Graphics/Multimedia Editor, Database Developer

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for. 

The Data Journalism department seeks an experienced programmer with journalism experience to develop the department’s collection of databases.

In this role, you’ll use a range of techniques to build and maintain internal databases that enable the newsroom to cover major storylines more effectively and ambitiously. You’ll be responsible for identifying the records worth gathering, collecting them, processing them, and making them accessible to your colleagues. As such, you’ll be the newsroom’s foremost expert on these databases and will collaborate with colleagues to report stories based on them, on a variety of deadlines. You’ll collect data programmatically, via public records requests, and through more manual means. We expect you to have a track record of building robust data pipelines, a knack for crafting effective public records requests, excellent data analysis skills, and an enthusiasm for written documentation. This role also requires excellent news judgement and a knack for planning ahead. 

This is a hybrid position that includes regular office attendance. New York is preferred, but other offices, including DC, will be considered. You will report to the Data Editor.

Important application requirement: Please submit a cover letter that highlights three databases or datasets you’ve helped to compile (through any method, of any size), at least one of which should have been built for use by journalists. We are interested, in particular, to understand the challenges you faced and how you overcame them. We’d also like to see evidence that your efforts contributed to meaningful journalism. Your cover letter should be no more than three pages long. In it, you are also welcome to provide a more traditional (but brief) description of your career and talents.

Responsibilities:

• Propose, develop, maintain, and document databases (internal and public) that illuminate what’s happening in the world

• Develop expertise on the databases’ material, and use that expertise to pitch stories using the data

• Collaborate with colleagues on stories that use the data

• Teach other data reporters and non-data reporters how to use the databases

• File, track and follow up on public records requests to gather material for those databases

• Organize the team’s data resources and keep them up-to-date

• Seek out opportunities to make our data collection efforts more efficient, including selective use of AI

• Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world

Basic Qualifications:

• 3+ years of relevant experience, at least one year of which should be in a newsroom

• Experience developing robust, well-documented data pipelines

• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure for data pipelines

• Experience filing public records requests at the federal and state level in the US

• Ability to communicate data analyses powerfully, accurately, and succinctly

• Proficiency working with data in Python and/or R

• Comfort with command-line tooling, version control, and other key technical skills

• Advanced spreadsheet and database skills (e.g., joins, pivot tables, etc.); experience building and querying databases using PostgreSQL and/or BigQuery.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with, and a preference for, working collaboratively on multidisciplinary teams

• Traditional reporting skills

• Experience reporting in response to major news cycles

• Experience with public records requests outside the US

This position is represented by the NewsGuild of NY.

REQ-018234

The annual base pay range for this role is between:$113,945.85—$155,000 USD