At Cogstate, we’re advancing the science of brain health - making it faster, easier, and more accurate to assess cognition across clinical trials, healthcare settings, and everyday life.
Our digital cognitive assessments are trusted by researchers, clinicians, and pharmaceutical partners around the world, helping to drive breakthroughs in neuroscience and improve outcomes for people living with neurological conditions. Founded on decades of cognitive science and backed by rigorous validation, Cogstate’s assessments are used in more than 150 countries and over 2,000 clinical trials.
Our global team of experts - spanning psychology, data science, operations, and technology - works together to solve complex challenges in brain health assessment, always with a patient-first mindset. Whether we’re supporting a multinational Alzheimer’s trial or developing tools to bring cognitive testing into routine care, our work is meaningful, collaborative, and constantly evolving.
At Cogstate, we’re not just imagining the future of brain health - we’re building it.
That’s why we’re seeking a Principal Scientist who plays a pivotal role in advancing clinical trials focused on populations included in Cogstate's agile team framework. The Principal Scientist directs, plans, innovates, and oversees the development and delivery of products and services at the Business Unit Level.
This individual provides scientific leadership in the development, execution, and oversight of clinical services and products designed to enhance the quality and reliability of clinical assessments. Their expertise supports the successful implementation of standardized outcome measures, ensuring robust and scientifically sound data collection in these highly specialized therapeutic areas.
Key Responsibilities
- Oversee the delivery of specific scientific project services.
- Contribute to the definition of study specific delivery plans and processes.
- Provide directions to internal study team staff with respect to feasibility, process, timing of delivery of services.
- Be accountable for study scientific decisions, and for ensuring clarity of internal and external project communications.
- Ensure accurate tracking of time spent on studies.
- Work collaboratively with the Head of Project Management to develop tracking and control mechanisms to ensure profitable delivery of rater training services.
- Contribute to staff development and management of the Rater Training Group: training, definition of goals, and performance assessments.
- Contribute to the definition of central, standard and efficient delivery processes.
- development of pragmatic quality control procedures that ensure the quality of delivery of services.
- Contribute to the development of SOPs and Guidelines. Answering internal staff and sponsor questions.
- Evaluate proposed raters against rater experience criteria
- Conduct live rater training sessions
- Conduct rater remediation training sessions
- Collect psychometric and interview data for non-interventional studies
- Interact with sponsors to resolve scientific queries and participate in study planning.
- Conduct standardized clinical outcome assessments remotely or in a centralized setting for pediatric and rare disease clinical trials.
- Ensure adherence to study protocols, assessment guidelines, and regulatory requirements while administering measures.
- Maintain inter-rater reliability and scoring accuracy through rigorous training and periodic calibration.
- Review and evaluate completed assessments from site-based raters for accuracy, consistency, and adherence to study protocols.
- Identify and address scoring discrepancies, potential data quality issues, and protocol deviations.
- Create business requirements documents and provide overview of DBCM and RPCM dashboards with sponsors.
- Support the development of new products and services.
- Support cognition research.
- Support collection and analysis of data related to rater performance for improving services.
- Design and interpret metrics for tracking product or service delivery performance.
- Supporting sales.
- Drive publications and presentations at conferences of results of scientific and operational data from clinical trials and other studies.
Requirements
- PhD or PsyD degree preferably in clinical psychology, neuropsychology, behavioral science, or a related area.
- Experience with data analysis, statistics, and scientific writing.
- Experience with Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease.
- Experience with cognition and/or neuropsychological testing.
Skills, Knowledge and Specialist Expertise
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Proven ability to successfully manage a full workload across multiple-projects with limited support.
- Excellent problem solving/decision making skills.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment.
- Exceptional time and resource management.
What’s In It For You
- Remote Work Practices: Cogstate is a virtual first company. Cogstate employees can work from anywhere where Cogstate is registered to business within the United States, Australia, or the United Kingdom!
- Generous Paid Time-off: Cogstate employees receive 20 days of vacation leave, 10 days of personal leave and 10 paid public holidays.
- 401(k) Matching: As you invest in yourself and your future, Cogstate invests in you too: we match up to3% of your yearly salary in Cogstate’s 401k program.
- Competitive Salary: We offer competitive base salaries plus additional earning opportunities based on the position.
- Health, Dental & Vision Coverage: We've invested in comprehensive health & dental insurance options with competitive company contributions to help when you need it most. We also offer free vision insurance for all full-time employees.
- Short-Term & Long Term Disability Life Insurance: 100% employer sponsored
- Pre-Tax Benefits: Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
- Learning & Development Opportunities: Cogstate offers a robust learning program from mentorships to assistance with programs to improve knowledge or obtain certifications in applicable areas of interest.
Our Culture
We bring our whole selves to work every day. We’re courageous and we deliver together. We’re passionate individuals who enjoy working together. We’re brave enough and care enough to have the right conversations to get the best outcome and are famous for our can-do attitude. We see challenges as opportunities and move with pace to achieve our goals.
If you’re ready to help us in our journey to optimize the measurement of brain health around the world, please apply now!
Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act and certain state or local laws. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are normally done which will ensure an equal employment opportunity without imposing undue hardship on the company. If you need assistance in applying please email [email protected].
Privacy Notice for Job Applicants
Cogstate is committed to protecting your personal data. We collect and process your information for recruitment purposes in compliance with applicable laws, including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA), Colorado Privacy Act (CPA), and similar laws in other jurisdictions.
For more information on how we collect, use, and protect your data, and your rights under these laws, you can find Cogstate's privacy policy by clicking here.
Top Skills
What We Do
The brain is central to every aspect of our lives, yet it isn’t monitored with the same consistency and proactivity as other vital signs. As a neuroscience technology company, we believe that better brain health insights lead to better brain health outcomes. That's why we're on a mission to democratize cognitive health by radically simplifying the way it is measured. For more than 20 years, we’ve proudly supported the research needs of biopharmaceutical companies and academic institutions, and the clinical care needs of physicians and individuals around the world. We create easy to use digital tests that provide rapid, reliable, and science-backed results and offer solutions that support the highest fidelity measurements possible. We believe our team members should have flexibility as to how, when, and where they work. We work flexibly to support our global team, who mostly work from home––and offer opportunities for face-to-face collaboration at our offices in New Haven, Melbourne, and London. Our team members also have access to co-working spaces around the world.
