Deputy Investigative Manager at Code for Africa (CfA)

Do you want to help expose the puppet-masters behind disinformation networks, and expose transnational organised criminals?

Code for Africa (CfA) has an immediate vacancy for a full-time Deputy Investigative Manager to join our pan-African forensic investigation team at the iLAB.

The successful candidate will support iLAB’s Investigations Manager. They will work as part of CfA’s internal iLAB team of forensic researchers, data scientists and OSINT (open source intelligence) investigators, who produce evidence-based dossiers and other actionable evidence for a global audience and for international watchdog media partners.

The iLAB works in support of the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), which is a CfA initiative that brings together the continent’s best muckraking newsrooms to investigate crooked politicians, organised crime and big business. The iLAB spearheads investigations that individual ANCIR newsrooms are unable to tackle on their own. This includes forensic analysis of suspected digital influence operations and disinformation campaigns, as well as toxic content aimed at misleading citizens or triggering social discord or polarisation using hate speech or radicalisation or other techniques.

The iLAB also supports partners to investigate transnational organised crime, illicit financial flows and state capture on the continent.

The successful candidate will work as part of a multinational and multilingual team across the continent, using digital collaboration tools to create content for a global audience and international media partners.

Required: minimum requirements include:

• Demonstrable investigative skills honed from experience in investigative research, forensic investigations/research, forensic audit, business intelligence, due diligence, asset tracking, compliance, or other investigative professions. CfA will not consider any applicants who has served with government intelligence agencies;
• Technical capabilities in conducting targeted forensic data analysis and digital forensics or open source investigations;
• A minimum of 2 years managing investigative projects, forensic teams or editorial newsrooms, with evidence of successful collaboration/impact, in challenging and/or fast-moving environments;
• A minimum of 2 years project management experience managing several projects at once with high stakes and outputs.

Preferred: candidates who are able to demonstrate the following will have an advantage:

• An understanding of influence operations, including both disinformation and misinformation, as well as digital amplification and viral media techniques would be a benefit.
• An understanding of offshore financial schemes, international money laundering operations, and/or criminal structures would be a bonus.
• Experience of managing or using digital technologies for conducting OSINT investigative research into influence operations and evolving disinformation trends, or alternatively using data-driven network analysis/ named entity recognition tools for analysing PEPs or institutional networks.
• Previous experience working on the digital collaboration tools that CfA uses, ranging from Slack and Google Drive, to Trello would be an advantage.
• Familiarity with mining and handling large datasets would be a plus
• Ability to speak and write in English and French or Arabic.

Language and Location Requirements:

• Location: Africa
• Languages: English and/or French or Arabic
• Preferred but not required: French and/or Arabic