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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Internet Researcher

💰 $45,000 - $85,000

ResearchIntelligenceMarket ResearchDataOSINT

🎯 Role Definition

An Internet Researcher (sometimes called Online Researcher, OSINT Analyst, or Web Research Analyst) specializes in locating, verifying, extracting, and synthesizing information from public and subscription-based web sources. Using advanced search strategies, social media analysis, public records, APIs, and automated collection tools, the Internet Researcher delivers structured intelligence and research deliverables that inform business strategy, risk assessments, investigations, and content development. This role balances technical skills (web scraping, data extraction, SQL) with journalistic rigor (source evaluation, citation, ethical considerations) and is optimized to generate repeatable, machine-readable outputs for teams and LLM-enabled workflows.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Research Assistant or Research Intern (academic, media, or corporate)
  • Junior Data Analyst or Analyst (market, product, or operations)
  • Journalist, Paralegal, or Investigative Assistant with online research responsibilities

Advancement To:

  • Senior Internet Researcher / Senior OSINT Analyst
  • Competitive Intelligence Analyst or Market Research Manager
  • Investigations Lead, Research Team Manager, or Head of Digital Intelligence

Lateral Moves:

  • Data Analyst / Data Quality Specialist
  • Content Strategist / Research Content Specialist
  • Compliance Analyst or Due Diligence Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Execute comprehensive online research projects using advanced web search operators, boolean logic, deep web and surface web techniques to locate primary and secondary sources relevant to investigations, market analyses, and competitive intelligence requests.
  • Identify, access and extract information from public records, government databases, corporate registries, trademark filings, patents, and regulatory filings to support due diligence and risk assessments.
  • Conduct targeted social media investigations across platforms (Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) to map networks, verify identities, track sentiment, and surface user-generated content relevant to investigations.
  • Use OSINT tools (e.g., Maltego, Shodan, SpiderFoot) and web intelligence platforms to correlate digital footprints, domain histories, infrastructure details, and metadata for technical and investigative insights.
  • Collect structured data via APIs, RSS feeds, and automated scraping with tools or scripts (e.g., Scrapy, Beautiful Soup, Selenium), ensuring compliance with legal and ethical guidelines and internal policies.
  • Validate and triangulate sources by checking timestamps, cross-referencing archival records (Wayback Machine), WHOIS lookups, and corroborating with independent data points to ascertain credibility and reliability.
  • Transform raw web-sourced material into audience-ready deliverables such as annotated bibliographies, research memos, executive summaries, data tables, and visualizations that support decision-making.
  • Build and maintain research pipelines and repeatable collection routines to support recurring monitoring tasks (news monitoring, brand mentions, competitor activity) using alerts, feeds, and scheduled scraping.
  • Analyze competitor websites, product pages, pricing data, marketing collateral, and user reviews to produce competitive intelligence reports that include trend analysis, opportunity identification, and threat assessments.
  • Extract and normalize data from diverse web formats (HTML, PDF, Excel, JSON) and prepare clean datasets for ingestion by analysts, data teams, or LLM-driven workflows.
  • Conduct background investigations and identity verification using a combination of public records, social profiles, professional registries, and photographic metadata to support HR, compliance, or legal teams.
  • Monitor digital channels and forums (including niche communities, code repositories, and underground sites when appropriate) to detect emerging issues, misinformation campaigns, or reputational risks.
  • Compile and maintain research repositories, knowledge bases, and source libraries with clear metadata, citations, access controls, and versioning to ensure reproducibility and auditability.
  • Produce timely alerts and briefing notes on breaking developments, crisis indicators, or regulatory changes that could affect stakeholders or clients, with recommended next steps.
  • Liaise with subject matter experts, legal counsel, and client stakeholders to scope research requests, clarify deliverables, and ensure research outputs meet evidentiary and privacy requirements.
  • Map relationships and entities (people, organizations, domains) into network visualizations and relationship charts to make complex linkages actionable for investigations or strategy teams.
  • Perform targeted geospatial and satellite imagery research using geolocation techniques and open imagery to support investigative or market-expansion queries.
  • Maintain strict data handling practices, confidentiality, and chain-of-custody documentation when collecting sensitive or potentially privileged information.
  • Evaluate paid research databases and subscription services, recommend new sources, and manage vendor access to ensure cost-effective coverage for ongoing intelligence needs.
  • Train and mentor junior researchers and cross-functional teams on advanced search techniques, source evaluation frameworks, and tool best practices to raise overall research quality.
  • Continuously test and integrate new web research tools, browser extensions, automation frameworks, and LLMs to increase efficiency and accuracy of internet research workflows.
  • Create machine-readable research outputs (CSV, JSON, annotated datasets) and prompt templates for LLMs to enable scalable insights generation and downstream automation.

Secondary Functions

  • Respond to ad-hoc information requests from internal stakeholders and external clients with fast-turnaround research briefs and prioritized source lists.
  • Maintain and update internal documentation, SOPs, and playbooks for web research, OSINT workflows, and data verification standards.
  • Support cross-functional teams (legal, marketing, product, compliance) by translating technical research findings into plain-language recommendations and action items.
  • Assist with prototype dashboards, automated monitoring alerts, and KPI tracking related to brand health, competitor activity, or regulatory changes.
  • Participate in incident response and crisis research rotations to support rapid information gathering during escalations or public relations events.
  • Audit existing research outputs for accuracy, remove outdated or erroneous sources, and implement corrective measures to maintain repository integrity.
  • Contribute to the organization’s knowledge-sharing initiatives by presenting research case studies, tool demonstrations, and lessons learned.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Advanced web search and boolean query construction; mastery of Google search operators, site:, intitle:, intext:, filetype:, and other targeted operator techniques.
  • Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools experience (Maltego, SpiderFoot, Shodan, Censys) for mapping digital footprints and infrastructure.
  • Web data extraction and basic scripting: proficiency with scraping tools and libraries (Scrapy, BeautifulSoup, Selenium, Puppeteer) and the ability to create simple Python scripts for repeatable extraction.
  • API usage and integration: ability to query RESTful APIs, handle JSON/XML payloads, and normalize API responses into tabular datasets.
  • Data cleaning, transformation, and basic analysis in Excel, Google Sheets, or pandas; knowledge of regular expressions for pattern extraction.
  • Familiarity with SQL for querying research databases and joining web-sourced datasets into structured tables.
  • Social media investigation skills including account verification, archive retrieval, and use of platform-specific search tools and ad libraries.
  • Source verification techniques: WHOIS lookups, Wayback Machine archival research, metadata analysis, and reverse image search (Google Lens, TinEye).
  • Experience with paid research and subscription platforms (LexisNexis, Factiva, Bloomberg, ZoomInfo) and academic/industry databases.
  • Basic geolocation and imagery analysis skills, including working with map tools, EXIF metadata, and satellite imagery viewers.
  • Knowledge of data privacy, legal considerations, and ethical guidelines related to web scraping, data collection, and OSINT.
  • Ability to produce machine-readable outputs (CSV, JSON, XLSX) and structured annotations to support downstream ML/LLM processing.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional attention to detail and methodical documentation habits to ensure traceability and reproducibility of research findings.
  • Strong critical thinking and analytical reasoning to evaluate conflicting sources and synthesize nuanced conclusions.
  • Clear written and verbal communication, with the ability to translate complex research results into concise briefs and presentations for non-technical stakeholders.
  • Intellectual curiosity and persistence in pursuing hard-to-find information through unconventional online channels.
  • Time management and prioritization skills to manage multiple research requests and deliver high-quality outputs under tight deadlines.
  • Ethical judgment and discretion when handling sensitive information or conducting investigations that touch on personal data.
  • Collaboration and stakeholder management, including the ability to gather requirements and iterate on deliverables with cross-functional teams.
  • Problem-solving mindset and adaptability to work with new tools, platforms, and evolving research challenges.
  • Teaching and mentoring ability to onboard junior researchers and disseminate best practices across teams.
  • Resilience and stress tolerance for work involving urgent investigations, ambiguous leads, or complex datasets.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in a relevant field, or demonstrable portfolio of research projects and technical skills.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Information Science, Library Science, Computer Science, Data Science, Journalism, Political Science, International Relations, Business, or a related discipline.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Information Science / Library & Information Studies
  • Computer Science / Data Science
  • Journalism / Investigative Reporting
  • Political Science / International Relations
  • Business / Market Research
  • Law / Compliance / Criminology

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 1–5 years of progressive online research, OSINT, or related investigative experience. Junior roles may start at 0–2 years; mid-level typically 2–5 years.

Preferred:

  • 3+ years of demonstrated experience conducting internet research in a corporate, investigative, journalistic, intelligence, or market research setting; portfolio of case studies, reproducible research outputs, or example datasets preferred.
  • Experience with scripting for web scraping, API integration, and familiarity with at least one OSINT toolset or paid research platform.
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