Open Data – Interns at Stears

• Location: Lagos, Nigeria (Hybrid)

The Company

Stears is a data & intelligence startup of 40+ people. We provide economic and industry data that facilitates decision-making for global organisations investing and operating in Africa. Our mission is to become the world’s most trusted provider of African data & insight. We make this possible by integrating all our intelligence (analysis, proprietary data, aggregated public data, licensed data, forecasts and reports) into a searchable intelligence platform for our corporate subscribers. More info about Stears

The Role

Why it’s important: This role is focused on generating positive social impact through data, by making important datasets about Africa freely available to the public. Stears’ Open Data team publishes datasets that increase transparency into political systems and the management of public goods (infrastructure, publicly funded services, land, environment, etc.) This Open Data work supports Stears’ social impact mission, as a complement to our commercial, subscriber-only products.

Example Open Data projects:

• Tracking African elections and governance – continuing our work on Stears Elections
• Mapping Lagos’ informal ferry routes to help reduce road congestion
• Evaluating the distribution of foreign aid across the continent

What it includes: As an Open Data Intern, your mission is to find, gather, and synthesise data for our growing portfolio of projects. This includes desk research, data wrangling, data analysis, and some field research activities in Lagos, Nigeria.

Your day-to-day activities could include:

• Creating geospatial datasets from satellite imagery or GPS logs
• Conducting exploratory data analysis to find patterns, trends and anomalies in large datasets
• Producing beautiful, interactive data visualisations
• Conducting on-the-ground data collection and field visits, including conducting brief interviews with relevant members of the public
• Extracting/scraping data from PDF documents, websites, news feeds, and other sources

We are looking for someone who has:

• Availability to begin work in February
• A self-starter attitude and the ability to quickly learn on-the-job, including teaching yourself new skills when needed
• 1-2 years of experience creating and analysing data using tools like Google Sheets (formulas and pivot tables), Python, SQL, QGIS/ArcGIS, PowerBI, Tableau, PDF scraping software, etc.
• Knowledge in statistics and mathematics
• Passion for data visualisation and making data insights easy to understand
• (Preferred) Pidgin and/or Yoruba language skills for local field work in Lagos

Key responsibilities:

• Conduct research to find potential information sources and evaluate their usefulness and reliability
• Collect, clean, combine, and organise datasets
• Assess and quantify data quality problems
• Analyse datasets to derive insights
• Summarise your research findings by preparing clear and concise reports or presentations for internal and external stakeholders
• Create data visualisations (training will be provided in Flourish)
• As needed, conduct local on-the-ground field research