Senior Occupational Psychologist, Product and Skills Science | Remote (UK)

At Spotted Zebra, we're building something we genuinely believe in: an AI-native end-to-end hiring platform that helps the world's leading organisations find the right people, faster and fairer than ever before. In short, we're making hiring something everyone loves again - both talent teams and candidates alike.

We're a multi-award-winning Series A company giving talent leaders the solution they've always needed. Skills science native. AI-amplified. Built by people who've lived and breathed TA and knew there had to be a better way.

Spotted Zebra runs enterprise hiring end to end on one platform. It defines what great looks like for every role, then assesses, interviews and shortlists every candidate with AI. Every applicant gets a fair hearing, and candidates and hiring managers can put their time where success is most likely. One agent and assistant, Spot, works across every step, from booking interviews automatically to supporting confident, defensible decisions. Built on skills science and AI governance, it works the way talent teams need it to, with humans always in control.

The result is talent teams get the insight to predict who will succeed, the speed to move before competitors, the governance to defend every hiring decision, and the capacity to focus on the human moments that matter most.

But our product is only part of the story. We're also building an AI-native company. AI is changing how we build, sell, support customers and make decisions, helping us move faster, stay closer to customers and give talented people more leverage in their roles. Joining Spotted Zebra is a chance to shape what the future of work looks like inside a scaling company: compact, ambitious teams using AI to collaborate better, make decisions quickly, and deliver meaningful impact at speed.

The FTSE100 and Fortune500 companies trusting us include British Airways, NIQ, Domino's, Lidl, Merlin Entertainments, AWE, United Utilities, and Paramount. We've been named Personnel Today's Talent Acquisition Supplier of the Year, secured gold across multiple industry awards, and were recently named on the UK Top 100 Startups List.

But what we’re most proud of is the team. People join Spotted Zebra because the mission is real, the product is genuinely exciting, and the opportunity to shape the future of hiring is huge. What makes it special is the way we work: smart, committed people in compact teams where trust is high, decisions happen quickly, and everyone has the chance to make a visible impact. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to do your best work - read on.

Our Dazzle (that's our team!) 🦓

Fun fact: A group of zebras is called a dazzle – and ours truly is dazzling!

We create a culture in which our team thrives and gallops ahead.

As we roam free and empower our dazzle, we gallop ahead on the journey to achieving our goals. We understand this journey will pose challenges along the way, yet we brighten the trail with our positive mindset and encouragement of others. The dazzle continuously moves, gaining knowledge and skills so that we can graze new grounds.

What you'll be doing 

As our Senior Occupational Psychologist (Product & Skills Science), you'll help define what assessment looks like in an AI-native world. AI is changing how candidates are assessed, from conversational AI interviews to scoring that learns from real hiring outcomes. You'll be the scientific expert making sure that shift is built on sound occupational psychology. This is a senior individual contributor role for a deep specialist who wants to turn skills science into products that change how the world hires.

You'll work directly with our Co-Founder, Nick Shaw, to set the scientific direction for our assessments. You'll define the principles behind them and work with our Data Science team to turn them into scalable, data-driven products. You'll champion rigorous, evidence-led approaches so our assessments are fair, predictive and effective at launch, and so they keep improving as they learn from more data.

You'll join a fast-moving, AI-native company that's rethinking assessment from first principles. Success in this role means combining scientific rigour with curiosity, pragmatism and a bias for action, and building new forms of assessment that stand up to scrutiny and deliver results in the real world.

Key responsibilities:

• Shape the scientific foundations of a new generation of assessments, owning the skills science principles that determine what we measure and how we uncover the signals that matter
• Pioneer new approaches to AI-powered assessment, from conversational interviews to adaptive formats, turning promising ideas into practical pilots and testing what works
• Set the standard for intelligent scoring, defining strong and weak performance and creating golden examples and benchmarks to evaluate both candidates and our AI
• Partner with our Data Science team to design evaluations that connect technical performance with sound psychological judgement, helping turn scientific principles into effective AI scoring
• Build the evidence behind assessment innovation, leading ongoing validation to demonstrate reliability, fairness and predictive power as our products evolve
• Make the science behind our products clear and credible through rigorous technical reports and manuals that give our teams and clients confidence in the results
• Turn assessment data into product breakthroughs, using statistical analysis to uncover insights and translate them into better assessment design and scoring
• Bring our science to life with clients, supporting validation and research alongside colleagues across the business to show how our assessments perform in the real world

Requirements

Must-haves ✅

• A background in occupational or organisational psychology, with deep expertise in psychometrics and assessment design
• Hands-on experience developing assessments such as situational judgement tests, personality measures or ability tests, ideally in an R&D environment
• Proven validation experience: producing technical manuals or detailed validation reports that show an assessment’s reliability, fairness and predictive validity
• Strong statistical and analytical skills, with experience using SPSS or similar statistical packages
• Experience defining performance standards and building scoring frameworks or benchmarks
• Startup or scale-up experience, and comfort with pace, ambiguity and changing priorities
• An open-minded, solution-focused approach to AI in assessment: you look for ways to make new approaches work rather than reasons they can’t

Nice-to-haves 🌟

• Experience with AI-enabled assessment, such as AI-scored interviews, automated scoring or other AI-driven assessment methods
• Experience using Python or AI coding tools for analysis and validation work
• Experience designing in-person assessment centres or exercises
• Experience writing technical manuals or documenting assessments
• Experience working closely with data scientists, engineers or product teams
• Familiarity with evaluation methods for AI or machine learning systems
• Chartered status with the BPS and/or HCPC registration as an Occupational Psychologist

Benefits

🤝 Meaningful share options
🏥 Health insurance
💰 Enhanced pension
🍼 Nursery salary sacrifice scheme
🏖️ 25 days holiday (excluding bank holidays)
🏠 Remote-first
💻 Work from home budget
🧠 L&D budget
🦷 Dental cover
👀 Eye-care support
🏢 Co-working space budget
🧘 Wellbeing allowance
✈️ Travel insurance
🚗 Electric car scheme

Beyond our core benefits, you'll get access to the latest AI-powered tools and technologies, giving you everything you need to do your best work.

Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion 

At Spotted Zebra, we welcome people of all stripes. We are committed to providing equal opportunities and an inclusive and diverse culture.

We believe that each and every one of us possesses an extraordinary set of skills and abilities, waiting to be discovered, nurtured, and harnessed for the benefit of all.

We are a team. And no matter your race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, civil or family status, age, or disability, we will empower you to unleash your superpower to help us create a world where everyone is able to utilise their unique blend of skills and abilities to contribute to the greater good.

Everyone is unique and we encourage you to let us know in your application, or share with your recruiter directly, if there is anything we can do to make your interview experience with us more comfortable and positive.

At Spotted Zebra, everyone is welcome. So even if you don't meet all the requirements, we would still love to hear from you. We are always keen to speak with people who are passionate about our mission.

Ready to gallop ahead with us? We're a team that moves fast, thinks big, and isn't afraid to challenge how things have always been done. If you're excited about using AI and skills science to transform how the world hires, apply now and a member of our dazzle will be in touch! 🦓