David Bromell worked in senior policy advice roles in New Zealand's central and local government from 2003 to 2020. He is a Senior Associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies in the School of Government at Victoria University of Wellington, and an Adjunct Senior Fellow in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Canterbury. His research on hate, harm and the limits of censorship was conducted as a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies in Bochum, Germany, from October 2020 to March 2021.