Administration, operations and management roles

These are principally not research roles, but familiarity with research and research environments will be helpful, and there is room for research involvement depending on the candidate’s interest, background, and skills/aptitudes.

There are currently one such role:

Communications, Writing, and Public Relations Specialist (As of November 2023, still seeking freelancers)

Further note: We previously considered a “Management support and administrative professional” role. We are not planning to hire for this role currently. Those who indicated interest will be considered for other roles.

Express interest here.

Communications, Writing, and Public Relations Specialist

As of November 2023, we are soliciting applications for freelancers with skills in particular areas

The Unjournal is looking to work with a proficient writer who is adept at communicating with academics and researchers (particularly in economics, social science, and policy), journalists, policymakers, and philanthropists. As we are in our early stages, this is a generalist role. We need someone to help us explain what The Unjournal does and why, make our processes easy to understand, and ensure our outputs (evaluations and research synthesis) are accessible and useful to non-specialists. We seek someone who values honesty and accuracy in communication; someone who has a talent for simplifying complex ideas and presenting them in a clear and engaging way.

The work is likely to include:

1. Promotion and general explanation

   • Spread the word about The Unjournal, our approach, our processes, and our progress in press releases and short pieces, as well as high-value emails and explanations for a range of audiences

   • Make the case for The Unjournal to potentially skeptical audiences in academia/research, policy, philanthropy, effective altruism, and beyond

2. Keeping track of our progress and keeping everyone in the loop

   • Help produce and manage our external (and some internal) long-form communications

   • Help produce and refine explanations, arguments, and responses

   • Help provide reports to relevant stakeholders and communities

3. Making our rules and processes clear to the people we work with

   • Explain our procedures and policies for research submission, evaluation, and synthesis; make our systems easy to understand

   • Help us build flexible communications templates for working with research evaluators, authors, and others

4. Other communications, presentations, and dissemination

   • Write and organize content for grants applications, partnership requests, advertising, hiring, and more

   • Potentially: compose non-technical write-ups of Unjournal evaluation synthesis content (in line with interest and ability)

Most relevant skills, aptitudes, interests, experience, and background knowledge:

• Understanding of The Unjournal project

• Strong written communications skills across a relevant range of contexts, styles, tones, and platforms (journalistic, technical, academic, informal, etc.)

• Familiarity with academia and research processes and institutions

• Familiarity with current conversations and research on global priorities within government and policy circles, effective altruism, and relevant academic fields

• Willingness to learn and use IT, project management, data management, web design, and text-parsing tools (such as those mentioned below), with the aid of GPT/AI chat

Further desirable skills and experience:

• Academic/research background in areas related to The Unjournal’s work

• Operations, administrative, and project management experience

• Experience working in a small nonprofit institution

• Experience with promotion and PR campaigns and working with journalists and bloggers

Proposed terms:

• Project-based contract "freelance" work

• $30–$55/hour USD (TBD, depending on experience and capabilities). Hours for each project include some onboarding and upskilling time.

• Our current budget can cover roughly 200 hours of this project work. We hope to increase and extend this (depending on our future funding and expenses).

• This role is contract-based and supports remote and international applicants. We can contract people living in most countries, but we cannot serve as an immigration sponsor.

Express your interest here.