Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks has reportedly been hired by Rupert Murdoch for a new position in the US, less than a year after she was cleared of involvement in a phone hacking scandal.

According to The Guardian, Ms Brooks has moved to New York with her family to help Mr Murdoch find online start-ups in which to invest.

• Rebekah Brooks a ‘nightmare’
• Brooks: the editor who became front-page news

Ms Brooks was acquitted in June last year on charges of being involved in widespread phone hacking at News of the World, and has remained out of the public eye since.

She was reportedly spotted visiting Mr Murdoch’s New York headquarters in October, and attending a trade show in Las Vegas with other Murdoch representatives in February.

Ms Brooks resigned in 2011 amid allegations that her newspaper paid a private investigator to hack the phones of a long list of celebrities, murder victims and soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She said she felt “vindicated” following her acquittal. Her husband accused police of treating her like a terrorist and stripping her of a lifetime career.

News Corp has declined to comment.