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Updated: June 2026
Contract Research Assistant - PlayStation Studios User Research
PlayStation Studios is looking for a Contract Research Assistant to support its internal user research department in [London (UK) / San Mateo, CA]. This is an exceptional opportunity to help our teams create worldclass games by supporting researchers in delivering reliable, actionable feedback on game experiences through rigorous research with consumers.
This role forms part of a Research Residency Program that can extend up to three years for those who choose to remain in the program. Responsibilities may develop over time: initially, the focus is on building core skills across lab support, participant facing activities, moderation support, notetaking and data handling. As Research Assistants gain experience, they may take on increased independence and support the development of newer team members. Also, contribute to more specialised project or method-based activities under researcher supervision.
The role is onsite, and the successful candidate will need to be able to travel to our [Central London / San Mateo] office when testing is taking place.
Role & Responsibilities
Core responsibilities across the residency:
- Support study preparation, including survey building/testing, study material review, pilots, project setup, participant visitor lists, NDAs, eligibility checks, and visitor access arrangements.
- Prepare and reset the lab for studies, including PCs, devkits, firmware and builds, survey/player comment/eye tracking/controller viewer stations, telemetry, streams, research software, teardown, and cleanup.
- Support participant intake and study flow.
- Provide participant support during sessions, including answering process questions, assisting with equipment and controls, and helping participants work around known issues or bugs using approved procedures.
- Monitor security and confidentiality.
- Troubleshoot routine technical issues and escalate more significant lab or build issues.
- Observe sessions and capture evidence, including completion tracking, survey completion, player behaviour, usability issues, confusion points, timestamps, quotes, gameplay events and interview/debrief notes.
- Support reporting and analysis by cleaning and organising data, collecting screenshots, timestamps and quotes, assisting with analysis, contributing to report content and formatting and conducting basic competitor/background research when required.
Skills & Knowledge
The successful candidate should demonstrate:
- A passionate interest in video games and the player experience.
- Good organisation skills and the ability to prioritise effectively in a fast paced, onsite research environment.
- Excellent attention to detail and a strong commitment to quality, especially across study logistics, participant flow, evidence capture, survey checks and data organisation.
- Reliability, professionalism, and a strong understanding of confidentiality and secure research practices.
- Clear communication and interpersonal skills when supporting participants, researchers, developers, stakeholders, IT and technical operations teams.
- A willingness to learn, take feedback, develop independence over time and support newer Research Assistants as the residency progresses.
- Comfort working with research tools, lab hardware, streaming/capture setups, surveys, game builds, devkits and troubleshooting processes.
Desirable but not essential
- Usability or UX testing experience, particularly supporting moderation, interviews, playtests, observation or notetaking.
- Experience with survey tools, research/project tools, or data cleaning and analysis workflows.
- Experience supporting lab based research, games testing, telemetry/capture setups or technical troubleshooting.
- A degree or equivalent experience related to Human Computer Interaction, Psychology, Human Factors, Games User Research, or a related field.
Role boundaries
The RA residency is offered as a 12month fixed term contract, with the intention to renew for additional 12month periods after the first and second years where the Research Assistant wishes to continue and there remains a need for the role. There is no guarantee of a fulltime position at the end of the residency, Research Assistants may however end their contract at any time.
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