Applied Data Researcher

Figma is growing its team of creatives and builders on a mission to make design accessible to all.

As an Applied Data Researcher, you will work on building the system of record for digital product development, tackling new problems in AI products, understanding how people use them, and evaluating their usefulness.

Responsibilities:

• Identify and vet opportunities across Data products and tools, AI measurement and evaluation, and applied data capabilities
• Lead investigations into critical questions and build useful Data products, tools, and prototypes
• Develop and validate methods for evaluating generative AI and agentic workflows
• Write code and build LLM-powered tools, agentic workflows, models, prototypes, and demos
• Provide technical direction and oversight for larger projects and mentor scientists and engineers
• Drive delivery and turn prototypes into maintained systems, balancing quality, latency, cost, reliability, and iteration speed
• Establish reusable methods, tools, and technical standards
• Communicate findings, recommendations, limitations, and tradeoffs to partners and C-level executives

Requirements:

• Deep expertise in machine learning, statistics, causal inference, or a related quantitative field
• Hands-on experience in generative AI evaluation and measurement
• Fluent programming skills in Python or a comparable language, plus SQL
• Proactive builder mindset and end-to-end ownership
• Sustained record of company-, organization-, or cross-pillar scientific impact
• Strong judgment, independence, and collaborative communication

Nice to Have:

• Experience with human labeling, automated judge validation, conversational data, or multimodal AI and machine learning
• Experience building interactive applications, lightweight interfaces, APIs, or reusable open-source tools
• Cloud and data infrastructure experience
• MS or PhD in machine learning, computer science, statistics, or a similar quantitative discipline

Benefits:

• Competitive package of additional benefits, including health, dental, and vision coverage
• Retirement benefits with company contributions
• Parental leave and reproductive or family planning support
• Mental health and wellness benefits
• Paid time off
• Company recharge days, cell phone and home internet reimbursements, and lifestyle spending accounts

Salary: $235,000-$376,000 USD per year