Behavioural Scientist, Habit Lab_TT

We are looking for a mid-senior Behavioural Scientist to build a Habit Lab from scratch for an early-stage, venture-backed mobile app. The app is creating a new category between social video and gaming: a TikTok-style endless scroll of user-generated mini-games. You will apply neuroscience and behavioural science to design the engagement loops that drive D30 retention and daily sessions. You will work directly with the founders and engineers and own this function from day one.

Logistics

• Location: London (hybrid), or remote from the EU or the US East Coast. Candidates in Ireland must be within 6 hours of London time.
• Employment: Full-time, in-house. No consultancy, agency or B2B setups.
• Seniority: Mid-Senior

What you will do

• Design and test engagement loops and habit mechanics that measurably improve D30 retention and daily sessions
• Run user studies, interviews and playtests, and analyse behavioural data to inform live experiments
• Translate neuroscience and behavioural science into clear, testable product experiments for founders and engineers
• Set up the research methods, processes and experimentation culture of a new lab

Requirements

• Proven experience designing an engagement loop or habit in a live consumer app or game that measurably moved retention or open frequency
• Hands-on experience with user studies, interviews, playtests and behavioural data analysis feeding live experiments
• PhD or equivalent depth of experience in neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science or behavioural science
• Several years in-house at a games studio, social app or daily-use consumer app
• Highly experimental mindset; comfortable in a small, entrepreneurial team

Nice to have

• Experience on a social or creator platform
• Lab or biometric methods (eye tracking, skin response, EEG)
• Experience hiring or leading a small research team
• Talks or publications on game or app psychology

Interview process

1. CV screen
2. Founder call (30 min): your story, experience, salary expectations and notice period
3. Deep dive (60 min): your last two roles in detail, including the loops you designed, how you analysed them, what changed and what didn't work
4. Final round with all the founders: a take-home presentation covering the product's current human drives, a proposed study and three loop ideas to test