Hybrid Research Scientist (Psychology) bei Slingshot AI

Slingshot AI

Our mission is to use AI to make mental healthcare more accessible and to help people change their lives in the ways they want. We partner with organizations around the globe and power use cases, including AI-assisted crisis text response and AI counseling, while securing best-in-class datasets to power our models.

We're building a powerful team by empowering individuals with the autonomy, flexibility, and resources to do their best work. We dream big and iterate fast. If that sounds like home, we'd love to hear from you. The team comprises of Machine Learning and Product Engineers training task-specific generative models for psychology, working closely with clinicians for advisory.

Success to us means every human being in need of support having somewhere to go. We're a well-funded Series A startup, backed by Andreessen Horowitz bio fund and top-tier tech investors involved in ElevenLabs, Captions, Shopify, Plaid, Notion, Canva, Twitch, Airtable, and many others.

The role

This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of psychologically intelligent AI. We’re looking for a Research Scientist with deep training in psychology and strong technical fluency, someone who’s excited to sit at the intersection of science and product.

You’ll join a team that’s evaluating and improving our model’s ability to reason, respond, and support users in psychologically meaningful ways. This is not a traditional academic or clinical role. Instead, you’ll be using your training in psychology to help us understand and improve model behavior; spotting risks, refining interventions, enhancing engagement, and defining what “good” looks like in AI-driven therapy.

You’ll split your time between research and applied product work, running studies, analyzing model behavior, collaborating with product and ML, and developing scalable processes for aligning model responses with real human needs.

About you:

• Advanced degree, PhD preferred, in Psychology or a related field, with a strong record of academic writing and publishing. You’re highly analytical, with experience running studies, evaluating interventions, and using statistical methods.

• Deeply technical, comfortable working with SQL and Python and interpreting machine learning concepts like recall/precision. Familiarity with LLMs or NLP models is a plus, e.g. a deep understanding of concepts like vector-based similarity

• Product-curious and user-focused, you care about how real people interact with AI systems and are motivated to improve those experiences.

• Clinical background or training is a plus (though this is not a traditional clinical role.)

• Comfortable moving fast, owning projects, and iterating quickly in an early-stage environment.

Key responsibilities:

• Design and run studies that evaluate model behavior, including alliance-building, safety, and efficacy of interventions.

• Analyze outputs and user interactions to identify strengths, gaps, and risks in model behavior.

• Collaborate with product and machine learning teams to develop processes that guide, monitor, and improve model outputs over time.

• Contribute to external communications through white papers, internal documentation, or publication when appropriate.

• Work with academic partners to drive ground-breaking research.

What we offer:

• A chance to join a passionate tight-knit team working on something to change the world

• Competitive compensation (we target 90th percentile)

• Travel between our NYC / London offices

• Usual startup perks like free lunch in our offices + generous learning budget

• Generous budget to cover your personal therapy