Investigative Researcher

JR United Kingdom; Bournemouth; Remote; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Part time

Job summary

JR United Kingdom seeks an Investigative Researcher to lead inquiries into the UK's tax system, tackling issues like tax avoidance and corporate secrecy. With flexible working arrangements, this permanent position values diverse experiences and perspectives, offering the opportunity to make a significant impact on public understanding and accountability.

Benefits

Flexible working policy

Payment towards shared workspace costs

Qualifications

• 3-5 years experience in investigative research or journalism in tax or finance.
• Ability to use open sources for financial investigation.
• Strong commitment to fairness and effectiveness in the UK tax system.

Responsibilities

• Design and conduct investigative research on tax avoidance and evasion.
• Help communicate findings to the public and media.
• Contribute to strategic planning of investigative priorities.

Skills

Investigative research

Writing clear reports

Data analysis

Open source investigation

Job description

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We’re looking for a curious, collaborative, and experienced Investigative Researcher to help usuncover how the UK tax system is being exploited and by whom. Whether your background is injournalism, financial investigation or civil society research, you’ll apply your skills to uncovercomplex financial and tax arrangements, and to explain them in compelling ways.

You’ll lead or contribute to major investigations into tax avoidance, evasion, corporate secrecy,and the enablers of tax abuse. Your work will be central to our mission to shape publicunderstanding and hold power to account.

We understand that not everyone’s path is linear. We benefit from our staff having diverseperspectives and experiences. If you bring transferable skills and a commitment to economicjustice—even if you don’t meet every single requirement—we’d love to hear from you.

Contract: Permanent, 3 days per week (0.6 full-time equivalent)

Working arrangements: Flexible working policy with core working hours of 10:00-15:00 UKtime. We will also consider compressed hours if requested.

Location: Our team works remotely. TaxWatch offers a payment towardsshared workspace costs.

Application Deadline: Monday 14 July 2025, 12 noon UK time

Interviews: 21-28 July 2025 (remote)

To apply: Please send a CV and one-page cover letter to[emailprotected] (please send your application via email, and please do not simply submit your pro-forma CV via LinkedIn)

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TaxWatch is committed to building a diverse team. Journalism, the tax and financialprofessions, and the charity sector, all have serious diversity problems. We welcomeapplications from everyone, and particularly encourage applications from people from anethnic minority background, and people with a disability. Our existing team includes people witha disability.

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The post-holder will:

• Design and conduct investigative research on tax avoidance, tax evasion, the ‘offshoreworld’ and deficiencies in UK tax administration: driving investigations from initialconcept to finished product in conjunction with the director and tax technical adviser
• Identify new targets for investigative research in line with TaxWatch’s strategic plan andthematic priorities
• Help communicate the findings of investigations to the public, media, parliamentarians,public officials, professional stakeholders and other audiences, with support from thedirector and other staff
• Contribute to strategic planning of TaxWatch’s investigative priorities
• Liaise with journalists and media partners where necessary, in conjunction with thedirector

We’re looking for someone with:

• At least 3-5 years’ experience of investigative research, regulatory or forensicinvestigations, or journalistic work in tax, corporate transparency, illicit finance,corruption, money-laundering, or related areas
• Ability to use open sources for financial investigations, including financial accounts,company registries, social media and other sources
• Ability to write clear and compelling reports, articles and blogs communicating complexfinancial stories and tax schemes
• A strong commitment to fairness and effectiveness in the UK tax system and taxadministration

We hope to find someone who also has some of these skills and experiences:

• Ability to use data tools and data visualisation to enhance financial investigations
• Experience of identifying and obtaining information from contacts and sources
• A network of relevant contacts in business, finance, law, and related fields
• An understanding of the UK tax system and tax policy developments
• Familiarity with economic and financial reporting principles
• An understanding of UK libel and defamation laws

About us

TaxWatch was established in 2018 to shine a light on how the UK tax system is functioning, andhow it’s abused. We are an investigative think-tank: we use in-depth investigations to showwhat’s going wrong, and what needs to change.

Rather than solely focusing on tax policy, we look at how the UK tax system operates ‘on theground’. Our investigations have ranged from the use and abuse of tax credits by billion-poundfilm franchises, to tax avoidance by tech giants, to special property regimes that avoid capitalgains tax while shrinking housing availability for renters.

An ongoing strand of our work examines professional enablers of tax abuse, leading tosanctions against tax advisers responsible for fraud and large-scale tax evasion, and alsoshowcasing inadequate regulation of the tax adviser industry. Our annual State of TaxAdministration report serves as a shadow report on HMRC’s functioning and resourcing, and itsstatistics are widely used by the media, parliamentary committees and NGOs.

Our staff and advisors include journalists, financial investigators, lawyers and tax professionals.We are widely consulted and cited by the media and campaigners, and we provide a technicalresource for other tax justice organisations. We are a registered UK charity and a companylimited by guarantee.