Research Assistant in Quantitative Online Discourse Research

Public Policy Group
The Public Policy Group at ETH Zurich and the Public Discourse Foundation invite applications for a research assistant position starting as soon as possible and lasting one year, with the possibility of renewal.

You will be part of a collaborative team committed to rigorous research on how to improve public discourse on social and online media and other digital platforms. We study the effects of platforms’ policies and work with them to design and test interventions to improve the quality of online discussions and reduce harm caused by hate speech. To do so, we combine data from social media, online newspapers and original surveys with causal inference and machine learning methods to bring new evidence to bear on the urgent problems policymakers and practitioners face. We collaborate with a nonprofit dedicated to tackling hate speech, the Public Discourse Foundation, and various newspapers to translate our research into impact.

We are looking for a research assistant (with a workload of 20%) to join our ongoing research program on online discourse and how to improve it
The primary responsibility lies with our data pipeline, which requires the review of any failed tests on our weekly data imports, as well as general maintenance and improvement of the code- and database
This will take the form of responding to issues on GitHub, debugging issues in our R and Python scripts, creating pull requests, writing documentation, and collaboratively developing new features
You will also analyse our data on online comments searching for interesting patterns or unexpected changes
The general research program aims to understand online discourse, with a particular focus on the DACH region, and design and implement interventions to improve discourse and reduce hate speech
We work together with online newspapers and use social media data
Our research employs advanced statistical methods for causal inference and we develop state-of-the-art machine learning classifiers for both harmful and high-quality speech
The position is located in the team of Dominik Hangartner at ETH Zurich, but you will also have the opportunity to work with an array of affiliated faculty as well as with the Public Discourse Foundation
Strong candidates will have most of the following:

Completed undergraduate degree in a social science program with a preference for Political Science, Economics, Sociology, Data Science, Computational Social Science, or in a closely related discipline
Knowledge of causal inference methods and/or machine learning
Strong command of R (required) and/or Python (desirable)
Familiarity with GitHub and collaborative work on GitHub
Experience with Docker, SQL, and automated data pipelines desirable
Ability to collaborate effectively with project team members and external stakeholders alike
Proficiency and excellent writing skills in English; at least B1 German; basic French is an asset
Knowledge of or interest in social media platforms and content moderation policies
Interest in the societal applications of research
Highly collaborative work environment within a very motivated and supportive team
Opportunity to develop a network with academics and practitioners
Career mentoring by experienced researchers
Salary in accordance with ETH guidelines
Possibility to work remotely with flexible work hours (~10h/week, subject to fluctuating demand)
We look forward to receiving your online application with the following documents:

Cover letter
CV
Academic transcripts
Further information about the Public Policy Group and the Immigration Policy Lab, can be found on the respective Websites. Questions regarding the position should be directed to Nicolai Berk, nicolai.berk@gess.ethz.ch, with the Subject: Research Assistant 2026 (no applications).

Applications review will begin on July 15, 2026 and continue until the position is filled. Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.

We would like to point out that the pre-selection is carried out by the responsible recruiters and not by artificial intelligence.