Associate Research Scientist, Speech

Educational Testing Service (ETS), with headquarters in Princeton, NJ, is the world’s premier educational measurement institution and a leader in educational research. With more than 3,400 global employees, we develop, administer and score more than 50 million tests annually in more than 180 countries at more than 9,000 locations worldwide. We design our assessments with industry-leading insight, rigorous research and an uncompromising commitment to quality so that we can help education and workplace communities make informed decisions.

ETS's Research & Development division has an opening for an associate research scientist in the Speech area of the NLP & Speech research center. The projects in this research group focus on the application of NLP, speech, dialogue, and multimodal processing algorithms in automated scoring capabilities for assessment and learning tasks involving constructed responses (such as essays and spoken responses). In addition to its signature automated scoring systems for text and speech assessments, the group is actively pursuing technology innovation in education and learning spaces by performing foundational research, prototyping next-generation capabilities, and collaborating with academic and industry partners. The NLP & Speech research group currently comprises around 20 PhD-level research scientists, 10 research engineers, and 10 research assistants and administrative staff.

This is an excellent opportunity to be part of a world-renowned research and development team and have a significant impact on existing and next-generation NLP, speech, dialogue, and multimodal systems and their use in educational applications.

Responsibilities:

• Conceptualizing, proposing, obtaining funding for, and directing small projects in the area speech processing for educational applications and assisting in moderate-to-major research projects. 
• Assist in generating or contributing to new knowledge or capabilities in the field of speech processing and in applying that new knowledge and capabilities to existing and/or new ETS products and services.  Some speech processing research areas that are relevant to ETS R&D include (but are not limited to) automatic speech recognition for non-native speakers of English, voice biometrics, computer-assisted pronunciation training, and automated speech scoring.
• Participate in setting substantive research and development goals and priorities for a group or initiative within a vice presidential area.
• Develop proposals and budgets for small projects and/or assist in development for moderate-to-major ones.

Requires:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Electrical Engineering, Natural Language Processing, Linguistics, or a similar area with major education in speech processing.
• At least one year of independent substantive research experience in speech processing is required. Experience can be gained through doctoral studies.
• Practical expertise with speech processing tools (e.g., kaldi), experience with machine learning toolkits (e.g., Weka, scikit-learn), and fluency in at least one major programming language (e.g. Java, Python).
• Practical experience with deep learning paradigms and toolkits (e.g., TensorFlow, pytorch, Keras) is highly desirable.
• Documented contributions to research communities and a strong publication record and experience I system building and prototyping are preferred.

 We offer a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits, possible relocation assistance and excellent opportunities for professional and personal growth. For a full list of position responsibilities and to apply please visit the following link: Associate Research Scientist, Speech

EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer of Women and Minorities.

EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer of protected Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities.

EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE is a Drug-free workplace.