Research Assistant

We’re looking for a Research Assistant who loves tackling technical challenges to join our vibrant (remote) team where creativity meets collaboration! The Research Assistant will support critical research functions including preparing data collection materials, programming data collection activities on platforms like SurveyMonkey and Labelbox, and ensuring we receive the data we need accurately and quickly.

This is a part-time, 3-month, 1099 contract position, with the potential for a contract extension after the initial 3-month period or a transition to a full-time position.

Please submit a resume and cover letter, clearly describing your interest and experience to jobs@harmonylabs.org. Due to the number of emails we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond to each one.

Position Detail

What You Will Do

Work with project teams to plan, execute, and deliver surveys,randomized controlled trials, annotation, and other research products using SurveyMonkey and other software.
- Using research requirements from strategy and research team members, prepare research materials, including but not limited to:
  - Survey scripts
  - Annotator instructions and codebooks
  - Sampling plans
  - Media for testing
- Conduct quality control checks on surveys and sample specifications
- Manage data collection processes and annotation staff to identify and address problems during data collection
- Manage research platforms and tools, including using SurveyMonkey and Labelbox
- Write and utilize scripts in Python and R to retrieve, assemble, and check data from third-party platforms, including Labelbox and Surveymonkey
Support engineers in converting manual research processes into research software pipelines
- Provides requirements for software systems
- Tests software systems
- Identifies risks to data collection quality and opportunities for process improvement

Who You Are

You are curious. You do research because you really want to know the answer, and you want to answer big questions about how media affect us and we affect media.
You have a strong intuition for what makes research good from sample specification to question design to survey daypart selection.
You are flexible and you know how to keep your eye on the goal when plans don’t work or problems come up
You have at least 2 years of professional work experience in data science, market research, or a related field.
You have experience conducting research–executing on data collection operations–in a work environment.
You have experience assembling, cleaning, and analyzing data using Python and R in class or at work.
You have experience working on cross-disciplinary teams in a work environment.

Details and Compensation

Part-time:
- Approximately 20 hours per week (M-F), including being available for remote meetings between 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm EST
- Hourly rate ranging from $25-35 per hour, commensurate with experience

Broad perspectives and diverse experiences are key to serving society, and innovating in a way that responds to our complex, interdependent global context. While Harmony Labs employs only United States citizens and those non-U.S. citizens authorized to work in the United States, in compliance with national regulations, we strongly encourage people from backgrounds currently underrepresented in tech, research, media, and data science to apply. Harmony Labs is an equal opportunity employer. We value and welcome diversity in the workplace and strongly encourage all qualified persons to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

About Harmony Labs

We are a media research lab, using science, data, and creativity to research and reshape our relationship with media. For more than a decade, Harmony Labs has helped storytellers and strategists, decision makers and dreamers, harness the immense power of media to shape a positive, pluralistic future. With the Narrative Observatory, for the first time ever, we're harnessing powerful industry relationships to deliver one-of-a-kind data infrastructure that empowers partners to find, reach, and resonate with the right audience in today's media minefield. The Narrative Observatory delivers audience-based insights, narrative and network analysis, and empirical validation of cultural strategy and content---all derived from the actual behavior of real people and true audiences, not survey results, demographic groups, or inauthentic online activity.

We work with a wide range of partners on issues of existential importance, like climate, gun violence, political corruption, artificial intelligence, and more, using an approach to research that is rigorous, participatory, and public. One of the first papers we co-authored looked at fracking narratives in documentary film. The outputs we've created with our partners include websites, presentations, peer-reviewed publications, toolkits, curriculum, interactives, white papers, and media. And our work has been covered in the press, like in this recent New York Times article.