The Ugandan Jobline

 

Job Title:    Investigative Data Analysts
(3 Job Opportunities)

Organisation: Code
for Africa

Duty Station:  Kampala,
Uganda

 

About US:

Code for Africa (CfA) is the continent’s largest network of indigenous
African civic technology and investigative open data laboratories, with over 70
staff in 15 countries, who build digital democracy solutions that are intended
to give citizens unfettered access to actionable information that empowers them
to make informed decisions and that strengthen civic engagement for improved
public governance and accountability.

 

Job Summary:  The
successful candidates will be part of a ‘technology for good’ team of forensic
researchers and data scientists/analysts at the iLAB, who work in support of
African watchdog newsrooms and other human rights -defending organisations.

 

The iLAB’s role is to offer these newsrooms/civic watchdogs a robust
toolkit of open source intelligence (OSINT) leads and resources, along with
investigative support for identifying and exposing disinformation and other
influence operations intended to undermine our democracies and our economies,
often by creating social discord or polarisation. Your duties will include
helping to identify the sock-puppets, botnets, fake accounts and unwitting
proxies used by the shadowy ‘puppet masters’ who are producing and
disseminating false content. The iLAB also actively gathers evidence on
corruption and organised crime affecting the public sector, and transforms the
information into actionable data to help civic watchdogs and investigative
media better understand the nexus between politically exposed/influential
people (PEPs and PIPs) and organised crime networks, and their role in
subverting public resources.

 

As an Investigative Data Analyst, you will help liberate the data-driven
evidence used to expose and neutralise coordinated behaviour or other malign
intentions. You will also help build the detailed datasets about PEPs, PIPs and
organised crime and corruption that are needed for our partners to ‘join the
dots’.

 

And, you will work with CfA’s Academy and other teams to help train
others, including journalists and human rights defenders, to find the stories
and trends hidden in the data.

 

Key Duties and Responsibilities:  

·       
You will
use CfA tools and methodologies to help research investigative leads and/or
hypotheses, based on digital signals/evidence from public sources, and will
analyse the evidence to produce timely and actionable insights.

·       
You will
do so by planning and executing data gathering exercises involving Arabic
language sources, based on specifications that you help your team define. You
will apply appropriate advanced analysis strategies on the resulting large and
complex datasets to solve difficult, non-routine analysis problems.

·       
You will
help transform the resulting data-driven insights into clear narrative reports
and presentations, underpinned by dossiers of verifiable evidence, for
non-technical audiences in both Arabc and English.

·       
You will
use the resulting signals and data to help watchdog partners, such as
journalists, produce evidence-driven analysis and reportage that is accessible
and understandable to both policymakers and the general public.

·       
You will
be part of a team of custodians for CfA’s open access OSINT tools and
platforms, including connected.AFRICA and CivicSignal and source.AFRICA,
amongst others.

·       
You will
help strengthen civil society and media capacity to undertake its own forensic
data analysis, by supporting CfA training initiatives and by helping produce
step-by-step courseware or tutorials teaching our methodologies.

·       
You will
help build a multicultural and transnational team ethos that values creativity
and human-centred design principles.

 

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

·       
Demonstrable
investigative skills honed from at least two years experience in investigative
journalism, prosecutorial law, OSINT intelligence, due diligence, asset
tracking, compliance, or other investigative professions with precision writing
skills. CfA will not consider any applicants who served with government
intelligence agencies.

·       
An
understanding of influence operations, including both disinformation and
misinformation, as well as digital amplification and viral media techniques
would be a benefit.

·       
Critical
thinking skills, and an obsessive attention to detail, with excellent numeracy
and analytical skills.

·       
Effective
written and verbal communication skills.

·       
Fluent
in Arabic and English (for the Sudan position) or, alternatively, fluent in
English and French (for the Senegal position), or alternatively fluent in
English (for the Nigerian or Ugandan position).

 

Preferred:

·       
Experience
with statistical software (e.g. R, Python, MATLAB) and database languages (e.g.
SQL) for network analysis, as well as using tools such Brandwatch or
CrowdTangle for social media analysis.

·       
Experience
in using digital technologies for conducting OSINT investigative research into
influence operations and related mis-/disinformation techniques, and/or
analysis of online polarisation or hate-speech or extremism/militancy and other
malign content, and/or experience at using data-driven network analysis/named
entity recognition tools for analysing PEPs (politically exposed people) or
PIPs (politically influential people) or institutional networks.

·       
Familiarity
with mining and handling large datasets, with demonstrable skills in selecting
the right statistical tools and articulating analytical questions/approaches
given a data analysis problem.

·       
Experience
working on the digital collaboration tools that CfA uses for managing workflow,
ranging from Slack and Trello, to Github and Google Drive would be an
advantage.

·       
Demonstrable
creative problem-solving/lateral thinking skills and self-direction, with an
ability to work consistently in a fast-paced environment. Willingness to learn
new techniques, and teach others.

·       
An
understanding of religious freedom/extremism, terrorism networks, international
money laundering operations, and/or criminal structures would be a bonus.

 

What We Offer:

·       
A
competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for
performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.

·       
A
dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international travel,
and generous vacation benefits.

·       
Ongoing
opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to
future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.

·       
A chance
to shine on a global stage, writing for international audiences and interacting
with colleagues around the world.

 

How to Apply:

All candidates should apply online at the link below.

 

Click
Here

 

Deadline: 30^th March
2021.

 

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