Qualitative Research Specialist; ASL​/Deaf Community Research

Qualitative Research Specialist (ASL/Deaf Community Research)

Job Category: Engineering

Requisition Number: QUALI
010001

• Posted :
  August 17, 2026
• Full-Time
• Remote
• Salary Range : $83,100 USD to $138,500 USD

Showing 1 location

Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Job Summary

As a Qualitative Research Specialist focused on Deaf Community Research, you will lead high-trust, ASL-first qualitative research for AI-powered sign language products. This role sits within the Insights function and helps the company deeply understand Deaf users, communication access needs, cultural context, product expectations, and trust signals across real-world experiences. This role is not just about running interviews or usability studies.

It is about building respectful, rigorous, and culturally fluent research practices with Deaf communities - especially in areas where video-based research, ASL communication, privacy, consent, and participant trust matter deeply.

Your work will help shape how the company defines effective communication, trusted interpretation experiences, accessibility quality, and meaningful AI-assisted communication outcomes in practice. While the role is centered on Deaf community research, it also incorporates learning from communication stakeholders across the full interaction system, including interpreters, hearing participants, accessibility leaders, customer decision-makers, and organizational stakeholders involved in real-world communication interactions.

This role increases the depth and velocity of user, customer, and ecosystem understanding while ensuring Deaf community input is not treated as performative feedback, but as a structured and meaningful part of how product and model decisions are made.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead high-signal qualitative discovery and evaluative research with Deaf users and broader communication stakeholders, including interpreters, hearing participants, accessibility leaders, prospective customers, and organizational decision-makers as needed.
• Partner with fellow researchers, linguists and sign language data analysts to evolve shared research language, participant-validated survey instruments, and systems that connect qualitative insight to measurement and long-term learning.
• Design and moderate ASL-first qualitative research that is culturally fluent and reflects Deaf user experience, language access, communication context, and community expectations.
• Evolve nvideo-based research protocols by improving practices for consent, privacy, storage, retention, accessibility, participant rights, and ethical handling of recordings.
• Ensure research methods and materials are culturally and linguistically accessible, accurately interpreted, and aligned with participants' understanding and research goals.
• Own qualitative components of longitudinal tracking, including diary studies, qualitative CSAT drivers, and participant narratives over time.
• Partner with the fellow researcher on connecting qualitative insights to survey design, behavioral signals, reporting, and longer-term equivalency goals.
• Help maintain a healthy ASL user panel in partnership with Research Operations, including shaping recruitment inputs, engagement practices, session standards, communication norms, reciprocity, and overall participant experience quality.
• Interface with interpreter and expert communities as needed, including setting guidelines for when ASL-direct sessions are appropriate and when interpreters, CDIs, or expert reviewers are required.
• Synthesize research into clear, actionable insights that help teams understand what matters now, what can wait, and what requires further validation.
• Maintain research practices that are respectful, transparent, accessible, and meaningful to participants.
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibility

This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

Travel Requirements

Travel Requirements:
Less than 25%

Education

Bachelor's preferred in Psychology degree, Anthropology, Journalism, or other research-heavy fields.

Focus:
Pure Qualitative Research (literature, methodologies, human interactions)

Experience

6 years Qualitative research experience, including in product and technology environments, and ideally in one or more of accessibility, language, healthcare, education, or community-centered contexts.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Bilingual in English and ASL with proven ability to moderate research with Deaf participants.
• Curiosity and enthusiasm for learning about AI, language…