Data Visualization Specialist (Working Student)

Role Summary

We are seeking a Data Visualization Specialist for our Berlin office to design and deliver compelling, insightful, and accessible data products that communicate complex political, economic, and social trends across the African continent. This role is central to how we present our research and analysis to policymakers, partners, and the broader public.

As a working student, you will be part of a dynamic and mission-driven team, with the chance to grow this function into a key strategic area at APRI. This position is ideal for candidates looking to gain hands-on experience while contributing meaningfully to our work, with a view toward potential long-term employment.

Please only apply if you can work onsite with the Berlin team.

Key Responsibilities

1. Design and develop engaging, user-friendly data visualizations (both static and interactive) that clearly convey key research findings.
2. Build and maintain interactive databases and dashboards to support project work and stakeholder engagement.
3. Analyze and translate complex datasets into accessible, visually appealing formats tailored for non-technical audiences.
4. Collaborate closely with researchers, communications staff, and program leads to align on content, objectives, and output standards.
5. Contribute to the optimization of internal workflows by identifying scalable tools and moving beyond hardcoded solutions where applicable.
6. Ensure all outputs maintain a high standard of data integrity, usability, and visual excellence.

Key Outputs:

1. Develop and iterate on APRI’s existing and new data visualizations, including interactive dashboards and infographics.
2. Maintain an APRI data lake or centralized data repository, including pipelines/API links to publicly available data sources (e.g., UN, INGOs, government data portals).
3. Visualize mixed-methods research findings, including both qualitative and quantitative data.
4. Establish a consistent and branded data visualization template/style guide for APRI.
5. Develop and implement GUI tools to enable internal data exploration and basic analysis.
6. Contribute to the integration of interactive data visualizations in APRI’s publications and online platforms.

Key Responsibilities

1. Proven experience in data visualization; preferred D3.js. Other skills are a plus, e.g. Phyton, R, Tableau, Power BI, Flourish, data wrapper or similar).
2. Ability to gather, organize, visualize, and communicate policy-relevant data from a range of sources and disciplines (both quantitative and qualitative).
3. Strong grasp of data structures, analytical methods, storytelling with data, and UI/UX principles.
4. Excellent communication skills and a collaborative mindset; ability to work effectively across interdisciplinary teams.
5. Proactive, solutions-oriented, and open to experimenting with new tools and methods.
6. Strong interest in — and understanding of — African politics, economics, and international development (required).

Our offer

6 months (Working Student Contract), with the possibility of extension and potential to transition into a full-time position. This is a unique opportunity to shape and grow APRI’s data visualization work from the ground up.

This is a part-time position for up to 50% in a working-student contract with competitive remuneration. Place of work is a great sunny new office at Moritzplatz, Kreuzberg with possibility of doing remote work.