Senior Research Associate in Digital Politics and Data Systems

The role

The School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS) at the University of Bristol, in collaboration with the Jean Golding Institute for Data and AI, is seeking to appoint a Senior Research Associate to join the European Research Council-funded project Political Parties in Africa and Democracy (PPADEM). This international collaboration examines the role political parties play in democratic progress and decline across Africa through one of the largest empirical studies of political parties ever undertaken. The successful candidate will join a collaborative team of political scientists and data scientists, contributing to innovative interdisciplinary research at the intersection of computational methods and political analysis.

What will you be doing?

You will play a leading role in building and maintaining large-scale data infrastructure to support the project’s research objectives. This will include designing automated pipelines to collect, clear, and manage data from social media platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok, alongside interrogating additional political and electoral datasets. You will help develop scalable data warehouse solutions that support sophisticated cross-country and cross-party analysis while ensuring compliance with GDPR, ethical standards, and data governance requirements.

Working closely with colleagues across SPAIS and the Jean Golding Institute, you will contribute technical expertise to interdisciplinary research design, translating substantive political questions into computational workflows and analytical tools. You will support the operationalisation of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles across the project lifecycle and produce technical documentation to support collaboration and long-term sustainability of the datasets.

The role also includes contributing to research publications and reports, particularly in relation to computational methods and data structures, and developing your own research interests within the broader aims of the project. In collaboration with the Jean Golding Institute, you will also support the delivery of data science training activities and may have opportunities to contribute to postgraduate teaching and supervision

You should apply if

You should apply if you have experience working in computational, data-intensive, or technically focused environments and are excited by the opportunity to apply these skills to major political and social research questions. You will have strong technical skills in areas such as Python, R, SQL, Spark or related data engineering tools, alongside experience developing data pipelines, research workflows, or data warehouse solutions.

We are looking for candidates who can work effectively across disciplines and communicate complex technical concepts to a range of audiences. You should be highly organized, adaptable, and capable of managing multiple priorities while maintaining excellent attention to detail. Experience working with social media datasets, research projects within higher education, or interdisciplinary collaborations would be advantageous, as would an understanding of FAIR data principles, research governance, and data security requirements.

This role would particularly suit someone who is intellectually curious, collaborative, and motivated to contribute to an internationally significant research programme focused on democracy, elections, and political parties across Africa.

Additional information

Contract type: Open-ended with fixed funding (01/09/26 - 31/08/28)

Work pattern: Full time /100% time/1.0FTE

This advert will close at 23:59 UK time on Tuesday 30th June 2026

Shortlisting will take place in w/c Monday 6th July 2026

For informal queries please contact:

Sarah Lockwood. Project Lead (PI for PPADEM) Sarah.lockwood@bristol.ac.uk

Josh Tyler. JGI Data Scientist (Data Science Lead for PPADEM) josh.tyler@bristol.ac.uk

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