Visiting Scientific Outreach Specialist

AAAS•Washington, DC

6d•Remote

About The Position

SciLine, a program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), is accepting applications for a bilingual (English, Spanish) Visiting Scientific Outreach Specialist. This is a full-time, two-year-long opportunity to contribute to the organization’s mission of connecting journalists to scientific expertise. The individual will play a central role researching, identifying, vetting, and recruiting scientific experts to participate in SciLine’s flagship Expert Matching Service for journalists, including by identifying Spanish-speaking scientists to add to SciLine’s database of media-ready experts. A competitive candidate will have fluency in both English and Spanish, a concrete understanding of the principles, methods, and culture of science; familiarity with current research trends; excellent research, data analysis, and time management skills; and a well-calibrated ability to communicate effectively with busy peers in the science community—all within the context of a bustling, deadline-driven, newsroom-like shop. Familiarity with the news media landscape is a plus. This is a two-year, term-based position with the possibility of extension. The position may be especially attractive to individuals with a Master’s or PhD degree in a field of science who are considering science communication, journalism, public relations, or other non-academic career options. Help us ignite the next era of science.

Requirements

Master’s degree or Ph.D. in a scientific discipline, in social sciences a plus.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills in both English and Spanish.
Excellent research skills and commitment to scientific rigor.
Ability to build trusting relationships with scientists, research institutions, and scientific organizations.
Ability to read, digest, and quickly extract meaning from scientific and technical papers across a wide range of scientific domains.
Ability to identify and assess scientific communications skills using a diverse range of potential resources.
Ability to clean, analyze, and extract conclusions from large qualitative and quantitative datasets.
Ability to balance short- and long-term deadlines simultaneously.
Ability to work independently, but appreciative of collaborative inputs.
Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion across the scientific and journalistic enterprises—themes central to SciLine’s mission and success.
Sensitivity to social and ethical issues relevant to science, science communication, and journalism.
Appreciation for SciLine’s overarching mission of enhancing journalism with scientific expertise and context and leveraging journalism in support of evidence-based decision-making.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with the news media landscape.
Proficiency with Tableau, Power BI, R, and/or Salesforce.

Responsibilities

Identify scientific experts from SciLine’s internal database and, when necessary, from other sources, and vet those experts’ scientific expertise and communication skills for possible referral to journalists seeking sources on deadline.
As a peer-to-peer science professional, reach out to scientific experts to recruit them to participate in interviews with journalists from local and national media outlets for specific stories.
Partner with SciLine’s Scientific Outreach Managers to expand SciLine’s database of experts, including through recruitment of scientific experts who are bilingual and/or who come from a diversity of personal and professional backgrounds.
As time allows, help analyze quantitative and qualitative data collected by SciLine to assess the efficacy and value of its services for journalists and scientists.
Depending on the skills and interests of the successful candidate and the needs of the organization, there may also be opportunities to participate in other SciLine activities, such as organizing media briefings, arranging one-on-one interviews with scientists, teaching media communication to scientists or science to reporters, or other activities.