Job vacancy: Data scientist

We’re hiring again! Details of the new Data Scientist role below, and job information pack to download here.

Key facts

Application closing date: Sunday 21 July 2019

Start date: September or October 2019

Reports to: Chief Executive

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full-time (37.5 hours per week)

Salary: £42,000, plus 12% employer pension contribution

Location: Home-based (anywhere in the world, subject to contracting requirements)

Organisation

The Tax Justice Network (TJN) is an independent international network, launched in 2003. It is dedicated to high-level research, analysis and advocacy in the area of international tax and financial regulation, including the role of tax havens. TJN maps, analyses and explains the harmful impacts of tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax competition; and supports the engagement of citizens, civil society organisations and policymakers with the aim of a more just tax system. TJN pursues systemic changes that address the international inequality in the distribution of taxing rights between countries; the national inequalities – including gender inequalities – that arise from poor tax policies; and the national and international obstacles to progressive national tax policies and effective financial regulation.

Supported by a major five-year grant from the Ford Foundation, and grants from other funders including Norad and the Adessium Foundation, TJN is in a period of growth and transition, with a focus on institutional strengthening – building systems and capabilities to enable and support growth and impact through our ambitious five-year strategic programme. TJN is a virtual organisation, with staff working from home across multiple countries and continents, although its legal base (and that of many employees) is in the UK.

Role description

The Data Scientist is a new post, created to build on the increasing range of TJN projects and products that generate and analyse data, including the Financial Secrecy Index and the newly launched Corporate Tax Haven Index, as well as our work on the scale of tax injustice, human rights and the race to the bottom. Most of our work is data-intensive, and we need to be able to communicate technical data to a wider audience as part of our work to change narratives around the global tax and financial system. The Data Scientist will help us to do this by curating, using and presenting data in a more systematic, ambitious and user-friendly way.

The role will focus on creating baseline structures for our data use and dissemination, connecting and curating new databases and data visualisations to support future reports, undertaking rapid analyses of data produced by partners or covered in the news, providing original research and data support to the four TJN workstreams, working with internal and external stakeholders to ensure data integrity and compatibility, and undertaking other original (and often peer-reviewed) research.

We are looking for an experienced and capable data professional with strong technical skills, who combines attention to detail and a commitment to excellence with the ability to produce results quickly and with minimal support. The right candidate will have strong interpersonal and team-working skills, as well as a can-do attitude and the willingness to work remotely and with limited supervision. We are flexible about where in the world the postholder is located (and in which time zone), subject to the need to find a contracting arrangement that meets all applicable compliance requirements.

Responsibilities

• Creating baseline (infra)structure for TJN’s data use and dissemination while maintaining integrity of, and engaging with, existing databases (for example, to enable the development of an online data portal on the risk exposure of a range of countries to illicit financial flows)
• Creating databases and related data visualisations to support new reports and outputs (for example, a ‘state of the world’ report on tax justice, with indices and estimates of revenue loss and so on)
• Undertaking reactive work based on reports and research published by other organisations (for example, running quick analyses and producing databases and visualisations using datasets or indices published by financial journalists or by other economic justice research and advocacy organisations)
• Providing data support and original research for the four TJN workstreams (financial secrecy, scale of tax injustice, tax justice and human rights, and the race to the bottom)
• Undertaking other original research and taking it through the process of peer review and publication

Person specification

Skills

• Data / You will need to be comfortable working with and manipulating large datasets
• IT / You will need to be very comfortable working with advanced statistical software
• Communications / You will need to be able to tell compelling and accessible stories using data, as well as communicating effectively and succinctly with colleagues and partners in person and in writing
• Delivery / You will need to be able to cope with a large, complicated and varied workload, working quickly and efficiently without sacrificing the quality of the results
• Management / You will need to be able to engage with a wide range of stakeholders and to manage projects run by specialist external IT firms or contractors

Attributes

• Commitment / To be focused on achieving high standards in pursuit of TJN’s objectives
• Adaptability /To find ways of dealing with unexpected opportunities and challenges
• Resourcefulness / To achieve results with limited financial and human resources
• Collaboration / To work supportively and effectively as part of a team
• Integrity / To choose the right course of action when the alternative might be easier

How to apply

Please upload a CV and answer a series of questions (addressing the skills listed in the person specification as well as your motivation) at www.taxjustice.net/ds by Sunday 21 July 2019 at 23.59 GMT. You do not need to address the attributes; these will be explored at interview. We anticipate that first round interviews will be held between in early- or mid-August, by remote video link (Zoom). For an informal discussion about the role, contact Alex Cobham, Chief Executive, on alex AT taxjustice DOT net.