What are the responsibilities and job description for the AI Developer position at Hearst Media Services?
Newsroom AI and Automation Developer
Hearst Connecticut Media Group is hiring a
Newsroom AI and Automation Developer
who is passionate about local news, media technology and reader service. You will help design and build newsroom tools and reader-facing experiences that use generative AI and automation to make local journalism more useful, personal, and accessible, while working to uphold our high newsroom standards regarding the use of AI.
Newsroom AI and Automation Developer
who is passionate about local news, media technology and reader service. You will help design and build newsroom tools and reader-facing experiences that use generative AI and automation to make local journalism more useful, personal, and accessible, while working to uphold our high newsroom standards regarding the use of AI.
This position is a full-time, fixed-term contract ending in December 2026.
In this role, you’ll help define the architecture, pipelines and interfaces for an AI-powered news tool that transforms content into multimodal formats, including text, audio and video. You’ll work alongside editors, developers and reporters to prototype ideas, turn them into working products and teach others how to use them responsibly.
We are looking for a collaborative teammate who can also work independently in a fast-paced newsroom.
HCMG is the state’s largest newsroom, with more than 130 journalists covering breaking news, state and local government, politics, education, high school and UConn sports, business, statewide issues, food and trending topics. We’re part of Hearst Newspapers, a network of award-winning local newsrooms innovating at the edge of AI and media.
The Skillset
We’re looking for a developer who can work across data pipelines, APIs, and AI applications — someone who learns fast, builds iteratively and collaborates well with journalists.
- Experience in or alongside a newsroom, or in media-focused tech projects.
- Strong proficiency in Python, with experience building backend services and data workflows.
- Familiarity with AI model integration — customizing or deploying language models for editorial or reader-facing use cases.
- Understanding of personalization and recommendation systems, such as collaborative or content-based filtering.
- Ability to design and maintain data pipelines that support algorithmic recommendations and generative tools.
- Working knowledge of databases (SQL/NoSQL) and backend frameworks like FastAPI or Flask.
- Competence with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for light front-end development.
- Experience with APIs, web scraping or newsroom automation tools (Slack bots, dashboards, etc.).
- Comfortable with Git/GitHub and agile development practices such as sprint planning and iterative delivery.
- Clear communicator who can explain complex AI concepts to non-technical colleagues.
The Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain newsroom AI applications, from backend pipelines to front-end interfaces.
- Execute a one-year, newsroom-impact project with defined milestones.
- Build in an iterative way and incorporate feedback from multiple stakeholders across our network.
- Think big and push for innovation.
- Create work with respect for journalistic ethics, as well as brand and industry standards.
- Stay aware of generative AI advances and how they can affect media companies.
- Train journalists on how to use these tools and educate them on best practices for AI development.
Success Metrics
- Highly engaged news products that help grow audience and subscriptions.
- High adoption rates of newsroom AI tools and positive user feedback.
- Reduced manual workload for reporters/editors through automation.
- Documented accuracy checks and transparent AI-use reporting.
- Smooth daily use of AI pipelines with minimal errors.
If you’re passionate about ambitious local journalism, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. We know there are many great candidates who may not check all of these boxes.
The Basics
- This position is a full-time, fixed-term contract ending in December 2026.
- This position will have a Monday-to-Friday schedule.
- The successful candidate must be based in Connecticut or New York or willing to move to the region, and agree to a hybrid work schedule with a few days a week in the Norwalk, Conn., office.
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