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 01.10.2025 our Department Computational Social Science (CSS) , Team Transparent Social Analytics located in Cologne , is looking for a

Postdoc in Computational Social Science

(Salary group 13 TV-L, working time 100 %, initially for 4 years with possible tenure)

The department Computational Social Science (CSS) collects digital behavioral data and provides computer-based methods for collecting and analyzing such data for social science research. It also supports scientists with the integration of digital behavioral data into their research designs. The department's research focuses on the quality of digital behavioral data, the development and validation of computational social science methods and the transformation of digital societies.

The team Transparent Social Analytics aims to make collection, preprocessing and analysis methods for digital behavioral data (DBD) accessible and transparent and computational social science (CSS) research reproducible.

Your tasks will be:

• Working in an interdisciplinary team that develops innovative open science services for digital behavioural data
• Developing computer-based methods for collecting, pre-processing, analyzing, and evaluating the results of complex, unstructured data for social science research questions
• Taking responsibility for the content-related and operational development of a CSS infrastructure service for the social sciences, focusing on user-friendly design, target group-optimized presentation, and support for strategic expansion
• Conducting independent research in the field of computational social science
• Acquiring third-party funding for research and research-based services

Your profile:

• PhD and u niversity degree (Diploma, Master or similar) in a field relevant to computational social science, e.g. applied computer science, statistics, political science, communication science, psychology, sociology or related disciplines
• Internationally visible research profile in computational social science and established international networking in the research communities relevant to CSS
• Experience in developing open-source applications for social science problems and knowledge and experience in one or more of the following areas: Open Science, Web Scraping, Artificial Intelligence/Large Language Models, multimodal data analysis with R and/or Python
• Experience with and interest in working on CSS infrastructure projects is an advantage
• Very good command of English both written and spoken

Our Benefits:

• An international and interdisciplinary working environment that will also support you in developing your own research profile
• Flexible working hours and the possibility of up to 60% mobile working within Germany
• Very good conditions for reconciling work and family life, e.g. subsidies for childcare for children who have not yet attained the age of compulsory schooling
• Holistic company health management and discounted participation in the university's sports programme
• Generous support for your pension provision as a direct insurance policy
• Promotion of your skills through further training measures

Contact

For further information concerning the tasks please contact Dr. Christina Viehmann via E-Mail (Christina.Viehmann@gesis.org). If you have questions about the application process, please contact Franca Tosetti via E-Mail ( Franca.Tosetti@gesis.org )

Interested?

Please apply via our Online-application portal until 06.08.2025

Our reference number is: CSS-111