Computational Journalist

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ProPublica
New York, NY, USA
Full-time

We are seeking a computational journalist to join our expanding team to cover the hidden algorithms and social platforms that play an increasing role in our lives. Journalism experience is a plus, but we especially encourage applications from people with quantitative/research backgrounds, such as statistics, data science, machine/deep learning or epidemiology. Ability to code well is a must.

Areas of Responsibility: 
  • Write software and conduct analyses that detect bias and other harms
  • Reverse engineer “black boxes,” e.g., the Compas algorithm we covered in our “Machine Bias” story
  • Write methodology articles (example) that explain our analysis and results to both readers and experts
  • Work with reporters and other data team members with data brainstorming, acquisition, cleaning, bulletproofing and spot-checking
  • Wrangle data, including including the unstructured, messy kind
  • Scrape websites, including stubborn ones
  • Consume APIs, including poorly designed ones
Educational Background: 
A graduate degree is a plus.
Skills/Experience: 
  • Experience working on data projects in a newsroom, or has done statistical or data-scientific analysis in academia or in another research setting
  • Fluency in modern and widely supported software languages, and an aptitude for and genuine interest in developing your skills in design and journalism
  • Solid editorial judgment and the ability to write quickly and cleanly on deadline
  • Clear thinking and sharp writing
  • Attention to detail and a love for making things
  • The self-discipline to work independently, as well as an eagerness to work with teammates on collaborative projects
  • A solid understanding of the tools of data analysis, such as database management systems (SQL Server or PostgreSQL), statistics software (R), Microsoft Excel, etc.
Compensation/Benefits: 

The job is full time and includes benefits.

How to Apply: 

You can apply at https://propublica.forms.fm/computational-journalist-technology-platform...

Additional Information: 

We are based in New York, but open to remote-working if the fit is right. Applicants must be eligible to work in the United States.

We know there are great candidates who won’t fit everything we’ve described above, or who have important skills we haven’t thought of. When in doubt, apply. There’s a place on the application for you to tell us more.

We are dedicated to improving our newsroom, in part by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. And we are taking steps to meet that commitment. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.

Job Function: 
Communications & Public Education

Organization Info

ProPublica

Overview
Headquarters: 
New York, NY
Website: 
propublica.org
Annual Budget : 
$10-50M
Size: 
51-200 employees
Founded: 
2007
About Us
Areas of Focus: 
Arts / Culture / Humanities
Mission: 

The Mission
To expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.

Programs: 

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account.

With a team of more than 75 dedicated journalists, ProPublica covers a range of topics including government and politics, business, criminal justice, the environment, education, health care, immigration, and technology. We focus on stories with the potential to spur real-world impact. Among other positive changes, our reporting has contributed to the passage of new laws; reversals of harmful policies and practices; and accountability for leaders at local, state and national levels.

Investigative journalism requires a great deal of time and resources, and many newsrooms can no longer afford to take on this kind of deep-dive reporting. As a nonprofit, ProPublica’s work is powered primarily through donations. The vast bulk of the money we spend goes directly into world-class, award-winning journalism. We are committed to uncovering the truth, no matter how long it takes or how much it costs, and we practice transparent financial reporting so donors know how their dollars are spent.

ProPublica was founded in 2007-2008 with the belief that investigative journalism is critical to our democracy. Our staff remains dedicated to carrying forward the important work of exposing corruption, informing the public about complex issues, and using the power of investigative journalism to spur reform.

Awards & Accolades: 
Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting
Pulitzer Prize, Public Service
AHCJ Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, Consumer/Feature
George Polk Award, Medical Reporting
Society for News Design Award of Excellence, Multiple Categories
Editor & Publisher Award for Best Use of Data
Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism
Edward R. Murrow Award, Investigative Reporting
Why Work For Us?: 

ProPublica is committed to increasing the diversity of our workplace as well as in the journalism community more broadly. We do our best to post an update on our diversity efforts every year. Here are our posts from 2017 and 2015. We believe that it is crucial to fill our newsroom with people from a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives, and are committed to recruiting and retaining people from communities that have long been underrepresented, not only in journalism but particularly in investigative journalism. That includes African Americans, Latinos, other people of color, women, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.

As part of our commitment to diversity, starting this year we intend to formalize a practice we have already followed on most hires. We will interview at least one person of color for every posted job in line with the practice pioneered by the NFL and known as the “Rooney Rule.” Many other entities have adopted this approach to increasing their diversity.

There may be very rare occasions when a job is filled without a posting. In such cases, we will explain to the ProPublica staff why we did not advertise the position and, if relevant, why we did not interview a person of color.

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Listing Stats

Post Date: 
Apr 19 2018
Active Until: 
May 19 2018
Hiring Organization: 
ProPublica
industry: 
Nonprofit