Science writer Jobs in Fort Wayne, IN

Mercor is partnering with a leading AI research organisation to engage experienced professionals in survey research, market research, consumer insights, and behavioural science for a project focused on evaluating and improving sophisticated survey-based research. We are looking for individuals who have **professionally designed, fielded, managed, or evaluated surveys** and understand what separates a rigorous, decision-useful survey from one that produces noisy, biased, or misleading results. This opportunity is intentionally open to professionals from a range of research backgrounds. Candidates do **not** need to be academic survey methodologists; strong practitioners from market research agencies, consumer insights teams, behavioural science organisations, polling/research firms, or in-house research functions are highly encouraged to apply. ## What You’ll Do - Review and evaluate surveys for methodological quality, clarity, and fitness for purpose. - Assess survey questions for issues such as **leading language, ambiguity, double-barreled questions, response-option problems, ordering effects, and respondent burden**. - Evaluate screeners, eligibility criteria, survey flows, skip/display logic, scales, and questionnaire structure. - Identify potential sources of **sampling, measurement, response, and selection bias**. - Assess whether surveys are likely to generate reliable and interpretable data from the intended respondent population. - Review approaches to survey fielding, respondent recruitment, quotas, sample composition, and data-quality controls. - Apply practical research judgment to ambiguous survey-design problems where there may not be a single objectively correct answer. - Provide clear, structured rationales explaining methodological issues and recommended improvements. - Help evaluate AI-generated survey content and research reasoning against professional research standards. ## What We’re Looking For We are open to candidates from several backgrounds, including: - **Market Research / Consumer Insights:** Professionals who have designed and fielded quantitative surveys at market research firms, insights consultancies, research agencies, or internal consumer/customer insights teams. - **Survey Methodology:** Survey researchers or methodologists with deep expertise in questionnaire design, sampling, measurement, fieldwork, or survey statistics. - **Behavioural Science: Researchers who have used surveys, experiments, or structured questionnaires as a meaningful part of applied behaviou**ral research. - **UX / Customer Research:** Quantitative or mixed-methods researchers with substantial hands-on survey design and fielding experience. - **Polling / Social Research:** Professionals experienced in public opinion, political, social, policy, or population-based survey research. ## Ideal Qualifications - 3+ years of professional experience in **survey research, market research, consumer insights, behavioural science, UX research, or a closely related field**. - Meaningful hands-on experience **designing and/or fielding surveys professionally**. - Strong understanding of questionnaire design and common sources of survey error and bias. - Experience working with respondent panels, sampling strategies, screeners, quotas, or survey fieldwork is highly valuable. - Ability to critically evaluate survey methodology rather than execute a predefined questionnaire. - Strong written communication skills and the ability to explain _why_ a survey design decision is methodologically strong or weak. - High attention to detail and comfort making nuanced judgments with incomplete or ambiguous information. - Experience with platforms such as **Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Alchemer, Decipher/Forsta, QuestionPro, or similar research tools** is helpful but not required. ## Particularly Strong Profiles Strong candidates may include **Senior Research Managers, Consumer Insights Managers, Market Research Managers, Survey Researchers, Survey Methodologists, Quantitative Researchers, Behavioural Scientists, Insights Consultants, Research Directors, UX Researchers, or Research Scientists**. Experience at established market research and insights organisations, research-intensive technology or consumer companies, academic survey centres, behavioural science organisations, or polling/social research institutions is especially relevant. ## Why Join - Apply professional research expertise to cutting-edge AI research. - Work on problems that require genuine methodological judgment rather than routine survey administration. - Help improve how advanced AI systems understand **survey design, research methodology, respondent behaviour, and evidence quality**.