Lab Manager and Research Specialist

I am hiring a lab manager and research specialist to begin Spring/Summer 2025 (dates flexible) at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. The position is for one year with possibility of renewal. This is an ideal position for someone wrapping up their undergraduate degree and considering graduate studies in the future. I plan to start reviewing applications January 1, 2025, and will continue until the position is filled.

The incoming lab manager/research specialist (aka LAB WIZARD) will help set up lab infrastructure and contribute to research, including:

1. developing research materials and programming experiments
2. collecting human subjects data for behavioral and online studies
3. analyzing behavioral and web scraped data
4. recruiting and managing undergraduate research assistants, and
5. general lab research support (e.g., management of ethics review, equipment purchasing, organizing lab meetings and events, maintaining lab email and digital infrastructures).

The position is an excellent opportunity to gain multidisciplinary research experience. The ideal candidate will be interested in ultimately pursuing graduate study in psychology, cognitive science, computational social science, data science, or a related field. The lab wizard will work closely with me to ‘learn on the job’ how to conduct research, review literature, collect and analyze data, and communicate their results—and hopefully, in the process, discover if they enjoy this kind of work.

SoCoSci Lab Manager Application 2025

To apply for the position, please complete the application below, and send both your CV/resume and answers to these questions to sallyxie[at]princeton.edu. Please send these in the format “Lastname_CV.pdf” and “Lastname_app.pdf” in an email with the subject line, “Lastname Lab Manager Position 2025”.

1. Name:
2. Pronouns:
3. E-mail:
4. Phone #:
5. Current city of residence:
6. Expected graduation (month and year):
7. Undergraduate institution:
8. Undergraduate major(s):
9. Cumulative GPA & Major GPA:
10. Titles of psychology and other relevant courses you have taken (e.g., in statistics, research methods, philosophy, sociology, cognitive science, etc.):
11. Desired start and end dates:
12. How did you hear about the SoCoSci Lab?
13. Why do you want to work in the SoCoSci Lab?
14. What experience do you have with empirical research? On what kind of studies did you work (e.g., mTurk/Prolific, laboratory studies, neuroimaging studies, analysis of big datasets, other)? In what way(s) were you involved in this work (e.g., did you design the study, schedule and run participants, analyze data, program the experiment, etc.)?
15. Please comment on your statistical expertise. What kinds of analyses are you comfortable implementing? What statistical analysis packages do you have experience with (e.g. R, SPSS, etc.)? Do you have any experience with computational modeling?
16. Please comment on your programming and technical expertise. What programming languages have you used (e.g., Matlab, Python, R, HTML/CSS, Javascript, PHP, MySQL)? Do you have any experience with database development/management? Have you worked with machine learning or NLP methods?
17. What are your long-term goals? How will this job help you reach those goals?
18. How long do you plan to stay in this job?
19. What do you envision life as a lab manager to be like? What do you imagine your job to be on a day-to-day basis?
20. Which of the following research topics are you most interested in exploring and why? What is a specific research question within one of these areas that you would like to investigate?
    
    • Social Perception: How do we form impressions of others and ourselves?
    • Stereotypes & Structural Bias: How do stereotypes form, persist, and evolve in individual minds, societies, and cultural products (e.g., media, narratives, AI)?
    • Identity Transformations: How do transformative experiences shape our knowledge and identity?
    • Normative Ideals: How are norms about identities socially policed and internalized?
    • Paradoxes & Play: How do paradoxes, puzzles, and games reveal hidden assumptions and foster cognitive and identity exploration?
21. Name a piece of writing in psychology or a related field (an empirical or theoretical paper) that you have deeply enjoyed. What made it interesting, compelling, inspiring, etc.?
22. (Optional) If you are able to share links to any examples of your technical work (e.g. on GitHub or a personal website) please include them here.
23. (Optional) Our lab aims to include members from a variety of backgrouunds, including people who belong to groups currently underrepresented in the academy (e.g., on the basis of ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, first generation student status, socioeconomic status, and other factors). How would you contribute to the diversity of our lab, and how would you work with a diverse group of labmates and community members?
24. Please provide the contact information for at least two individuals who could be asked for a recommendation and indicate in what capacity you have worked with them, and for how long.