Senior Research Director - Center AI in Learning and Assessment

About ETS:

ETS is a global education and talent solutions organization enabling lifelong learners worldwide to be future-ready. For more than 75 years, we've been advancing the science of measurement to build benchmarks for fair and valid skill assessment across cultures and borders. Our worldwide impact extends through our renowned assessments including TOEFL®, TOEIC®, GRE® and Praxis® tests, serving millions of learners in more than 200 countries and territories.

Through strategic acquisitions, we've expanded our global capabilities: PSI strengthens our workforce assessment solutions, while Edusoft, Kira Talent, Pipplet, Vericant, and Wheebox enhance our educational technology and assessment platforms across critical markets worldwide.

Through ETS Research Institute and ETS Solutions, we're partnering with educational institutions, governments, and organizations globally to promote skill proficiency, empower upward mobility, and unlock opportunities for everyone, everywhere. With offices and partners across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas, we deliver nearly 50 million tests annually. Join us in our journey of measuring progress to power human progress worldwide.

The Senior Director of the Center for Responsible AI in Learning and Assessment serves as the intellectual and administrative leader for ETS’s applied research and innovation agenda in artificial intelligence. This position leads the development, prioritization, and execution of a multi-year research portfolio focused on AI-enabled assessment, learning technologies, AI literacy, personalization, responsible AI, and large-scale model evaluation. This role provides strategic direction, scientific leadership, and people leadership across an integrated program of research and consulting.

This position is designed for a distinguished AI researcher who can shape the future of assessment by advancing and applying state-of-the-art approaches in artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, and/or generative AI to high-stakes educational and workforce measurement. The Senior Research Director will lead research agendas that improve validity, fairness, reliability, security, interpretability, and impact of AI-enabled assessments—at scale.

The incumbent directs and administers fiscal, operational, personnel, and policy implementation activities for the research center while conducting an independent program of high-impact research and scholarly dissemination.

1) Strategic Scientific Leadership and vision for AI

• Define and lead a multi-year research agenda at the intersection of AI and measurement, including:

• automated scoring and evaluation (writing, speaking, constructed response, performance tasks)

• LLM-enabled assessment design and delivery (e.g., generative task creation, adaptive interactions)

• NLP and multimodal modeling for language and skills measurement

• psychometric modeling integrated with ML (hybrid models, fairness-aware measurement, Bayesian/IRT + deep learning)

• model evaluation frameworks aligned to validity arguments and operational constraints

• responsible AI for high-stakes testing (bias, transparency, privacy, security, governance)

• Identify emerging opportunities in AI

• Serve as a scientific thought leader for ETS on AI-enabled assessment innovation, identifying emerging techniques, risks, and opportunities.

• Lead the design and implementation of complex AI focused research programs requiring coordination of tasks, timelines, data resources, and staff across multiple projects.

• Provide hands-on scientific direction and consultation on research protypes, models and analytic tools, methodology, and evaluation strategies.

• Monitor research progress, ensure methodological rigor, and guide teams to high-quality deliverables that meet rigorous standards for fairness, reliability, and transparency.

• Consult on proposal development, identify potential funding agencies, and coordinate responses to RFPs.

• Develop strong partnerships with universities, research labs, policy bodies, foundations, and other…