public data lab

Hiring a software development engineer specialized in web interfaces and data collection

by Robin de Mourat and Benjamin Ooghe-Tabanou

The following is cross-posted from Sciences Po médialab.

The médialab is hiring an engineer to support a research project focused on developing browser extensions for researching and analyzing the politicization of live streaming on platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook.

Deadline: Monday 26 October 2026

Job Description

The EXTENSIF project

EXTENSIF studies reception practices of political content on live streaming platforms: how do people’s relationship to political life evolve through their engagement with French-speaking live streaming communities? Within this framework, the aim is to build the tools for innovative research methodologies with “100% local” web browser extensions, enabling users to record, visualise and editorialise the traces of their own platform uses without exchanging data with a server.

The project combines the development of reusable open source tools under free software licences and research of methods using semi-automated maintenance assisted by LLM agents, particularly to help repair failures in scraping code. All development is conducted in synergy with an inquiry insocial sciences and design, which uses and tests the tools as the project progresses.

The position

The engineer will be responsible for designing and realizing the technical development associated with the EXTENSIF project within the médialab’s technical team, working closely with the project lead and other team members.

They will conduct experiments to explore and validate the project’s various technical ambitions concerning the development of web browser extensions for research, and implement them as an ecosystem of JavaScript libraries and ready-to-use open source tools distributed for free and under free software licences.

They will also provide technical support for the project’s empirical inquiry, supporting tool users at various stages, as well as workshops and presentations devoted to sharing the tools and methods.

Main responsibilities

  • Develop browser extensions for collecting, visualising, editorialising and providing interfaces to track and explore traces of online video and live streaming platforms use, along with an ecosystem of JavaScript libraries under free software licences for developing similar tools.
  • Develop LLM agent-assisted maintenance methods for detecting failures in scraping code and correcting them semi-automatically.
  • Contribute to the technical coordination of the project: technical and methodological support on the developed tools during workshops bringing together researchers and civil society actors such as journalists and regulators; small-scale experiments to meet the research needs; technical dissemination and uptake.
  • Contribute to the development of general-purpose tools for research in humanities and social sciences, accessible to all audiences, within the médialab’s technical team.

Candidate profile

Required skills

  • Front-end engineering and development of rich, user-friendly interfaces in conjunction with design specifications.
  • Knowledge of modern scraping techniques and methods.
  • Expertise in JavaScript/TypeScript and in a modern framework such as React/Vue/Svelte; ability to write and assess this type of code without an AI agent.
  • Ability to sustain long term development by producing maintainable, documented and extensible code.
  • Ability to prototype experimental tools and features rapidly and respond to feedbacks from the field during development.
  • Strong communication skills: ability to work in a multidisciplinary team with colleagues in design and social sciences, following an organizational approach inspired by agile methods; ability to present completed work in professional or training settings.

Additional desirable skills

  • Browser extension development (Firefox/Chrome) – experience with a framework such as Plasmo would be an asset.
  • Continuous integration.
  • Prompt engineering – “expert” vibe coding, meaning the ability to produce high-quality code by delegating to AI agents, but also to maintain, explain, revise and reproduce it without assistance.
  • Web-based data visualisation.
  • Basic knowledge of natural language processing.
  • Basic knowledge of web design/UI design.
  • Basic knowledge of smartphone application development.

Required experience

  • At least one year of experience developing rich web applications and/or browser extensions.
  • An engineering degree in computer science is desirable but not essential; candidates with hybrid or self-taught backgrounds are welcome.
  • Experience in research, particularly in the social sciences and/or arts and design research, would be an asset.

Conditions du poste

  • Salary: Approximately €40,000 gross per year
  • Start date: December 1st 2026 at the earliest
  • Contract duration: 18 months, extendable to 36 months
  • Other information: Supplementary health insurance, 40 days of paid leave per year and 5 working-time reduction (RTT) days, meal vouchers, 55% reimbursement of the Navigo pass, remote working possible up to 2 days per week.

Hiring process

Candidates should send a curriculum vitae and a cover letter including links to existing work before October 26th 2026 to: recrutement.medialab@sciencespo.fr