Senior Analyst - MENA focus

About the role

About ExTrac ExTrac is a decision intelligence company used by governments, defence organisations, financial institutions, and corporates operating in complex, fast-moving environments. Our capabilities fuse curated data sources, domain-specific AI, and deep human expertise to transform information overload into clear, actionable foresight. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a core region for ExTrac's intelligence coverage, spanning the political and security dynamics, actors, movements, and online ecosystems that shape risk across the region and beyond it. We are the analytical backbone for decision-making when geopolitical uncertainty becomes an opportunity or a strategic risk. More at extrac.ai. The Role As a Senior Analyst covering the MENA region, you will help ExTrac understand and anticipate political and security developments across the region, including the activities of state and non-state actors, violent extremist organisations (VEOs), and the online ecosystems in which they operate. Working in Arabic every day, across standard and dialectal material, you will turn what you find into timely reporting that feeds ExTrac's intelligence products and data platform. What the job involves Intelligence collection and analysis Monitor and assess political, security, and socio-economic developments across MENA, including regional diplomacy, state and non-state actors, and geopolitical risk, with the ability to contribute to wider global coverage when required. Conduct daily monitoring of Arabic- and English-language media, including news outlets, social media platforms, official statements, and other open-source information environments. Track VEO and non-state armed group activity, including organisational developments, propaganda and communications activity, governance dynamics, operational activity, and regional linkages. Identify new narratives, actors, platforms, and threats appearing across online ecosystems. Apply structured analytical techniques to assess complex information and identify patterns and relationships. Intelligence production Lead and contribute to daily, weekly, monthly, flash, and deep-dive analytical reporting, with a particular focus on MENA and VEOs. Translate and assess Arabic-language documents and other source material. Contribute to client-facing discussions, briefings, and ad hoc research requests as required. Develop and maintain subject-matter expertise across designated countries, actors, organisations, and thematic areas. Data curation Lead and contribute to source coverage for the region, identifying and proposing new actors, entities, channels, and outlets for inclusion in ExTrac's research ecosystem. Verify and assess sources in the original language prior to inclusion. Maintain coverage against intelligence requirements, identifying where it should expand or deepen. Contribute to the taxonomy and tagging decisions that structure MENA and violent extremism data. Work with the wider research and data teams to translate analytical judgement into structured data that others can rely on without further verification. Leadership and collaboration Support the Team Lead with the reviewing, and quality assurance of analytical outputs. Mentor junior analysts on research methodology, analytical standards, and source validation. Support other teams across ExTrac on projects and deliverables when required. Innovation and capability development Help develop research methodologies, monitoring frameworks, and analytical processes to improve team efficiency and product quality. Integrate AI systems and AI-assisted workflows into analytical practice where they create genuine improvements. You should apply if MENA is the region you already follow closely, across its politics, security dynamics, and the violent extremist movements and online ecosystems operating within it. This is the region you want to go deeper on rather than a rotation on the way to something else. You work i

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