Senior Computational Social Scientist

Protagonist is a company that combines rigorous analysis with innovative technology to deliver strategic communication solutions. They are seeking a Senior Computational Social Scientist who will apply data science and analytic methods to turn large datasets into actionable insights, while collaborating with product teams and mentoring junior analysts.

Responsibilities:

• Lead our data efforts
• Guide internal data science work: shape the approach, hold quality high, and keep analysis reproducible and defensible
• Design and apply classification models, clustering, and other ML/AI approaches to surface insight from large, unstructured datasets
• Translate qualitative research questions into structured analytical workflows
• Build AI-powered analytical workflows
• Design prompts, LLM chains, and agentic workflows that automate classification, thematic coding, entity extraction, and summarization at scale
• Build and evaluate repeatable analytical products with real quality controls and human-in-the-loop checks
• Experiment with emerging techniques (RAG, multi-step reasoning, tool-using agents) to extend what we can deliver
• Make data usable and clear
• Handle complex cleaning, transformation, and wrangling so the data stays trustworthy
• Build dashboards and visualizations (Tableau, Superset, or similar) that make insight clear to clients and colleagues alike
• Turn findings into actionable recommendations and present them directly to clients with clarity and confidence
• Shape the product and work across streams
• Work hand in hand with the product team to shape Narrative Analytics™ around what users actually need, bringing the analyst’s and client’s perspective into product design
• Collaborate across analytics, product, and client teams so the work fits together and reaches the people who depend on it
• Mentor junior analysts and interns and contribute technical sections to proposals and white papers