Student assistant position for coding and data analysis

Within the ERC-funded research project STANDBY, “Standing by: Pro-social Bystander Reactions to Online Political Research”, we are looking to hire a student assistant to help with various data analysis tasks. Your work will focus on carrying out data preprocessing, data wrangling, and carrying out analyses using R (and sometimes Python). Example projects you will be working on include the analysis of Danish and American Twitter/X-data using different classifiers and the setup of content on our mock social media platform, designed to mimic real social media timelines. Of course, in projects where you provide substantial work, co-authorship of manuscripts is possible.

The position is scheduled for 1 year, with possibility of extension. The average workload will be 7 hours per week, but can vary depending on your and the projects’ needs.

The position starts February 1st 2026, or as soon as possible hereafter.

We are looking for someone who is structured and dependable. You find enjoyment in working with data, learning new techniques, and applying them in rigorous ways. Ideally, you are at the end of your Bachelor, or start of your Master programme. In terms of technical knowledge, we expect you to have:

• A strong knowledge of R (strong skills in data wrangling using tidyverse syntax and functions, working with quarto documents, visualizing data, and writing clean & reproducible code)

• Experience with natural language processing tasks (in R or Python familiarity with common tasks such as sentiment analysis, topic modelling, classification using transformer-based models)

• Experience with advanced statistical modelling (esp. random effects) is a plus.

Please apply by uploading a short motivational letter (1/2 page) and a CV (in English) through the apply button at the bottom of the page. The application deadline is January 27th, 2026.

The place of work is Department of Social Sciences, Bartholins Allé 7, 8000 Aarhus C

The STANDBY-project is hosted at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, and lead by professor Lasse Lindekilde (see https://ps.au.dk/forskning/forskningsprojekter/standby ). The position will be supervised by assistant professor Simon Karg.

Any questions regarding the position should be directed to assistant professor Simon Karg at simonkarg@ps.au.dk .

Questions regarding application or recruitment procedure should be directed to HR-supporter Astrid Valdgård Schmidt at avs@au.dk.