The NPR Research, Archives & Data Strategy Group (RAD) is an award-winning team of knowledge managers, product owners, technologists, taxonomists, researchers, historians, marketers and digital thinkers. We work in a hybrid setting that blends traditional information skill areas (information evaluation, presentation, indexing, taxonomy, content management, reference interview, reformatting, archiving) with the digital demands of a cutting edge media organization.
RAD Specialists apply best practices in both their data and research work in order to support the current and future information needs of NPR. As research experts, RAD strategists understand the power of data and how to make it valuable, whether it is being shared with other colleagues directly, or flowing seamlessly through systems to generate revenue and create new knowledge sources.
- Provide research that addresses the business needs of NPR – both in the newsroom and beyond to all parts of NPR.
- Capture and manage data about the stories NPR has reported. Apply principles of taxonomy to support business needs.
- Troubleshoot systems and workflows to resolve issues identified by our users.
- Understand and make improvements to transcript ingest and licensing process.
- Provide training, outreach, and marketing on behalf of the services we sponsor.
- Provide leadership in the access and management of information that NPR needs to make business decisions.
- Promote our team and our work via social media channels.
- Steward the memory of NPR by managing audio archives and other historical records in perpetuity.
Ability to:
- Work quickly and efficiently under deadline pressure. Effective communication about deadlines is key: deadlines may be weeks, hours or just minutes away.
- Work on a team to improve a product or process.
- Switch gears as organizational priorities shift.
- Translate feedback from stakeholders into actions that deliver value.
- Engage in digital spaces. We consume information on a variety of platforms; we are comfortable in a continually “digitally disrupted” environment.
- Successfully prioritize and reprioritize multiple assignments and projects that compete for time.
- Work as a member of a team where part or all of the team is virtual.
- Think like a journalist. We understand the utility of public records, data sets, and sourcing strategies to promote the cause of informing the public on issues that matter.
- Communicate effectively in person, in writing, over the phone and by other virtual means, to both internal and external constituencies.
- Create metadata in a non-MARC setting.
- Be naturally curious about digital platforms that promote discovery of information and cultural heritage.
- Facilitate reference interactions and to deliver information on demand.
- Demonstrate and apply basic taxonomy principles.
- Demonstrate and apply basic database principles.
- Use sound judgment and discretion when evaluating information; ability to demonstrate sensitivity to context and extend confidentiality or privacy as needed.
- Comply with applicable NPR ethical guidelines.
- Support our 7-day-a-week presence in the newsroom.
- Maintain an ongoing interest in and awareness of current events and consume popular culture voraciously.
Skills we value include:
- Familiarity with programming and coding languages.
- Marketing savvy. Ability to lead a marketing campaign.
- Familiarity with digital audio file formats and preservation challenges.
- Experience curating, managing, or migrating digital collections.
- Experience working with a digital preservation repository.
- Ability to work with a diverse group of mission-driven colleagues.
RAD strategists are:
- Approachable and focused on creating partnerships. We build rapport easily.
- Comfortable taking an active and visible role representing the RAD team to diverse constituencies.
- Passionate about metadata and how to leverage it.
- Curious and flexible.
- Collaborators at heart, who can work with a minimum of supervision.