What are the responsibilities and job description for the Data journalist position at Data Visualization Society?
- Full Time
- New York, NY (or remote or hybrid, as you wish)
- Posted 7 days ago
Asking the "why" and "why not"
Remapping Debate is looking for an experienced data journalist. The work is to develop data visualizations that materially deepen public understanding of public-policy questions we are pursuing. More precisely, we are interested both in problems already treated as public-policy questions and in problems that ought to be treated that way. Before going further, you should look at some of what we have published.
Compensation And Benefits
$80,000 – $95,000 to start.
Six weeks of paid vacation.
Full employer reimbursement of healthcare premiums (up to the level of the “New York State of Health” Marketplace Platinum Plan we’ve benchmarked). That’s not just for you; it’s for you and, as applicable, spouse or domestic partner, and children.
You would be able to work remotely.
Who We Are Looking For
We are looking for a data journalist who can take an assignment based on Remapping Debate’s hypothesis from data sourcing to finished visualization. We anticipate that there will be, in many cases, a larger reporting component than has previously been the case with most of our data visualizations.
The data-visualization side means being able to track down the relevant data sources, assess their strengths and weaknesses, organize the data meticulously, work with us to interrogate the data, and then build illuminating, publication-ready visualizations in Tableau (see note near bottom of listing). It also means documenting everything.
Anticipate that we will want to discuss the reporting and look at the data at every stage of the process. You would need to be comfortable with that. You would also need to be as ready to make suggestions as to receive them. Note: we are not amenable to wandering away from the central question simply because some other pattern in the data also happens to be interesting.
This is not generic dashboard work. It is data journalism in the service of explanatory public-policy reporting.
Remapping Debate’s reporting, beyond data visualizations, covers domestic public policy across a wide range of subjects, including housing, health care, education, taxation, market failures and successes, regulatory failures and successes, identarianism, immigration, law, justice, civil rights, and public safety. Many of our recent stories have been tied to New York City, but we have reported, and will continue to report, on issues of national concern.
We are often interested in reframing questions: from “what is adequate?” to “what is optimal?” Or from current practice to the range of alternatives — those tried in the United States in the past, those tried elsewhere, past or present, and those that so far have only been imagined.
How To Get In Touch
Please email dataviz@remappingdebate.org.
Include a letter of interest, résumé, and samples of work. All communications (as well as any follow-up discussions) will be treated as strictly confidential.
“I’m your dream candidate — except for Tableau”
We are committed to continuing to use Tableau. We have found it to be a powerful tool for allowing readers to examine large amounts of data deeply, including by selecting multiple, concurrent variables. One example is our January 2014 unemployment visualization.
If you think another tool can genuinely replicate that functionality, say so. At the moment, my impression is that neither Flourish nor Datawrapper can.
That said, not every data story requires the same degree of interactivity. Some can be told more simply. So if you have done strong work with a non-Tableau tool on questions of the kind Remapping Debate covers, AND you’re willing to learn Tableau (intensively) at the start of your tenure with us, we want to talk with you as well.
“What if I want to do freelance projects for you?”
Happy to talk with you about that. Email dataviz@remappingdebate.org; specify your interest in freelance; include a letter of interest, résumé, and samples of work; and tell us what your compensation requirements are.
To apply for this job email your details to dataviz@remappingdebate.org
Salary : $80,000 - $95,000