Overview
A thriving, mission-driven multimedia organization, NPR produces award-winning news, information, and music programming in partnership with hundreds of independent public radio stations across the nation. NPR listeners value information, creativity, curiosity, and social responsibility – our employees do too. We are innovators and leaders in diverse fields, from journalism and digital media to IT and development. Every day, our employees and member stations touch the lives of millions worldwide.
The Digital Programming Analyst reports to the Digital Programming Analytics Manager (DPAM), but works cross-functionally with Product and Editorial teams as an embedded Analyst. As a member of the Digital Programming Analytics team, the Analyst is responsible for measuring and tracking digital metrics as it relates to reach, engagement, and content consumption among core digital platforms (specifically the NPR One app, NPR News App, NPR.org and potentially others). The Analyst derives editorial conclusions and recommendations drawn from data and communicates these insights in terms of actions that might be taken to improve listener retention in the app, frequency of use, likelihood to donate to member station, or data-informed recommendations for radio production techniques more generally.
The Analyst will also apply analytical disciplines to improve the digital audio programming strategy and execution of NPR and our member stations, perform quantitative research on the listening behaviors in NPR’s platforms to inform content and product strategy for the broader public radio community and work with large datasets to derive trends and insights that advance the science of digitally distributed public media content.
Essential Responsibilities Include:
- Responsible for processing and analyzing data from primary and secondary sources to grow and connect more effectively with our digital audio listeners.
- Gather data from Google Analytics, Google Firebase, Triton, MySQL databases, and other analytics tools to answer strategic and tactical questions regarding digital audio usage.
- Create systematic analytics reporting structure for senior Managers, including automated dashboards or reports to track key KPIs.
- Take on specific research projects as assigned by the DPAM to meet the needs of various stakeholders (Product teams, Programming, Newsroom, National Public Media, Audience Insights, Development)
- Evaluate the results of content or product experiments with data and A/B testing tools
- Collaborate with Data Scientist to implement changes to personalization algorithms, analytics systems and practices.
- Collaborate with analytics research team to provide support for that team’s mission in supporting enterprise-level data across the public media system.
- Assist digital product teams with credible insights to improve the listening experience on NPR platforms.
- Present audio-specific findings to the various product teams (either at the scrum or stakeholder level).
- Collaborate with the research staff and others in interpreting results of both primary and secondary research.
- Collaborate with the research staff and others in producing/developing recurring deliverables related to the use of audio by our digital listeners.
- Assist the DPAM in advancing the science of audio listening metrics and content analytics
- Provide training in digital metrics among internal constituencies as needed and as developed by data scientist.
- Research competitive audience data and trends, particularly related to digital and terrestrial radio.
- Stay current on public radio and media environment.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
Education:
Four year college degree in statistics, business, economics, information management, or comparable work experience.
Required Qualifications:
- 1-2 years relevant full-time work or internship experience including quantitative analysis, spreadsheets, and digital measurement
- Demonstrated success in data analysis, data interpretation and communications skills.
- Familiarity with academic statistics concepts, tests for significance, regression analysis, and machine learning concepts
- Experience with Google Analytics or similar web tracking software
- Some programming/coding experience in object-oriented languages required
- Working knowledge of relational databases (specifically MySQL queries)
- Most importantly: a quantitative mind, empirical instincts, and ability to learn quickly.
- Interest in learning the latest approaches to digital metrics and cross-platform measurement.
- Highly proficient in Excel or Google Sheets.
- Strong desire to work with databases and numbers.
- Excellent organization and communication skills.
- Experience working in a highly collaborative environment where all team members provide input to major decisions.
- Ability to communicate at all levels of the organization (including senior management and peer groups) on issues of strategy, process, and ongoing operations.
- Must have the ability to juggle multiple projects and deal with people in a variety of settings.
- Demonstrated ability to use independent judgment to carry out assignments with significant impact on business operations.
Preferred Qualifications
- Working knowledge of R or Python are strongly preferred
- Experience working on digital properties (apps/websites) with data
- Knowledge of public media / NPR ecosystem and a listener of good audio
- Familiarity with media and market research techniques and methodology.
- Foundational understanding of relational databases and how to query
- Functional programming skills related to data manipulation
What else?
- We are a Linux and Mac-friendly group, if that’s your kind of thing
- We are located in NoMa, DC’s fastest growing neighborhood, within 5-10 walking minutes of a great range of restaurants, retail, and culture
- We are diverse, lifelong learners and read omnivorously from NPR’s giveaway book shelf, regularly walk down the hall to Tiny Desk Concerts, and tell coding jokes
- We are a friendly bunch and expect the same from you too
Does this sound like you? If so, we want to hear from you. All Applications must include a resume and cover letter to be considered. Please emphasize in the cover letter any relevant project work that you feel has prepared you for this role.
If you apply for this job, here's what you can expect in our interview process:
- Resume screen
- Initial phone Interview
- On-site interviews with Digital Media leadership
- Brief technical interview (on-site) including a light quantitative skills assessment
NPR offers a competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits package including health and wellness benefits, retirement, and work/life balance programs, as well as opportunities for career growth and development. NPR is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Keep up with us on Social Media on: Twitter at @NPRjobs, YouTube at NPR Life - as well as #NPRlife for 'behind the scenes' tweets from our colleagues.
NPR is an Equal Opportunity Employer that affirmatively seeks to hire veterans and people with disabilities. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin.