About State

The mission of the Bureau of Global Public Affairs (GPA) is to serve the American people by effectively communicating U.S. foreign policy priorities and the importance of diplomacy to American audiences, and engaging foreign publics to enhance their understanding of and support for the values and policies of the United States.

The challenge

How might we help the Department of State develop new digital tools and strategies to more effectively communicate U.S. foreign policy priorities and the importance of diplomacy and better engage foreign publics?

The PIF Technical Advisor will work with the three teams within the Office of Analytics (The Media Monitoring Unit, The Data Science Unit and the Platforms Unit) to develop and monitor their technical aspects.

• The Media Monitoring Unit produces regular and special-issue media reports and trend analyses, formulates strategic and tactical communications advice based on overall policy goals and observations of media market dynamics, assesses past campaign performance, and provides competitive assessments of other actors.
• The Data Science Unit extracts knowledge and insights from data in various forms, both structured and unstructured, and standardizes and enters all collected media content into an information technology (IT) database for analysis by Global Public Affairs (GPA) bureau experts. It uses statistical, algorithmic, mining, and visualization techniques to integrate and prepare large datasets, create specialized database and computing environments, and communicate its results.
• The Platforms Unit provides expert advice, consultations, and media reports for bureau, Department, and interagency entities as it relates to the digital footprint of U.S. Government (USG) digital properties and the associated data produced from current events around the world. The team designs and implements measurement strategies designed to optimize the performance of digital initiatives, as well as collect and analyze the data to provide reporting that includes actionable insights.

This work will include participating in the development of new strategies, new tools, and in product management. The fellow will also collaborate with others within the Bureau and within the larger department.