: an AI that listens and speaks simultaneously, perceives emotion in real time, and responds with a face that actually reflects it. It's an extremely hard problem, and we're developing foundation models designed for it from the ground up.

About the Role

We're looking for a part-time Research Assistant to support our research team with day-to-day study operations. We're looking for someone who is detail-oriented and has strong interpersonal skills. The role starts with 1-2 weeks of required on-site training, then transitions to fully remote.

What You'll Do

Moderate sessions for data collection studies

Moderate sessions for UX research studies

Perform annotation and QA on collected data

Handle scheduling and coordination for study sessions

What We're Looking For

Comfortable interacting with a wide range of people; service industry experience is a strong plus

No technical or STEM background required — this is not a technical role

College degree is a nice-to-have, not a requirement

Reliable and comfortable following structured processes

Able to complete required on-site training (1-2 weeks) before transitioning to remote work

Location, Schedule & Pay

Remote after initial on-site training

Currently prioritizing US-based and Seattle candidates

Hours: 10-20 hours per week, increasing with experience

Pay: $20-30/hour, varies by locale