Social Scientist 

About Us: Love Justice International (LJI) is a Christian nonprofit organization and our mission is sharing the love of Jesus Christ by fighting the world’s greatest injustices. We do this in two primary ways: through our expanding anti-human trafficking work and by caring for orphaned and abandoned children. We are seeking faithful, compassionate, thoughtful problem-solvers who are able to think deeply and carefully about how we can share Christ's love by fighting injustice. You can make more money elsewhere, and probably find better ways to live an easier, more comfortable life. We see this work as more than just a job, but as a calling to that mission. If you are called to our mission and want to find out how you can fit into our work, apply today!

Love Justice International is a certified Best Christian Workplace in 2021 and 2022. Click here for more information about us.

Position Type: Full Time, Support Raised*, Remote

*If hired, the candidate will be required to raise financial support to cover his/her own salary, benefits, and expenses. Raising support is a key example of the body of Christ supporting its members and joining in the fight against injustice. LJI will provide administrative and prayer support throughout the process, as well as guidance and resources to build up a support base. Please prayerfully consider whether you may be called to step out in faith and raise support for this position.

Program and Position Overview: At Love Justice International we strive to find and implement the strategies that result in the greatest impact against injustice.  We believe that the question of how to create the greatest impact against the greatest injustices is incredibly complex, and warrants an excellence of thought and practice that is rarely brought to bear in our field. 

We also believe that impact that is not carefully defined and accurately measured is worth very little, that there is much potential to do harm in fighting against injustice, and that our own tendencies will always be to have a biased view of our own work and impact.  These ideas are reflected in some of our values, such as "Do No Harm," and "Admit Your Weaknesses." 

Nothing on earth has been more effective than science at discovering the truths that can impact the world, and it's not even close.  Therefore we feel compelled to bring a scientific approach to our work, as reflected in our value "Be Scientific."  

Love Justice Labs is where we record and track the evolution of what we believe are our highest potential yet-untested impact ideas.  It is designed to be the forge that burns away the ideas or parts of ideas that cannot stand scrutiny, and helps the ones that can be born into and make impact in the real world.  

The Science Officer / Social Scientist will strive to bring a scientific approach to the defining and measuring of impact in our program work, and Love Justice Labs.  He / she will report to the CEO.  The position will ideally be based in the North Coast of KZN, South Africa, although remote work may be considered.   

Primary Duties and Responsibilities: The primary duties and responsibilities of the Science Officer / Social Scientist are the following:

• Facilitating the design and development of projects in Love Justice Labs
• Bringing a scientific approach to how we best achieve our mission and have the greatest impact against the world’s greatest injustices
• Arranging peer review for our programs and plans (in particular those in Love Justice Labs), including developing a network or trusted experts who are willing to give their time to review our work and ideas
• Ensuring that Love Justice’s impact claims can stand up to scrutiny
• Bringing a scientific perspective to all aspects of our work, both generally, and in specific project areas, by being a “lead” on a number of Love Justice Core Processes, and a stakeholder on others

The duties listed above are conducted within a work culture that is striving to emulate Christ and make him first and central. Staff should agree with the following ideas included in what it means to us to Abide in Christ (our first Global Value):

• Our Primary Identity is in Christ
• We Believe God Is Sovereign Over Injustice
• We Are Made, Called, and Led By Christ
• We Commit to Connect with Jesus
• Prayer Should Be Central To Our Work
• Our Conduct Is Our Testimony 

Qualifications: The qualifications for this position are the following: 

• Mature Christian faith and agreement with our Global Value to “Abide in Christ”
• Knowledge, understanding, and agreement with how the Christian Gospel ministers to “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40) and guides us in our mission
• Agreement with our Core Value “Be the Kingdom”(both in the execution of our mission and in our personal lives)
• Acknowledgement of our Statement of Faith
• A strong commitment to social justice and advocacy on behalf of vulnerable populations
• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in a scientific field (master’s degree or higher preferred)
• Knowledge of statistics and data science (preferred)
• Significant experience as a practitioner of social science
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including dialectic
• Ability to work well within a group setting and maintain a positive outlook while working within challenging circumstances