About the Role
GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences is an internationally active research institute, funded by federal and state governments and member of the Leibniz Association. Starting on January 1, 2027, our Department Survey Data Curation, Team Survey Data Augmentation, located in Cologne, is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher in geocoded electoral data(Salary group 13 TV-L, working time 100 %, limited to 3 years) The department „Survey Data Curation“ processes and prepares social science research data across a diverse range of data types to support sociological and political science research, especially in comparative perspectives across space and time. The curated data include long-running national (e.g., ALLBUS, GLES) and international (e.g., ISSP, CSES) survey programs, which are documented and curated to the highest quality standards, but also research data products derived from or connected to these surveys, such as geo referencing services or trend files. “Electoral Spaces” is a project of our team Survey Data Augmentation that develops a research data infrastructure for making geocoded electoral data more findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable.Your tasks will be:Leading the development of data curation, validation, and spatial aggregation tools for geocoded electoral data using the statistical software REstablishing a framework clarifying legal, ethical, and licensing conditions for data provision and reuseSupporting the principal investigators in coordinating the overall project and managing workflows and project knowledgeCreating user documentation, training materials, and public interfaces for the infrastructureConducting methodological or applied research showcasing the added value of the infrastructureYour profile:Completed academic university degree (Master’s or equivalent) and completed PhD in political science, quantitative social science, spatial data science, or a related disciplineAdvanced expertise in longitudinal and spatial data integration, provenance documentation, and reproducible workflowsProficiency in coding and managing spatial datasets in R, with experience in version control and data curation standardsTrack record of contributing to empirical research and generating scientific innovation with data infrastructureExcellent English language skillsOur Benefits:Opportunity to contribute to a research data infrastructure with substantial impact on the future of democracy researchWork in an integrated yet flexible team of quantitative social scientists with substantial synergies between survey augmentation projects specializing in geospatial data applications and democracy