Survey Research Lead (PhD)

About VRTO

VRTO (Virtual Rent To Own) is the national rent-to-own store directory and consumer guide.

We maintain a nationwide directory of more than 5,500 rent to own store locations, along with plain-English buying guides and original market data. This role works directly on that.

The role

VRTO Research runs original consumer studies: real surveys of US consumers about what they buy, how they pay, and how they decide. We recently fielded a 2,000-person holiday shopping study in a weekend, had it independently audited, and published it with the aggregate data attached. We publish studies like this monthly and want a credentialed researcher owning the methodology. You design the instrument and sampling plan, catch problems before fielding, verify data integrity after, and sign the methodology under your own name. Roughly 8 to 15 hours per month, fully remote, long-term if it works.

What you will do

• Design instruments and sampling plans for consumer surveys fielded on the Prolific panel, including when census-matched sampling is worth it.
• Review questionnaires for wording, order effects, and denominator traps before fielding.
• Verify data integrity after fielding: deduplication, branch logic, completion-time screens, multi-select denominators, disclosure review.
• Write the methodology and limitations sections at a level a journalist or academic reviewer would accept.
• Sign each published study as the named reviewing methodologist.

What we are looking for

• PhD in a quantitative social science, statistics, survey methodology, marketing research, or a related field (ABD considered with published survey research).
• Hands-on experience designing and analyzing surveys on research panels (Prolific, MTurk, Qualtrics, or national panels).
• Fluency in what a nonprobability panel can and cannot claim, and limitations language that survives scrutiny.
• Willingness to be publicly named, with your credentials, as the reviewing methodologist on every study you sign off — this is a condition of the role.
• Working with AI agents is the job, not an option: our fielding, analysis, and drafting run through AI systems, and you supply the judgment on top, directing, auditing, and correcting what the AI produces. Just as important: you know when NOT to use AI, and can say where a human judgment, a hand check, or a walk away is the right call.
• Clear plain-language communicator, comfortable async.
• The dream candidate is also a strategic thinker: you connect single studies into a research program, knowing what to study next, what claim each study can carry, and what compounds into authority over time.
• And you understand how research travels through networks: search, press citations, and AI retrieval, so you design studies that get found, cited, and reused.
• Also valued: experience building or leading a research team; this role can grow into leading our research bench as the program scales.
• Sustained availability of 8 to 15 hours per month.

Compensation

$55 to $95 per hour, ongoing.