Position: Senior Lead Investigator

Location: Remote

Contract Type: Contractor- international

Compensation: Commensurate with experience

Term: 1 year

About Project Expedite Justice

Project Expedite Justice (PEJ), founded in 2016, is a United States-based NGO with 501(c)(3) charitable organization designation.

PEJ's mission is to use all available legal options to seek justice for individuals inadequately protected under the law, who cannot access legal resources, and who are exploited by governments, corporations, or others.

PEJ applies a novel, victim-centered approach to addressing mass atrocities. PEJ's 3-step model includes training, mentoring, and providing independent legal consulting. We partner with and train local lawyers and investigators to collect, analyze, and preserve evidence according to international legal standards. Without evidence, there can be no accountability. We further build local capabilities and advance the justice process through case-specific mentoring and strategic guidance to local legal practitioners and investigators. Finally, we partner with local NGOs, pro bono law firms, and legal clinics to represent victims of international crimes and serious human rights abuses in court or alternative judicial mechanisms.

PEJ has projects in several countries. Our inclusive team includes people working remotely from Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and the US. We are deeply committed to increasing opportunities for lawyers and other human rights defenders from the global majority or global south to participate in international rule-of-law-based nonprofit work.

The Opportunity: Senior Lead Investigator

Job Summary:

We are seeking an experienced Senior Lead Investigator to join our team supporting our humanitarian programs in Ukraine. The Senior Lead Investigator will work directly with PEJ’s senior management team to manage and implement the activities of Phase III and achieve the goals of the project. Under the overall supervision and strategic guidance of the Legal and Program Director (Ukraine), and the daily coordination of the Program Coordinator, the Senior Lead Investigator will be responsible in general for the implementation of the relevant project goals and more specifically for (1) the oversight of the lead and junior investigators, (2) the coordination with the analysis, data and legal teams of PEJ Ukraine Program and (3) the collaboration with external investigation partners and providers.

Key Responsibilities

The duties of the Senior Lead Investigator also include, but are not limited to, the following tasks:

Working with investigators to meet the project's goals and deliverables, including mentoring and supervision of field missions, witness screenings and interviews, evidence collection (HumInt, OSINT, documentary), preservation and consolidation, support and advice to victims’ communities for evidence collection and access to accountability avenues.
Establishing, together with the lead investigators, an investigation plan to collect evidence on the Russian State’s crimes, sanction violations, and in particular, the commission of pillage, starting from harvesting evidence to data consolidation and preservation, specifically from agrarian stakeholders, infrastructure operators and transportation actors.
Coordinating the field team activities, streamlining and prioritizing their work in accordance with the strategic guidance received, and overseeing the correct collection and preservation of evidence and relevant data in accordance with PEJ standard operating procedures and guidelines.
Leading the collection of evidence and fixation of losses for possible claims by the agrarian community.
Leading the harvest and consolidating evidence on grain movements to identify crime patterns.
Contribute to building cases, supporting national and foreign investigations, and preparing the factual basis for sanctions submissions in coordination with the Senior Legal Advisor.
Participating in capacity building and training for judicial and law enforcement authorities as required.

The Senior Lead Investigator will also participate as required in the following general PEJ activities:

PEJ organizational meetings.
Contribute to concept development, proposal writing, and other fundraising activities.
Conduct research and drafting analysis memoranda on a variety of issues to support partners; and
Contribute actively to regular reporting needs.
Report and document all activities related to the project or the organization.

Work With Us

Project Officer for Kharkiv project

Subgrants Officer

Project Officer at PEJ/Truth Hounds

Senior Lead Investigator

Procurement and Accounting Officer