The Ada Lovelace Institute (Ada) is hiring 2-3 researchers to support our research into the impacts of AI and data on people and society. Working with our Senior Researchers and other staff members, these researchers will design, deliver, and support the impact of Ada’s projects across our three directorates: 

•  Society, Justice, and the Public Sector – exploring how to organise society (through public services, community institutions, welfare and political/economic choices) in a data age. 

• Emerging Technology and Industry Practice - exploring the potential societal implications of new and emerging technologies, and how developers of those technologies can be held more accountable to the people impacted by them. 

• Law and Regulation – exploring how to govern and regulate data and AI to ensure they deliver individual and societal benefits. 

This is an excellent opportunity for an early career researcher to shape emerging discourse, policy, and practice around AI and data-driven technologies. Working with an interdisciplinary team of social scientists, lawyers, policy experts, and more, you will have the opportunity to create research outputs that are designed to deliver Ada's strategy and mission.  

About the role

These roles will sit within Ada’s Research Directorates, reporting into a Senior Researcher within those teams. Each researcher will work on a range of projects set by a Directorate’s Associate Director, and will have the support of Communications, Operations, and Policy & Public Affairs specialists. This role may also advise and contribute to other projects within other Directorates, including supporting public engagement projects.  

We are looking for researchers with strong policy and social science research skills (both qualitative and quantitative) and a strong interest / background in AI and data. To date, Ada’s methodologies include the use of working groups and expert convenings, public deliberation initiatives, quantitative surveys, desk-based research and synthesis, policy and legal analysis, and ethnographic research. We welcome new kinds of expertise and methodologies into our team including data science, computer science, futures, or other disciplinary backgrounds.    

In addition to these projects, this role will be responsible for communication strategies for outputs, and conceptualising, facilitating and attending meetings, workshops and events with a view to achieving strategic impact with key stakeholders.  

About you

You are a researcher or professional who may have a background researching for a policy department or a regulator, a technology company, research institute, charity or academic organisation. You have experience and familiarity with AI and data science concepts, and can engage with technical communities and lay audiences on these topics. You are curious and passionate about the issues which arise at the intersection of technology and society, and are committed to bringing an interdisciplinary and intersectional lens to understanding them. Importantly, you’ll be comfortable taking initiative, working independently and to short deadlines at times.  

You’ll enjoy working in a team environment, willing to jump into projects and keen to explore areas of policy, technology and practice that you don’t already understand. You’ll appreciate the importance of high standards of rigour in research, but also want to think creatively about communicating and influencing in novel ways.  

For more information about this role, please download the job description here.

A day in the life of an Ada Researcher

You will start your day whenever you like – most of the team are online by 9.30am, but some prefer to start early and finish early, or have a later day. We do not believe in strict adherence to working hours and prioritise productivity over clock-watching. We generally start the day by checking in on Microsoft Teams and letting our colleagues know what the day ahead holds. 

Every day will be different, and you will probably spend about half of your day in meetings or on calls – doing outreach and sharing information with stakeholders such as the Department of Science Innovation & Technology, consultants, commissioned researchers or working groups.

You will find team updates and chats on our Teams Channels, and meeting notes and how-to guides in our Notion page. Depending on the day, you might join a team-wide meeting to hear project updates or discuss organisational policies. Also depending on the day, you might have a regular 1:1 meeting with your manager to check in on your wellbeing, raise any challenges or obstacles with your project, and discuss career advancement and growth opportunities. You’ll have regular interactions with our policy, public affairs, and communications teams, keeping them abreast of work underway, collaborating on influencing strategy for a forthcoming output, or working together on an output.    

The other half of your day you’ll spend reading and writing. It might be that you’re undertaking in-depth research on a topic, co-facilitating a public deliberation on acceptable use of data, editing a draft, or undertaking some responsive commentary. You might have projects that are highly outward-facing, convening experts around a project, or you might have a week offline to write a report. You’ll spend some time reading recent news articles, dipping into Twitter and catching up on important policy literature and commentary in our field. 

You might wrap up the day by doing some thinking about new initiatives Ada should engage with, new projects Ada should conceive, or some writing based on your findings that week.  

About the Ada Lovelace Institute 

The Ada Lovelace Institute is an independent research institute funded and incubated by the Nuffield Foundation since 2018. Our mission is to ensure data and artificial intelligence work for people and society. We do this by building evidence and fostering rigorous debate on how data and AI affect people and society.  We recognise the power asymmetries that exist in ethical and legal debates around the development of data-driven technologies and seek to level those asymmetries by convening diverse voices and creating a shared understanding of the ethical issues arising from data and AI. Finally, we seek to define and inform good practice in the design and deployment of AI technologies.  

The Institute has emerged as a leading independent voice on the ethical and societal impacts of data and AI. We have built relationships in the public, private and civil society sectors in the UK and internationally. Please find details of our work here.  

Our research takes an interconnected approach to issues such as power, social justice, distributional impact and climate change (read our strategy to find out more), and our team have a wide range of expertise that cuts across policy, technology, academia, industry, law and human rights.  We value diversity in background, skills, perspectives and life experiences. As part of the Nuffield Foundation, we are a small team with the practical support of an established organisation that cares for its employees. 

We strongly encourage applicants from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the research, policy and technology sectors (for example those from a marginalised community, those who did not go to university or had free school meals as a child). We are committed to tackling societal injustice and inequality through our work, and believe that all kinds of experiences and backgrounds can contribute to this mission.    

More information and how to apply

The closing date for applications is 09:30am (BST) on Wednesday 19th July 2023, with interviews taking place on 3rd and/or 4th August 2023.

You will be required to complete some questions as part of this application process, and you are also required to upload an up-to-date copy of your CV. The Applied platform lets you save an application and resume it ahead of submitting before the application deadline.

Should you need to make an application in a different format or require any adjustments as part of the application process, please get in touch with us: recruitment@nuffieldfoundation.org

 Our benefits package includes: 

• 28 days holiday per annum and all public holidays (with the option to buy or sell up to 5 days). 

• A salary exchange pension scheme that offers employer contributions of up to 11%. 

• Life assurance scheme. 

• We offer family leave policies that provide an enhanced level of pay 

• Cycle to work scheme and loans towards season tickets. 

• Opportunities for learning and development

• Wellbeing support including an employee assistance provider, personal health reviews with Bupa and a staff network of trained Mental Health First Aiders.