[Jobs] we're hiring (fwd)

[Monique Verrier]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:10:29 -0700
From: Patrick Ball <pball at benetech.org>
To: Patrick Ball <pball.benetech at gmail.com>
Subject: we're hiring

Hello all,

Could you post this to whomever you think it might interest? We have
another job -- less math, more junior -- which I'll be sending out
next week. Thanks much! -- PB.


http://www.benetech.org/join_us/position_postings.shtml#stat
Statistician (#STAT)
The Benetech Human Rights Program (HRP) seeks a statistician to
participate in analysis of large-scale human rights violations.

The HRP leads the world in statistical analysis that reveals the truth
about large-scale human rights violations. Spanning nearly two
decades, our efforts have supported the prosecution of perpetrators by
international criminal tribunals and exposed criminal policies and
structural violence committed by state and non-state organizations.
Our goal is to change history by establishing rigorous and transparent
statistical accounts of political violence. To that end, we work with
human rights organizations to transform individual first-hand
testimonies of violence into comprehensive, usable data.

In collaboration with our grassroots partners, we use social science
reasoning to develop theories about what behaviors their data on human
rights violations measure. We help partners identify new sources of
data that may help test these theories. When appropriate, we conduct
our own research to derive defensible conclusions from our partners'
data. Our research and analysis is used to help clarify the past,
advocate for justice and strengthen accountability for past violence.

Responsibilities include
 	? Provide guidance to HRP project teams, leading the statistical
design and implementation of projects as needed.
 	? Participate in data cleaning, record-linkage, and estimation for
multiple projects, including writing analytical sections of project
reports.
 	? Contribute to research and development of the HRP's frameworks and
tools (e.g. record-linkage, inter-rater reliability, multiple systems
estimation) through software design, implementation, and testing.
 	? Perform background research for data analysis projects/reports
(e.g. literature review on both statistical methods and human rights
history in countries of interest).
 	? Represent the Benetech HRP at human rights meetings and statistical
conferences, present papers.
 	? Write articles for academic, scientific, and popular publications,
alone and with other team members.
 	? Lead HRP data processing working group for ongoing development of
best practices.
 	 ? Other duties as assigned.

The ideal candidate will have:
 	? Master's or Doctoral degree in Mathematical or Applied Statistics,
Biostatistics, Applied Math, or equivalent combination of education
and experience
 	? Advanced computer skills, including programming experience in one
or more statistical languages (particularly R), and experience with
the standard toolkit of Unix-like environments (for example: bash,
python, perl, ssh, gpg, svn, LaTeX, make, gcc, autoconf, tar, and the
unix filesystem).
 	 ? Experience dealing with data validation and cleaning
 	 ? Willingness to learn data processing techniques derived from
software engineering best practices
 	? Statistical specialization in generalized linear models, Bayesian
methods, sampling elusive populations, visualization, or exploratory
and descriptive analysis.
 	? Attention to detail, strong organizational skills, imagination and
creative problem solving, and ability to manage multiple simultaneous
tasks
 	? Excellent communication skills, with the ability to work well with
a wide range of people and make professional presentations to a range
of audiences.
 	? Excellent writing skills, ability to craft professional text for
academic or popular audiences.
 	? Personal commitment to our mission to strengthen respect for human
rights around the world.

Other skills
 	? Experience performing international field work; teaching
statistics; and grantwriting.

Duties will be performed in Benetech's Palo Alto office as well as in
the field; substantial domestic and international travel will be
required. Once hired, the candidate must be able to provide proof of
eligibility to work in the United States.

How to apply

Consider these websites: http://www.martus.org, http://hrdag.org

Send a cover letter, writing sample, and CV to hr at benetech.org.
Consider our technological preferences in your choice of file formats.
In the cover letter, please explain what interests you about the
Benetech Human Rights Program. We are especially interested to hear
critiques of our reports (available on our website). Tell us how you
would strengthen our team.