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Research Assistant / Developer – AI Agent local-politics search tool

Department: School of Journalism
Position supervisor: Nicole Blanchett, Angela Misri, AJ Cordeiro
Contract length: March 2026 - December 2026 with possibility of extension Jan. - Dec. 2027
Hours of work per week: 6 hours
Position type: Research
Rate of pay: Commiserate with TMU rates for Master’s/PhD students

About Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University)

At the intersection of mind and action, Toronto Metropolitan University is on a transformative path to become Canada’s leading comprehensive innovation university. Integral to this path is the placement of equity, diversity and inclusion as fundamental to our institutional culture. Our current academic plan outlines each as core values and we work to embed them in all that we do.

Toronto Metropolitan University welcomes those who have demonstrated a commitment to upholding the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion and will assist us to expand 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, Metis and Inuit peoples, Indigenous peoples of North America, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, and those who identify as women and/or 2SLGBTQ+. Please note that all qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, applications from Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

As an employer, we are working towards a people first culture and are proud to have been selected as one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers and a Greater Toronto’s Top Employer for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. To learn more about our work environment, colleagues, leaders, students and innovative educational environment, visit www.torontomu.ca, check out @TorontoMet (external link)  and @ECItorontomet (external link)  on Twitter, and visit our LinkedIn company page (external link) .

About the program/department/team

We are seeking a Research Assistant/Developer to join Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) multidisciplinary team of The Political Accountability, Transparency, and Representation Oversight Network (PATRON). The team is led by Dr. Nicole Blanchett (external link) , working with the School of Journalism’s Asst. Professor Angela Misri and RTA School of Media’s A.J. Cordeiro, all of whom will be interacting with the RA, along with another RA/co-developer.This research aims to make public meetings, processes, and political decision making more transparent to citizens, through the creation of an AI agent that can perform topic-based searches on issues under the jurisprudence of municipal governments in Canada. 

The opportunity

The research assistant will help build an AI agent that would summarize the past, present, and future of issues/initiatives being proposed, discussed, and implemented at the local political level using closed pathways to a dataset of all accessible official transcripts/minutes of committee and council meetings, community meetings and information sessions, meetings of local business improvement networks and neighbourhood groups. We are seeking a Research Assistant/Developer with technical expertise to help build this agent. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys problem-solving, working with LLMs, web automation, and developing bespoke research tools. Applicants must be enrolled in a university program at the Master’s or PhD level.

The successful candidate will:

  • In cooperation with the multidisciplinary team, develop a topic-based AI agent that will help surface political decision-making and issues at the municipal level
  • Work independently and with their RA/developer partner to analyze the best pathways to curate information that will be accessed by the agent.
  • Document, and share their process and code through GitHub or similar open code tools and on the project’s website to allow for wider cooperation and collaboration in terms of best practice in the development of AI tools.
  • Provide input into or write/help write blog posts that explain the process of developing the workflow of capture for knowledge dissemination.
  • Develop the agent using critical analysis of best ethical practices related to the use of open source material and limitations and impacts of AI technologies.

Key Deliverable

A functioning and modifiable AI agent that allows for easy access to a timeline of events related to issues making their way through municipal-level government.  

What We Will Provide

  • Resources to create a unique AI agent that could have a significant impact on growing issues of civic awareness due to resource shortages in local news
  • Clear guidance on the scope and expectations of the project
  • Ongoing collaboration and feedback during development
  • Opportunities to contribute to papers/presentations related to the project
  • Networking opportunities with the wider PATRON team

Qualifications

  • Currently enrolled in a Master’s or PhD program
  • Experience with curating data from a wide variety of sources
  • Experience with building data pipelines
  • Experience building AI agents and LLMs
  • Experience with document ingestion (PDF parsing, metadata structuring)
  • Familiar with open source intelligence and API structures
  • Familiarity with hybrid search (semantic retrieval)
  • Familiarity with data & AI ethics and governance
  • Familiarity with embedding generation and vector indexing
  • Experience with topic modelling (BERT, LDA) & vector embeddings
  • Examples of Tools: Orange, JSON, Parquet, BM25, Ollama, Python, SQL (PostGres, PGVector), Streamlit, GitHub

How to apply

Please send your CV (including references), a brief description of your relevant experience, and (if available) examples of AI agents or LLMs you’ve developed or assisted in developing to angela.misri@torontomu.ca.

Toronto Metropolitan University’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion

  • We encourage all First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples or Indigenous peoples of North America, to self-identify in their applications. If you are an Indigenous applicant and require support during the recruitment process, please reach out to James McKay, Indigenous HR Lead at james13@torontomu.ca.
  • Toronto Metropolitan University is committed to the principles of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), and aims to ensure that independence, dignity, integration and equality of opportunity are embedded in all aspects of the university culture.
  • We will provide an accessible experience for applicants, students, employees, and members of the Toronto Metropolitan University community. We are committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free work environment, starting with the recruitment process. If you have restrictions that need to be accommodated to fully participate in any phase of the recruitment process,please reach out to Human Resources: 
  • All information received in relation to accommodation will be kept confidential.