Reporting to: Data Lead
Location: Flexible, with the option of using our London office
Key purpose: To develop new data gathering and analysis techniques for the team
Salary: £45,000
Contract: Full-time, permanent role
Opening date: 14 August
Closing date: 23:59 GMT 9 September
Interview date: 16 September onwards
Why this role is important – and why you’ll make a difference doing it
The Center for Countering Digital Hate is a growing organisation with offices in Washington DC and London that actively counters the spread of digital hate, misinformation and harms to children. In recent years we have expanded r apidly, exposing the ways in which social media platforms amplify harmful content to boost their ad revenues.
We are looking for a Data Scientist who can develop our techniques for analysing the spread of harmful content on social media. If you have a talent for data-driven social media research and want to help stop the spread of hate and lies online, we want to hear from you.
What you’ll be doing in this role
In this role, you will be responsible for taking our systems for gathering and analysing data on the spread of digital hate and misinformation to the next level. The data you extract from social media platforms will form the basis of substantial new research reports, and support our ongoing campaigns pressing for action on harmful content.
The successful candidate will join a small team of data experts contributing to our projects, playing an important role in research that will be quoted by governments, journalists and academics. You will work closely with other members of our talented research team, and collaborate with other teams to ensure our research has an impact.
What we think you’ll need to be able to do the job
To do this job, you will need proven experience of producing original and insightful analysis of social media data. Detailed knowledge of the topics we study is not required, but you will need to show a deep understanding of how social media platforms work and previous experience of researching digital hate or misinformation is a plus.
We are keen to interview candidates from a range of research backgrounds, from social scientists to data journalists. Your application will be particularly strong if you can show an ability to collaborate and communicate your research verbally, in writing or in graphics.
We know our work will be at its best if it is created by people with a range of backgrounds and experiences. We are keen to interview people who will add diversity to our team.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please visit counterhate.com/jobs to apply.
To apply for this opportunity, please click the button below and fill out our application form.
Apply for research roles at the Center for Countering Digital Hate (office.com)
Job Description
• Providing rapid analysis of trends in online hate, misinformation and harms
• Gathering useful quantitative and qualitative data from social media networks
• Contributing original, in-depth data analysis to research projects
• Clearly communicating research findings in writing, meetings or visualisations
• Investigating how platforms promote hate, misinformation and harms to children
• Providing research support to the organisation’s other priorities as required
• Support the team in any other way that is required in a growing organisation
Person Specification
Essential
• University degree in a relevant field (such as social or computer science) or experience in a relevant profession (such as data journalism or think tank research)
• Strong technical skills for extracting and analysing data from social media networks
• Good technical understanding of social networks and an interest in online culture
• Ability to critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of analytical techniques
• Experience of conducting text analysis and working in Python
• Proficiency with common data analysis applications such as Microsoft Excel
• Ability to communicate about techniques and analysis to a non-technical audience
• Ability to exercise discretion and maintain confidentiality of our information
• Ability to work in a small team where workload is shared to meet tight deadlines
Desirable
• Experience using data analysis to research digital hate, misinformation or harms
• Experience of extracting data using packages like Beautiful Soup or Selenium
• Experience of using unsupervised learning for text analysis
• Experience of using social media platform APIs
• Familiarity with Tensorflow, Scikit-learn or similar packages
• Knowledge of Regular Expression syntax (RegEx)
• Experience of using project management software such as Asana
Compensation Package
• Location: London, UK, hybrid
• Salary: £45,000
• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Extra Birthday Bonus Day off
• Christmas Period bonus days off
• Mental Health support
• Pension
• Flexible working
• Enhanced parental leave policies
• Active social calendar
At this point, we hope you’re feeling excited about the job description you’re reading. Even if you don’t feel that you meet every single requirement, we still encourage you to apply. We’re eager to meet people that believe in our mission and can contribute to our team in a variety of ways – not just candidates who check all the boxes.
We want people to feel comfortable expressing their true selves and to come, stay, and do their best work here.
We believe that all people are capable of great things. Because of this, we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet all of the requirements that are listed within this job description.
If you need reasonable adjustments or have any questions please do email us at jobs@counterhate.co.uk. The person should have a right to live and work in the UK upon application.
