Research Analyst Code for Africa

Required: minimum requirements include
1. An understanding of media ecosystems and/or digital advocacy and/or digital civic engagement.
2. A minimum of one year’s experience in the field, and/or evidence of a substantive research project using ML/NPL/AI analysis tools.
3. Proficiency in Python or R
4. Proficiency in statistical analysis and market research, along with related qualitative and quantitative research methods.
5. Strong analytical and logical skills, with a demonstrable track record translating data into actionable insights.
6. Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for publication, present research insights and shape research proposals.
7. Meticulous eye for detail to ensure data integrity and precision.
8. The ability to collaborate with a diverse set of multidisciplinary project stakeholders.
9. Experience in working with remote, distributed teams with agile methodologies.

Preferred: candidates who are able to demonstrate the following will have an advantage
1. Competence in computational linguistics, Natural Language Processing, and specifically the methodologies and tools offered by the MediaCloud.org platform.
2. Competence in other open source intelligence (OSINT) research techniques, including data scraping, data mining and other intelligence gathering techniques.
3. Previous experience of contributing to reports and research publications
4. Multiple languages, such as French, Arabic and other languages spoken in Africa.
5. Knowledge of network analysis.

Language and Location Requirements:
1. Location: Anywhere in Africa
2. Languages: English, French, Arabic
3. Preferred but not required additional languages: French or Arabic

About the Role:
You will help design and conduct digital research and analysis into Africa’s watchdog media and digital democracy initiatives across the continent.
As a Research Analyst on CfA’s CivicSignal team, you will work with a transnational team of other specialist researchers and data analysts to generate actionable insights into the media ecosystem, and how other civic watchdogs function in Africa. This will include data-driven research into digital democracy initiatives, civic engagement mechanisms and the regulatory frameworks that shape ecosystems or that influence events such as elections and public policymaking. You will also help map the changemakers or pioneers who steer decision-making, and the ownership/composition and funding models for key roleplayers.
Your research will leverage CivicSignal’s own natural language processing and classification tools, such as MediaCloud, along with additional databases built by using survey and polling methodologies. Your team will regularly deploy machine learning and other artificial intelligence techniques, including sentiment analysis, n-gram analysis, cluster analysis, and social listening to produce actionable intelligence tools and briefing documents. This will include creating lexicons of country- and language-specific terms and phrases, to trigger early warnings about inflammatory or otherwise dangerous content.

Responsibilities: Your daily responsibilities will include
1. Designing and implementing pioneering digital research projects for both internal teams and external partners in academia, development agencies and policy think-tanks.
2. Managing CfA’s computational linguistics toolkit, built on MediaCloud software, to apply machine learning and other NPL processes to analyse the content produced by media and other civic watchdogs for everything from political partisanship and gender bias, to toxic speech and influence operations.
3. Digitising and integrating external qualitative research from strategic partners into CfA’s core collections, to enable contextual fresh insights.
4. Co-drafting analytical data-driven reports and research papers designed to help shape public discourse within our ecosystems, or to help guide intervention/development strategies at donor/support agencies.

What We Offer:
1. A competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
2. A dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international travel, and generous vacation benefits.
3. Ongoing opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
4. A chance to shine on a global stage, writing for international audiences and interacting with colleagues around the world.