Deputy Director, Data & Decision Desk

Company Description

NBCUniversal is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies. We create world-class content, which we distribute across our portfolio of film, television, and streaming, and bring to life through our theme parks and consumer experiences. We own and operate leading entertainment and news brands, including NBC, NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Sports, Telemundo, NBC Local Stations, Bravo, USA Network, and Peacock, our premium ad-supported streaming service. We produce and distribute premier filmed entertainment and programming through Universal Filmed Entertainment Group and Universal Studio Group, and have world-renowned theme parks and attractions through Universal Destinations & Experiences. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

Our impact is rooted in improving the communities where our employees, customers, and audiences live and work. We have a rich tradition of giving back and ensuring our employees have the opportunity to serve their communities. We champion an inclusive culture and strive to attract and develop a talented workforce to create and deliver a wide range of content reflecting our world.

Comcast NBCUniversal has announced its intent to create a new publicly traded company ('Versant') comprised of most of NBCUniversal's cable television networks, including USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel along with complementary digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass, and SportsEngine. The well-capitalized company will have significant scale as a pure-play set of assets anchored by leading news, sports and entertainment content. The spin-off is expected to be completed during 2025.

Job Description

NBC News is seeking a Deputy Director for Data and the NBC News Decision Desk to lead the strategic and editorial development of cross-platform journalism driven by NBC News data reporting and the NBC News Decision Desk teams. This deputy director will be focused on election data, polling on politics and broader sentiment, and voter demographics. The deputy director will also partner with the wider newsroom on data reporting to streamline efforts across platforms, elevate impact, in addition to generating reporting targets. As part of the focus on data, this role will also explore emerging applications of AI in journalism—partnering with the NBC News Group AI team, NBC News Standards, and editorial leadership to pilot reporting tools, develop analytics models and frameworks, and bring together cross-functional teams to identify and test responsible newsroom use cases. Oftentimes, this role will operate at the intersection of editorial, product, and technology to help drive coverage that informs audiences and fuels innovative storytelling across core editorial topics. 

The ideal candidate is a newsroom leader with broad and deep experience covering elections, politics, and national news, working closely with product teams and business leaders to build editorial packages. The person must be exceptionally organized and detail-oriented. This candidate will help shape and facilitate how we tell data-driven stories on NBCNews.com, streaming platforms, broadcast, and social media. As such, this candidate must be an excellent cross-team collaborator, partnering with various platforms and being flexible to their storytelling needs.

This person will manage a team of data and elections-focused journalists and report to the Director of Elections. The role will be based in New York and require a minimum of three days in the office.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a multi-platform strategy for data, polling, and demographic coverage related to U.S. elections in partnership with key stakeholders across editorial teams and the Decision Desk
• Lead analysis of polling and demographic data and surface meaningful trends, voter behavior patterns, and sentiment shifts
• Manage a small team of data and elections-focused journalists
• Oversee and/or edit writing coming directly out of the Decision Desk teams
• Partner with editorial, product, design, and technology teams to build and enhance reporting tools, dashboards, and data visualizations
• Partner with editorial, product, design, and graphics teams to execute NBC News Election and Race Results pages on NBCNews.com and across other platforms
• Coordinate with external polling partners and data vendors as needed.
• Connect data reporting efforts across teams and platforms to produce a unified approach to data journalism 
• Serve as a key point of contact on the editorial side for AI in the newsroom
• Partner with key stakeholders, the NBC News AI team, Standards and Legal; and editorial leadership to explore and apply AI tools and analytics, convene teams, and define responsible use cases
• Collaborat