Investigator, Arms and Armed Conflict

Role Overview

Based within the Evidence Lab, this role is about getting to the bottom of how weapons and the forces that use them affect people living through conflict, unrest and other crises. You will design and drive investigations into military, police and security-force operations, arms transfers and the changing character of warfare, drawing on field reporting, open-source material and visual evidence, and then turn that material into findings that colleagues, media and the public can rely on. It matters because documented, defensible answers about who supplied a weapon, who deployed it and which legal rules were broken are what make accountability possible.

Key Responsibilities

• Scan conflicts, protests, arms deals and technological developments to spot investigation opportunities, then shape them into multidisciplinary research projects alongside regional and thematic colleagues.
• Lead or co-lead inquiries into the use of lethal and less-lethal weapons by state forces and other armed actors, assessing the human rights and international humanitarian law consequences of that use.
• Trace arms transfers and supply chains to establish where weapons, munitions and law-enforcement equipment originated and how they reached the end user.
• Investigate newer forms of warfare — remote and autonomous systems, AI-enabled targeting, hybrid tactics — and document their impact on civilians.
• Reconstruct incidents using remote battle damage assessment, post-blast analysis, weapons and ordnance identification from imagery and documents, and verification of video and geospatial material.
• Establish attribution and responsibility, identifying the units, individuals, corporate actors, brokers and suppliers the evidence points to.
• Write and edit reports, briefings, press materials and multimedia outputs that make technical findings clear to people without specialist knowledge.
• Advise research teams on weapons identification, conduct of hostilities, use-of-force questions and supply-chain tracing, working with legal and policy advisers so every finding stands up against international law and standards.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Substantial professional experience running complex investigations into weapons, armed conflict, military, security-force or law-enforcement operations, or arms transfers — ideally within human rights documentation, investigative journalism or a comparable public-interest field.
• A strong portfolio of advanced digital and open-source investigations demonstrating end-to-end ownership of complex research and consistently high-quality outputs.
• Advanced expertise in firearms, explosive ordnance and less-lethal weapons, including practical experience identifying weapons and ordnance from visual and documentary evidence, plus solid grounding in weapons employment, explosive effects and relevant military and law-enforcement doctrine.
• Demonstrated experience in one or more of: attack reconstruction, attribution and responsibility, military operations analysis, arms transfers and supply chains, or emerging military technologies.
• Experience investigating the trade in and misuse of law-enforcement equipment, including recognising common lethal and less-lethal categories and how they feature in rights violations.
• Sharp editorial judgement and the ability to combine rigorous research with compelling writing and strong visual evidence.
• Comfort working collaboratively across regions, teams and time zones, and engaging with sensitive material and fast-moving crises.

What We Offer / Why Join

• Location flexibility: London is the preferred base, with Mexico City, Dakar, Nairobi and Johannesburg also open. Compensation is set according to the location of the post.
• A cross-organisational remit that puts you in direct contact with regional researchers, thematic specialists, legal and policy advisers, and communications, campaigns and design teams.
• A chance to help shape a growing area of work on new warfare, from autonomous weapons to AI-assisted targeting, and to see your findings reach the audiences that can act on them.