The Empirical Study of Conflict (ESOC) Project seeks a Research Specialist to provide geo-spatial and statistical analysis, as well as qualitative research for a multi-university team of researchers.

**This is a one-year position with possible extension.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Applicants should submit a cover letter and C.V. online. Upon request, candidates should be prepared to submit references, transcripts, and/or writing samples.

Under the direction of the Principal Investigator, the Specialist will help develop and analyze data on malign influence campaigns (e.g. COVID-19 related misinformation or the various online disinformation campaigns during the 2016 US elections), as well as contributing to analysis of micro-level data on politically motivated violence worldwide.

This position will also include responsibility for supervising a 10-week bootcamp for two pre-doctoral students engaged in a specialty fellowship meant to strengthen data science skills in R, Python and Stata. Specific related duties include evaluating homework and answering questions as the fellows work through the program, averaging 4 hours per week for a total of 10 weeks.

This position is ideal for those with Masters degrees seeking an applied research position, as well as exceptional graduating seniors with a strong interest in pursuing a PhD in Economics or Political Science after acquiring applied research experience.

Essential Requirements include:

• BA or more advanced degree, preferably in social science or statistics, or equivalent work experience
• Academic experience conducting micro-economic and statistical analysis as well as historical research
• Proficiency with or ability to rapidly learn R, STATA, and ArcGIS software or equivalent. Candidates are expected to be familiar with data munging tasks such as transformations, visualizations and mining.
• Excellent writing and analytical skills
• Evidence of ability to take the initiative in solving practical research problems
• Ability to work independently and to adjust to rapidly changing needs of researchers

Preferred Qualifications:

• Two years or more experience working on applied machine learning projects
• Familiarity with SQL or other database systems.
• Masters degree in Data Science, Economics, or Statistics
• Experience with impact evaluation projects involving randomized trials or matched control designs, need not be in an academic setting
• Familiarity with the use of ESRI suite of products and Python scripting
• Experience with automated scraping of data from websites