Country Investigator - Consulting Contract

About CIR

The Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) is an independent, non-profit social enterprise dedicated to identifying, countering and exposing influence operations. Our mission is to raise awareness of the threat to democracy and objective truth from influence operations, including disinformation, and help to counter it. The CIR currently fulfils its mission through three strands – programmes and research, the Global Investigations Unit and our Resilience Network. We are a collaborative initiative with global ambitions: we aim to work with partners including civil society, the media, grassroots organisations, academia and democratic governments to coordinate activities.

Role details:

Contract Type: Contractor, 4 roles available

Contract length: ASAP until end of March 2025

Hours needed for this role: Full-time

Location: based in Sub-Saharan Africa

Closing date for this role: Friday 1st November 2024 at 23:55pm.

About the role

As an Investigator, you will contribute to the FIMI investigations and support Global Resilience Network members with their investigation. Your specific tasks will include:

• Monitor FIMI activities to include in the quarterly country analysis and contribute to the formulation of countermeasure options;

• Identify key stakeholders, institutions, and systems in their assigned country to assess their impact on political and economic dynamics;
• Analyse data to identify trends, challenges, and opportunities within the political economy landscape, including identifying and tracking malign actors and entities;
• Examine historical and contemporary political and economic contexts to understand underlying factors influencing current conditions;
• Assist other investigators through providing local context and country expertise where needed;
• Assess power dynamics, governance structures, and institutional capacities;
• Employ open-source tools, techniques and methodologies to collect and verify data from open-sources relating to Network members’ research;
• Support key project research, with data collection, data verification through techniques such as geolocation and chrono-location, and synthesise data to produce detailed and comprehensive investigations;
• Record information in databases and code that data to pre-set information fields according to the methodology set by CIR;

• Analyse data from multiple sources to produce reports on actors and patterns, ensuring reports meet the highest standards of impartiality, accuracy and comprehensiveness;
• Work collaboratively with fellow investigators and CIR Global Resilience Network members, including quality assuring their research, identifying, and mitigating risks to project delivery, sharing expertise on research techniques and otherwise supporting the development of the team;

• Contribute to internal reviews of the effectiveness of methodologies and ways of working and identify opportunities to improve the efficiency and impact of the project.

Additional Responsibilities

• Work collaboratively with fellow researchers and project managers, including quality assuring outputs by peers, sharing expertise on research techniques and supporting the development of colleagues.
• Supporting the project’s leadership in identifying and mitigating risks to the delivery of the project, and to the reputation of both the project and CIR.
• Contributing to internal reviews of effectiveness and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and impact of project activities.

Requirements

Qualifications and Competencies

• Proficient in English.
• Relevant local language – sub-Saharan languages is a plus.
• Experience in OSINT or investigative experience.
• Background in political science, economics, international affairs, media studies, or a related field is helpful.
• Strong writing and analytical skills to produce reports (in English) that require minimal editing.
• Team player and willingness to take on ad hoc tasks as required by the project.

Working Arrangements:

This role is expected to be based in a sub-Saharan country.

The Investigator will report into the R&I management team. The expected input is 5 days per week, which can be worked flexibly or according to set days/times, as agreed in advance. The Investigator is expected to make themselves available for core meetings, training sessions etc, as agreed in advance.

Please note that some out of hours working may be required to accommodate time differences between international and local investigators, although this will be minimised as far as possible.

Recruitment Process

To apply, please submit a CV in your application and answer the application form questions. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview, which can be conducted remotely unless specified otherwise. CIR encourages applicants from under-represented communities.

CIR is an equal opportunities employer. If you require adjustments or additional support to complete this process, please let us know in your application.