Senior Research Scientist

About the Role:

As a Senior Research Scientist, you will independently, and in partnership with the Research & Insights team, advance Thorn’s organizational knowledge of online child sexual exploitation and emerging trends. The work you do will be a combination of finding quick wins and developing longer-term research. You will be responsible for acquiring data, crafting and performing analytical experiments in a disciplined manner, evaluating and iterating on results, and discussing results with both technical and non-technical audiences. You’ll work closely with the Head of Research & Insights to grow the Research team’s impact, both internally and externally, by delivering nimble, innovative, and rigorous research.

What You’ll Do:

Serve as a source of issue expertise in online child sexual exploitation and emerging trends. Mastering a variety of concepts and related data points to help Thorn make strategic decisions off the best information available.
Lead a diverse portfolio of research projects leveraging a variety of large, unstructured data sources to drive understanding of trends in online child sexual exploitation
Implement new statistical, or other mathematical methodologies, as needed for specific models or analyses
Draft briefs and reports that clearly and accurately distill nuanced subjects to a range of technical and non-technical audiences
Create visualizations to facilitate strategic decision making
Keep up to date with the newest developments in statistical analysis and related data science technologies
Mentor teammates fostering critical thinking and excellence in our research
Actively pursue diversity and inclusion in Thorn research to ensure all kids are represented in our understanding of this issue
Intentionally and proactively practice, defend and improve data ethics and statistical integrity, both in own work and cross-functionally across teams

Skills We’re Seeking:

At least five years experience in statistical analysis and/or data science using either Python or R with at least moderate knowledge of Python.
At least two years mentoring and coaching colleagues via pairing, design, and code review
Strong written, verbal, and visual communication skills, and the ability to tailor messaging to a range of audiences
Some travel will be required in the future
Prior knowledge of child exploitation/abuse issues is a plus
Desire to serve Thorn’s mission

Technologies We Use:

Python, Jupyter notebooks
Python packages for statistical analysis and ML, like scikit-learn, statsmodels, etc.
NLP tools like Spacy, Gensim, NLTK, textBlob, BERT, word2vec, etc.
ElasticSearch, SQL, Javascript, HTML, D3.js, vis.js, Plotly.js
Network analysis tools like NetworkX, neo4j graph algorithms
Github for code version control
DVC for version control of non-code data analysis artifacts

You should have at least four years of professional experience with these:

Python or R for data analysis
Statistical inference, hypothesis testing, regression analysis
Time series analysis
Data quality analysis
Unsupervised learning / clustering techniques

In addition, you should have non-trivial experience with at least a few of these:

NLP
Data visualization
Network analysis / social networks analysis

Expertise in any of the following is a major plus:

Raw data collection and processing, like web scraping, working with APIs to collect data, working with open source data, and querying databases
Bias assessment
In-depth knowledge of digital photo image metadata, photo editing techniques, webcams
Linguistics, especially computational linguistics
Experience in Anthropology, Psychology/Sociology, Epidemiology, Criminology, Forensic Science, Fraud detection
Emerging trends detection

At Thorn, we understand the value of developing a team with different perspectives, educational backgrounds, and life experiences. We prioritize diversity within our team and encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply. Your skills are needed here.

Benefits

Fully covered health care for you and your family
Flexible work schedules
Monthly individual and team wellness sessions
Flexible vacation policy, standard holidays and three weeks off as a company, one for Thanksgiving, two between Christmas and the first week of the new year.
Matched 401[k]
Annual professional development budget for continued education
Budget for a home office setup or coworking membership
Monthly home internet and cell phone bill reimbursement
New Macbook Pros for everyone

How to Apply

https://www.thorn.org/careers/application/?gh_jid=5109757002&gh_src=47ecd4eb2us

Nonprofit Remote Jobs

Nonprofit Remote Digest - Issue #563