Data Reporter, Texas

The Data Journalism department seeks an experienced journalist with programming and data analysis skills to be based in Texas and work in close collaboration with Times reporters across the Lone Star State.

You'll combine traditional reporting with data collection and analysis to shed light on major storylines. You'll demonstrate a strong command of key Texas datasets. You'll have excellent data analysis skills, with the news judgment to match, and can design rigorous methodologies, bulletproofing your analyses and handling thorny data issues.

Collaboration is at the heart of this role; you'll pair up with other reporters on virtually every story you pursue. You'll also help these colleagues to level-up their own data skills. And you'll be excited, in turn, about learning from them.

This role requires you to be based in Texas. Although The Times does not yet have an office in the state, this position may later involve regular office attendance if The Times establishes an office in the city where you are based. You will report to the Data Editor, who is based in New York City.

Important application requirement: Please submit a cover letter that highlights three relevant stories to which you made substantial contributions. For each story, please provide a link to the story and describe your contribution in one to three paragraphs. Aim to demonstrate a range of skills and variety of deadlines. Your cover letter should be no more than three pages long in total. In it, you are also welcome to provide a more traditional (but brief) description of your career and talents.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the Data Journalism department's Texas-focused reporting collaborations
• Pitch and report data-driven stories that illuminate the day's news events, explain difficult concepts and investigate wrongdoing
• Obtain and build datasets through records requests, web scraping, document parsing and shoe-leather approaches
• Develop an understanding of these datasets, enabling you to mine them for reporting leads, meaningful insights, and newsworthy findings
• Be comfortable working on stories both independently and in diverse teams
• 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
• You will report to the Data Editor

Basic Qualifications:

• 3+ years of data journalism experience
• Deep knowledge of Texas
• Experience finding, requesting, cleaning and analyzing complex datasets
• Ability to communicate data findings powerfully, accurately, and succinctly
• Proficiency working with data in Python and/or R, spreadsheets, and relational databases

Preferred Qualifications:

• Substantial track record reporting on Texas
• Spanish language proficiency
• Experience with, and a preference for, working collaboratively on multidisciplinary teams
• Experience reporting in response to major news cycles
• Comfort with command-line tooling, version control, working with large language models, and other important technical skills

This position is represented by the NewsGuild of NY

REQ-020341

Additional Compensation and Benefits

For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, employee stock purchase plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.

For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.