Analyst position hiring

Join Open Terms Archive as an analyst. Bring light to the evolution of big tech policies. Apply by July 27, 2025.

Why that job is timely and important

Digital platforms hold immense power in forming global information flows, managing personal data and dictating business practices, and thus massively influence societal change. Open Terms Archive publicly tracks the documents that define how these platforms operate: terms of service, privacy policies, community guidelines… in different languages and countries several times a day, increasing their readability and highlighting their changes.

This has for example enabled uncovering how Telegram silently expanded cooperation with authorities after its CEO was arrested, how Meta removed hate speech protections after Trump’s election, how Parler faked expanding into Germany, or how YouTube shrunk its Trusted Flagger program during the French presidential elections.

Working as an analyst with Open Terms Archive is your opportunity to delve deep into the policies of big tech, get access to a trove of real-time and historical data and get paid to inform policymakers, media, regulators and activists of history in the making. You will be part of our first cohort of analysts focused on cross-jurisdiction comparison, checking not only changes as they appear but also the differential treatment of citizens based on their country of residence. This work is especially critical at a time where protective European regulations see their major geopolitical relevance demonstrated by threats on military alliances and trade wars, both inspiring democracies globally and being challenged by powerful actors.

What you will be doing

• Review daily the changes that have been recorded. Some days there will be none, some days there will be 3 small ones, some days there will be a major rewrite.
• Report on the changes and decide with the core team which ones deserve a dedicated analysis.
• For those changes that are relevant to our target audience, write a memo following our guidelines and existing examples.
• Iterate with the core team and improve the guidelines and tools as you progressively learn how to write memos effectively.
• Translate your memos with automated tools into other major languages that you are able to read.
• Participate in the dissemination of your memos by writing engaging summaries tailored for the different channels (social media, email, instant messaging…).
• Provide feedback and proactive suggestions on analysis tools that the core team provides to support your work.

Who you will work with

Open Terms Archive has a distributed remote community. The core team is made of 3 people. They will be your main point of contact. You will also interact with our business developer who will help with outreach, and our technical community manager who will support with data collection. Every team member works part time and most are based in the EU timezone. The wider community is made of contributors who are located anywhere. You will likely interact with them during our monthly community calls and on our community chat.

Working conditions

Most discussions are held asynchronously through an instant messaging platform, with regular video calls being set up depending on the availability and needs of team members.

All public conversations will take place in the main working language: English. Other languages can be used in conversations that involve only speakers of other languages, but all written notes are taken in English.

You will be onboarded by the team and will receive feedback on your analyses and productions, starting with synchronous pairing and progressively moving towards asynchronous after-the-fact reviews as you will gain confidence and trust.

Contractual conditions

We are looking for people to join the team for 6 months, starting in September 2025.

You will be contracted out as a freelancer. Pay is 1200€ monthly (excluding VAT, which may apply depending on your country and freelancer status), for an estimated average of 1 hour of work per day, every day. That amounts to 40€ per hour for 30 hours a month. The distribution of this time will vary significantly, with some days taking just a few minutes to check that nothing happened, and some days needing 3 hours of work and calls. This is a fixed monthly rate, regardless of actual hours worked, within a 30-hour monthly estimate.

You will report to the Open Terms Archive core team. Your contract will be established by the funder for this mission, a non-profit organisation based in the US.

Your publications will be published under a Creative Commons license and will be publicly attributed to you.

What you need to bring

• Experience and discipline working autonomously in a remote-first environment. You can work from anywhere and we support each other in maximising their freedom in time and space, but with that freedom comes the necessity to be self-directed enough to deliver high quality work.
• Reactiveness and adaptability. You will benefit from a lot of flexibility on your working hours, but no one can predict when a big change will be detected, and we expect analyses to be produced within 48h (72h on weekends). Being in a different timezone than EU is a plus, as it will provide the team with a broader time coverage.
• Very good English written expression. Beyond the content production, which is text, your daily interactions with the community will be in written English. Your communication skills must enable you to write clear, compelling messages and to convey clearly what is an objective analysis versus assumptions or opinion.
• An understanding of platform governance and associated background knowledge. While you are not expected to be a legal expert, nor to know the operational context of every large online platform, you are expected to understand the notion of jurisdiction and have a basic understanding of major regulations such as GDPR and DSA.
• Excitement for the topic. Let’s be honest: reading through textual changes in contractual documents is not the most exciting task. The only way you will maintain motivation over time is if you realise the power that lies in the information that can be found through meticulous detective work.

How to apply

Send an email before Sunday 27th of July to contact@opentermsarchive.org with subject “Analyst application”, containing:

• a draft memo for this change:
• your CV, or a link to your online CV;
• links to any prior relevant publications or analyses you might have written;
• a few lines to tell us what motivates you in this role;
• 3 timeslots that would work for you for a 1 hour interview over a video call between Tuesday 29th and Thursday 31st of July.

We will get back to you latest on Monday 28th of July with either a confirmation of your interview time, a request for additional information, or an explanation why we cannot work together on this mission.

We pride ourselves in being an inclusive community and welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds. If you are excited about the job but unsure if you could be a good fit, try applying. Our application process is designed to confront yourself with an introductory level of difficulty to the concrete production you would have to deliver. We’re looking forward to receiving your application!

If you have any additional question, reach out to contact@opentermsarchive.org.