Data Fellow

Data Fellow

USA TODAY/usatoday.com, is looking for a Data Fellow who can help us find and write about compelling data, primarily through our new “Your Life in Data” vertical. This one-year fellowship will be embedded in USA TODAY’s award-winning Data & Investigations team.

We are looking for a detail-oriented reporter with the skills to quickly obtain, help analyze and present newsworthy datasets that surprise and empower readers. We value creative thinkers who are ambitious and deadline-oriented, who relish making a wide range of data more accessible and useful to ordinary people.

Your primary job duties will include “interviewing” data for trends and unexpected outliers, vetting those conclusions through traditional reporting methods, then writing or co-writing stories based on the dataset. The finished product may be a short story, a listicle, or a visual explainer in charts that summarize the most interesting takeaways. These posts will drive readers toward database lookup tools that the team will create.

A collaborative mindset is fundamental to the success of USA TODAY’s Data & Investigations team. You will be an active participant in group discussions with your teammates. We want people who excel at devising strategies that bring their own great ideas to fruition, but also relish brainstorming new approaches to ideas others bring. You, in turn, will have the benefit of growing your technical and writing skills with help from a highly supportive team of veteran reporters and data technicians.

It’s essential that the databases you feature reach and resonate with readers. You should be willing and able to see your work through to publication, including sourcing visuals and closely coordinating with USA TODAY’s SEO and audience teams.

The data you obtain should have the potential to generate not only high-utility search tools but also short and long-term enterprise in coordination with reporting partners from across the USA TODAY national newsroom and the broader USA TODAY Network.

You will work with the largest team of journalists in the U.S., a powerful network of hundreds of local newspapers, with the nation as your subject. Our Data & Investigations team members are based across the country.

This position is remote and can be based anywhere in the US, except for Alaska and Hawaii or based at our headquarters in McLean, VA. If you live near one of our local newsrooms, you may have the option to use that as a base of operations.

Job Level: Fellow

Minimum salary: This fellowship is for one calendar year and pays $50,000 for the year.

Responsibilities:

• Obtain and learn to analyze government and commercially available data that will interest readers across the United States. Collaborate with journalists and technicians on the data team to build exclusive, custom data sets.
• Use your keen news sense to find under-utilized, off-the-shelf data, and relentlessly negotiate for data that’s more elusive.
• Help generate ideas for reader-facing searchable databases.
• Work with other journalists and developers to mine these data for innovative stories that capitalize on alternative story forms.
• Work with audience specialists to promote the work in creative ways on social platforms. 

Requirements:

• Bachelor's or master’s degree in journalism or any other subject or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Experience with newsroom data analysis a plus.
• Experience as a reporter for a daily news media organization or equivalent. This can be through internships and other fellowships.
• Experience obtaining data and using data to tell stories.
• Familiarity with or interest in learning data scraping, cleaning, web development and analytical tools such as Pandas, R, and Jupyter notebooks.
• Proven aptitude for social media engagement.
• Employment is contingent on passing a post-offer pre-employment background check.     

We are eager to learn more about you and how you fit this role. When you apply, don’t limit your upload to a resume; show us what you’ve done. To do so, put together a single document file that includes the following, in this order:

1. Your resume – one to two pages.
2. A cover letter that outlines how why you are interested in the role and how you would approach this role at USA TODAY.
3. Links to 3-6 online samples of your work. Show us what you’ve produced or had a hand in that best reflects what you can do in your desired role.

It is important that these items be assembled into a single document and uploaded in PDF format. Completing these steps will ensure that your application receives the highest consideration.

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The annualized base salary for this role will range between $50,000.00 and $161,000.00.  Variable compensation is not reflected in these figures and based on the role, may be applicable. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, location, and union representation, if applicable.