About us
The British Election Study is the longest-running and most authoritative survey of electoral behaviour in the UK, tracking the attitudes and behaviour of British voters at every general election since 1964.
Royal Holloway with King's College London and the University of Manchester have been awarded £4.9million by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to lead the British Election Study (BES) for the next five years (2027-2032). During this period, the team will introduce new methods, new data and new ways of making the BES accessible to researchers, policymakers, journalists and the public.
Within the BES project, the Department of Informatics at King’s College London is responsible for developing the BES’s Artificial Intelligence Interface (the BES-AII). Integrated into the BES website (https://www.britishelectionstudy.com/), the BES-AII will offer users the opportunity to access and interact with BES data through natural language queries, making the BES data more accessible to non-specialist users than ever before.
About the role
The Department of Informatics at King’s College London is seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Researcher to lead the development and maintenance of the British Election Study’s public facing AI Interface (BES-AII).
The researcher will be responsible for upgrading the BES’s data infrastructure, including harmonising data across survey waves, and will collaborate with other members of the BES team (largely political scientists) to develop a knowledge base (ontology) for the BES, which will support the mapping of related BES survey questions, political concepts, and third-party political data.
Building on the BES data infrastructure and knowledge base, the researcher will lead the development of the BES-AII where users can interact with and export BES data using natural language queries. The system will initially build on an existing data retrieval architecture using Retrieval Augmented Generation and will then move towards using more advanced tools which combine large language models and knowledge bases (e.g., LLM-Wiki - https://llm-wiki.net/). We also expect that the researcher will play a small role in supporting the collection and analysis of donated social media data from BES survey respondents, if required.
Throughout the project, the researcher will contribute to outreach activities, will support extensive (AI) safety testing, and will contribute to ensuring that the BES maintains its duty to remain politically impartial.
The role is primarily focused on research software development, but we anticipate additional opportunities for the researcher to contribute to computational social science and AI safety research using BES data.
The researcher will be based in the Department of Informatics and will report to Dr Max Falkenberg (primary supervisor), and Professor Rosie Campbell (second supervisor; political science lead for the BES at KCL).
This is a part-time post (15 hours per week; 40% FTE), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 36 months from your start date. There is a possibility, subject to approvals, that the post can be extended to 50% FTE.
Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.
About you
To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:
Essential criteria
- A PhD in a relevant subject (completed, or near completion).
- A proven track record of interdisciplinary research and engagement, and willingness to actively work with, and communicate clearly to individuals with diverse backgrounds (academics, policy makers, the public, etc.).
- Proven expertise in software development for research.
- Proven expertise in data engineering, ideally using AI-based methods.
- A full commitment to maintaining ethical research practices, including in relation to the use of AI, and when working with sensitive political data.
- Excellent communication, both written and verbal skills.
- Excellent organizational and teamworking skills.
- Enthusiasm to work at the boundary of computer science and politics.
Desirable criteria
- Experience in quantitative methods in the social sciences, or computational social science, in particular in relation to survey research.
- An established research reputation, proven through a track-record of publications.
- Experience engaging with public-facing outreach activities.
- Experience in web development and maintenance.
- Experience in social media research.
Downloading a copy of our Job Description
Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.
Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.
Further Information
At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.
The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.
We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.
When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.
We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, and we recognise its growing role in professional work. Applicants may use AI tools to support preparation of their application, for example to research the role or structure written responses. However, applications must reflect the applicant’s own work and experience. AI tools should not be used during interviews or assessment activities unless this has been agreed in advance as a reasonable adjustment. Further guidance on the use of AI in recruitment can be found here.
We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.
We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.
To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.
Interviews will be held on the 17th or 18th December
Grade and Salary: £50,766 pro-rata, including London Weighting Allowance
Job ID: 163185
Post Date: 04-Nov-2026
Close Date: 02-Dec-2026
Contact Person: Dr Max Falkenberg
Contact Details: max.falkenberg@kcl.ac.uk
