Social Scientist 

About Us: Love Justice International (LJI) is a Christian nonprofit driven by a singular mission: to share the love of Jesus Christ by fighting the world’s greatest injustices. We pursue this calling through two primary efforts—our expanding anti-human trafficking work and the care of orphaned and abandoned children.

We are looking for faithful, compassionate, and mission-driven problem-solvers—people who think deeply about how to fight injustice and share Christ’s love in a broken world. This isn’t just a job; it’s a calling. If you’re searching for an easy, comfortable career, there are plenty of other options. But if you’re drawn to work that demands sacrifice, boldness, and faith, we invite you to apply and explore how you can be part of this mission.

Love Justice International has been recognized as a Best Christian Workplace for four consecutive years (2021–2024). Learn more about who we are, what sets us apart, and our open positions at lovejustice.ngo/careers.

What We Offer: Opportunities to truly change lives are exceptionally rare—but at LJI, that is exactly the kind of impact you can have. Although we’re a nonprofit, we operate as an “Impact Engineering” organization, focused solely on maximizing real-world outcomes. By combining scientific and business principles with field-led, locally informed insights, we intercept potential trafficking victims for under $150 each, creating a ripple effect that prevents several more individuals from enslavement. This remarkable efficiency underscores the profound, far-reaching impact your work can have on countless lives. 

Joining LJI means stepping into an opportunity to deeply impact lives by combating injustice and expressing the transformative love of Christ. At LJI, you'll be part of a connected, purpose-driven team committed to impactful, kingdom-class excellence.

We offer competitive and thoughtful benefits packages tailored to the specific role and location of our staff. Benefit offerings are designed to support wellness, work-life balance, and overall staff care. Details of specific benefits will vary based on location, local standards, and applicable regulations.

Position Type: Full Time, Support Raised*, South Africa or Remote

*If hired, the candidate must raise financial support to cover their own salary, benefits, and expenses. This is a way for the body of Christ to come together in the fight against injustice. LJI will provide administrative support, prayer, and resources—including guidance from our Support Raising Coach— to help build a support base. Please prayerfully consider whether you are called to step out in faith and raise support for this role.

Program and Position Overview: Love Justice International (LJI) combats human trafficking through transit monitoring—intercepting potential victims at key transportation hubs, where traffickers and victims are most visible. Because trafficking is already underway at these points, our teams can gather vital information to assist law enforcement in arresting traffickers and disrupting trafficking networks. To date, LJI has intercepted over 84,000 individuals, resulting in more than 1,700 arrests. For more information on our impact, visit our website: lovejustice.ngo.

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.  

This position will report to the CEO. The position will ideally be based in South Africa, although remote work may be considered.   

Key Responsibilities: 

• 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
• Regularly reviewing current human trafficking literature and research to identify actionable insights and inform strategies within a limited time commitment 
• 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

Christian Culture: The work at Love Justice International (including the duties listed above) is conducted within a culture that strives to emulate Christ and make Him first and central. As part of our team, we seek staff who embrace the following expressions of what it means 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 

We believe that our mission is not only about what we do but how we do it—through faith, prayer, and obedience to Christ.

Qualifications: 

• Mission & Faith Alignment
  • 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”(in mission execution and personal conduct)
  • Acknowledgment of our Statement of Faith
  • Passion for justice and advocacy on behalf of vulnerable populations.
• Experience & Skills
  • 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

Application Process: We will continue to invite applications for this position until a new Science Officer/Social Scientist has been hired. Candidates will submit a letter of interest and CV when they submit their application here. Nominations, inquiries, and questions concerning this search may be directed to careers@lovejustice.ngo. Visit the LJI careers page, https://www.lovejustice.ngo/careers, to learn more about our mission, explore FAQs, and see how you can be part of our work.

Please allow us 1-2 weeks to process your application. Thank you for your interest!