Data Scientist

University of Zurich

Center for Legal Data Science

Data Scientist (Project: Strategic Japanese-Swiss Science and Technology Programme) 30 - 50 %

Start of employment to be mutually agreed upon.

The Center for Legal Data Science (CLDS) is an interdisciplinary research hub at the Law Faculty of the University of Zurich. The core task of the CLDS is the application, critical reflection and promotion of data science methods in national and international legal contexts. The CLDS pursues the following high-level goals:

• advancing legal knowledge and legal knowledge production through the application of quantitative methods
• enhancing the transparency of the law and legal procedures through the application of quantitative methods
• facilitating interdisciplinary legal research and teaching involving quantitative methods, on a national and international level

The position is embedded in a collaborative research project (title: Global Framework for Legal Knowledge Structuring and AI Development) between the CLDS and the Department of Mathematical Informatics at the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo. The project is grounded in modern statistical methodology at the intersection of statistical network science, geometric data analysis, and quantitative legal data science. It builds on recent advances in dynamic network embeddings, graph regression, and legal knowledge graphs to develop mathematically principled and interpretable representations of evolving relational systems. These approaches draw on probability theory, spectral methods, and statistical modeling and are applied to large-scale, cross-jurisdictional datasets of court decisions from the United States, Europe, and Japan.

The research investigates the structure of legal norms, the evolution of judicial reasoning over time, and the role of courts in shaping and transforming the law. While the project is theoretically grounded, the Research Assistant will primarily contribute to empirical and computational components and is not expected to master the full mathematical scope of the underlying methods.

We offer varied and interesting work in an inspiring and socially relevant environment. Diversity and inclusion are important to us.

• Challenging research position in a motivated and interdisciplinary team
• Collaboration with international research partners, including the University of Tokyo
• Opportunity to contribute to publications in national and international journals
• Flexible working hours (possibility of working partly from home)
• Hands-on experience in applied quantitative research at the interface of mathematics, data science, and law

More information about the CLDS can be found on www.clds.uzh.ch.

Your responsibilities

As a member of the CLDS team, you will support quantitative empirical research in legal data science. Your responsibilities may include:

• Assisting with the construction, cleaning, and preprocessing of large-scale legal text datasets
• Building and maintaining dynamic knowledge graphs derived from judicial decisions
• Implementing and running existing embedding and network analysis algorithms
• Conducting empirical analyses and simulation experiments
• Supporting comparative quantitative studies across different legal systems

The position combines computational and empirical research within an internationally coordinated academic environment.

Your profile

The following qualifications are required:

• Bachelor's degree with ongoing Master's studies, or completed Master's degree, in data science, statistics, computer science, applied mathematics, computational linguistics, or a related quantitative field
• Good programming skills in Python and/or R
• Good background in statistics, data analysis, or related quantitative methods
• Interest in interdisciplinary research, particularly at the interface of law and data science
• Good written and oral knowledge of English

The following qualifications are assets but not required:

• Experience with network analysis, machine learning, or natural language processing
• Familiarity with legal data or empirical legal research
• Knowledge of German or Japanese

Strong motivation, reliability, attention to detail, and the ability to work independently on empirical tasks are particularly valued.

Information on your application

Applicants are requested to submit their application (motivation letter, CV, track record, copies of certificates, copy of a thesis). Applications are considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

What we offer

Work-Life Balance

• Flexible working models (such as part-time positions, mobile working, job-sharing)
• Childcare at the kihz foundation of UZH and ETH

Learning and Development

• Wide range of continuing education courses of UZH and the Canton of Zurich
• Language Center run jointly with ETH Zurich

Food

• Food and drinks at reduced prices in the UZH cafeterias
• Lunch-Check-card with UZH contribution

Healthcare

• Special conditions on the Academic Sports Association ASVZ
• Free seasonal flu vaccinations
• Rest and relaxation at the quiet room in the university tower

Discounts

• Private traffic: Carsharing, rent a vehicle, parking space
• Digitalization: Hardware, software, mobile phone subscriptions
• Special conditions on hotel reservations

Conditions of Employment

• Policies of the UZH
• Most UZH staff are employed according to public law

International Services

• Support for people from outside Switzerland

Campuses

• Campuses Zurich City, Zurich Irchel, Oerlikon and Schlieren
• Sites Zurich West, Old Botanical Garden, Botanical Garden and Lengg

Location

Center for Legal Data Science

Pestalozzistrasse 24, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland

Further information

Questions about the job

Dr. Zhivko Taushanov