The Social Media Lab is looking for a motivated and technically proficient Research Assistant to join our team for the Summer 2026 term. This is an excellent opportunity to work at the intersection of social science and technology, building tools that help us understand the digital landscape.
Position Overview
- Term: May 4, 2026 – August 31, 2026
- Rate: $23.00 per hour
- Location: On-site at the Social Media Lab
- Work Arrangement: Full-time (or agreed-upon weekly hours)
Key Responsibilities
- Full-Stack Development: Build and maintain web applications using Node.js and frameworks like Next.js or Express.
- Service Integration: Implement and manage relevant cloud services and database architectures to support ongoing research projects.
- Data Pipeline Engineering: Develop scripts in Python to collect, clean, and analyze large datasets.
- Collaboration: Work closely with researchers to translate project requirements into functional technical solutions.
Qualifications
- Web Frameworks: Strong proficiency in Node.js; experience with Next.js (React) or Express is highly preferred.
- Data Visualization: Knowledge of data visualization libraries (e.g., D3.js, Chart.js, or Tailwind CSS).
- Data Science Stack: Competency in Python (Pandas, NumPy) for data manipulation.
- API Savvy: Experience fetching and parsing data from various web APIs.
- Experience with LLM prompt engineering or integration (OpenAI, LangChain, etc.) is an asset.
How To Apply
Send your resume and a link to your GitHub or portfolio to [email protected]. Please highlight 1-2 projects where you integrated a web frontend with a data-heavy backend.
Deadline: May 1, 2026; the review process will continue until the positions are filled.
INSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND:
The Social Media Lab is an internationally engaged interdisciplinary research laboratory at the Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto, Canada. The Lab studies how social media and other emerging digital technologies, such as Generative AI, are changing the ways in which people and organizations communicate, disseminate information, conduct business and form communities online, and how these changes impact society. The aim of the lab’s various research initiatives is to advance the public’s understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of social media adoption. The Lab was established in 2010 and is the first of its kind in North America. The Lab attracts a diverse range of outstanding multidisciplinary scholars from around the world each year. It is a leader in social media studies and the founder of the International Conference on Social Media and Society (#SMSociety). The Lab is led by co-directors Anatoliy Gruzd (PhD) and Philip Mai (JD).
Ted Rogers School of Management is home to over 13,000 students and more than 200 industry-connected faculty, the Ted Rogers School of Management in Canada’s leading diverse, entrepreneurial business school centered in an urban learning environment. TRSM offers 14 undergraduate programs, the Ted Rogers MBA, a Master of Health Administration, a Master of Science in Management, and a new PhD in Management. TRSM is also home to 18 innovative research centres, institutes and labs, including the Social Media Lab.
Toronto Metropolitan University, with over 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students is located in the heart of one of the world’s most culturally and linguistically diverse urban centres. Research at Toronto Metropolitan is on a trajectory of success and growth, as evidenced by a doubling of externally funded research over the past 5 years. Longstanding partnerships with the community, industry, government, and professional practice drive research and innovation that address real-world problems.
At TMU, we firmly believe that equity, diversity and inclusion are integral to this path; our current academic plan outlines each as a core value, and we work to embed them in all that we do. We welcome those who have demonstrated a commitment to upholding the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion and will assist us in expanding our capacity for diversity in the broadest sense. In addition, to correct the conditions of disadvantage in employment in Canada, we encourage applications from members of groups that have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized, including First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, Indigenous peoples of North America, Black-identified persons, other racialized persons, persons with disabilities, and those who identify as women and/or 2SLGBTQ+.