Position Overview:
mpathic is looking for part-time mental health writers and actors, ideally clinicians with strong backgrounds in writing, acting, improvisation, or role-play performance, to join our team. We are also open to writers and actors without clinical degrees or licensure who demonstrate commensurate experience working with vulnerable populations and sensitive content. This role will report to the Human Data Operations Manager (Katie Hawkes).
If you have already applied for a part-time expert role in the past 12 months, you do not need to reapply as we have your application on file.
Also, please note that the content this role will be involved in producing will be utilized expressly for the purposes of AI safety and mental health, and will not be utilized in TV or film. If you have existing TV or film writing contracts that exclude competing work, it may not be an issue to work with us, depending on your specific contract.
Because this role involves role-playing clinical scenarios with AI agents, we are ideally seeking clinicians and other experts who bring creative or performance-driven strengths, as these competencies enhance the realism, nuance, and emotional depth needed for AI safety testing:
- Acting, theatre, improv, or voice-over experience
- Strong writing skills, especially dialogue or scenario writing
- Experience creating or inhabiting characters (e.g., performers, TTRPG role-play, narrative designers)
- Conversational design, interaction writing, or scripted role-play experience
- Participation in gaming, interactive storytelling, or digital communities where role-play is common
The role centers on a confidential initiative focused on AI safety protocols and mental-health policy implementation for large language models (LLMs). You will help design and perform realistic conversational scenarios, red-team model behavior, identify behavioral edge cases, and ensure appropriate recognition of distress or risk in AI-driven interactions. You may also help develop novel psychometrics, rubrics, behavioral taxonomies, evaluation criteria, and qualitative analyses. A strong commitment to safety, clinical ethics, and confidentiality is essential.
Successful candidates are proactive, reliable, collaborative, and skilled at balancing independent problem-solving with appropriate escalation. Consistency and communication are key at mpathic.
Key Responsibilities:
- Design and role-play chat experiences with AI agents across diverse clinical and emotional scenarios
- Perform or simulate characters across ages, backgrounds, severity levels, and emotional states (spoken or written)
- Write dialogue scripts, scenario outlines, or narrative prompts for testing edge cases in mental-health contexts
- Conduct qualitative analyses of conversations to derive taxonomies, personas, and behavioral patterns
- Translate clinical expertise into structured prompt patterns and evaluation rubrics
- Provide expert clinical feedback on internal mental-health policy development
- Collaborate with engineering and research teams to define evaluation metrics for tone, psychological validity, and appropriateness
- Identify and document failure cases, risk signals, and edge behaviors
- Contribute to scenario modeling, red teaming, and rapid experimentation cycles
- Ensure all work adheres to strict confidentiality agreements and NDAs
- Implement quality-assurance protocols for conversation and behavioral analysis
- Participate in review sessions with engineers, researchers, and clinical consultants
Basic Qualifications:
- Knowledge of crisis intervention, risk assessment, and safety planning
- Demonstrated experience in creative writing, theatre, improv, acting, voice acting, or character-driven role-play
- Interest in NLP, AI, ML, safety evaluation, or speech-signal processing
- Strong understanding of mental-health ethics, boundaries, and responsible handling of sensitive data
- Ability to telecommute and use Slack, LLM tools (trainable), and Microsoft 365
- Comfort with ambiguity, iteration, and emerging technology
- Ability to integrate constructive feedback
Above and Beyond:
- Clinical experience with severe pathology, crisis populations, individuals experiencing mental-health crises, and vulnerable youth or young adults
- In-progress or completed clinical degree or independent licensure (e.g., Clinical Psychology, Counseling, Social Work, Psychiatry, or related field)
- Participation or familiarity with Discord, Reddit, gaming communities, or narrative role-play environments
- Background in trust & safety, content moderation, or policy development
- Experience with AI/ML in clinical or healthcare settings
- Experience with data classification, annotation, or qualitative analysis projects
Compensation:
Our pay structure is dependent on licensure, years of education, and professional experience. Our pay ranges from $30-75/hr, dependent on qualifications.
Additional Requirements:
- Must be willing to sign comprehensive NDA, confidentiality agreements, and any other agreements that may be required by the end customer
- Comfortable working with sensitive mental health content and in an area of high impact for billions of end-users
- Recurrent occasional team meetings and project coordination calls
To Apply: Please submit your resume along with a brief cover letter describing your relevant experience, skills, and interests.