Designer/Developer

Job Description

The Texas Tribune, the state’s go-to source for Texas politics and public policy news, is hiring a Designer/Developer to tell visual stories with data. This position is part of the Tribune's award-winning data visuals department, a hybrid news applications and graphics team.

We're open to applications from anyone who wants to tell creative stories via news applications, visualizations, data analysis and evolving techniques like AI.

This role will report to the data visuals editor and can be based anywhere in Texas. The Tribune is headquartered in Austin, and we have journalists in cities across the state, with new local newsrooms in Waco and Austin. While the designer/developer mainly will work with the Tribune, they may do occasional collaborations with our local newsrooms.

The salary for this position starts at $75,000, depending on qualifications.

Responsibilities

• Find opportunities for data-driven, visual stories across beats and in close collaboration with other journalists.
• Report on, request, and analyze data with curiosity and skepticism
• Produce accurate, journalistically sound graphics without errors.
• Write clean, compelling copy for graphics and stories.
• Balance a mix of short- and long-term assignments, depending on the news. This role may require occasional night or weekend work.
• Help the data visuals team iterate on stories such as our audience-focused education coverage, which includes guides, explainers, and the soon-to-be-revamped schools explorer.
• Contribute to our election coverage, including analysis that gives readers context about how Texas is — and isn’t — changing.
• Create clear information design resources for the Tribune's data products, including surfacing personalized data within stories.
• Document workflows for building graphics and bringing useful code back to our open-source development environment and our CMS.
• Learn new methods and share and teach them to colleagues on and off the data visuals team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 2+ years of relevant experience OR equivalent combination of education and relevant experience
• A combination of design, web development and journalistic skills that allows you to evaluate when a story needs a big lift, or could benefit from simplicity
• Experience with building graphics using modern HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• Experience with D3/Observable, Adobe Illustrator or Figma for creating clear and concise data visualizations
• Experience with basic spreadsheet tools plus a programming language such as Python, SQL or R for data reporting
• Familiarity with or willingness to learn JavaScript frameworks like React or Preact and front-end tools including Sass, Webpack and NPM
• Curiosity about exploring how AI tools can help streamline workflows and increase the accessibility of our work
• A collaborative spirit and the ability to work with rigor while knowing that you are still learning and growing. (The data visuals team mascot is the capybara in a yuzu bath because we are all pretty chill.)
• Back-end development experience is a plus but not required

We know some great candidates won’t check all of these boxes, and we also know you might bring important skills that we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.

Location

The Texas Tribune office is located in downtown Austin, steps away from the Texas Capitol. This position is based in Austin, but we will consider candidates who are based elsewhere in Texas and can travel occasionally to our Austin office.

Benefits

This job is full-time and has the following benefits:

• Medical, vision and dental insurance
• Monthly cellphone stipend
• 20 days of paid time off each year
• 12 paid holidays
• Up to 16 weeks of paid family leave plus four weeks of additional job protection
• Annual 401(k) match
• Support for professional training and career development
• Remote working flexibility

How to Apply

Submit your application here by June 19, with a resume and examples of your work. Please submit a cover letter detailing your vision for this position and how you would approach the work.

The Texas Tribune is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We encourage applicants of all identities, backgrounds, ages, and abilities to apply. We can't wait to hear from you.

About The Texas Tribune

Here’s what you should know about the Tribune. From day one, we’ve had disruption, innovation and risk-taking in our DNA. We’re ambitious as all get out but still have the punch-above-your-weight mentality of a scrappy start-up. We believe we can meet the demands of our audience and our own expectations for excellence without breaking the bank — or our staff. We understand not everything is a story for us — we have to make choices — but we’re always looking to expand our boundaries.

We’re nonprofit because the challenging economic reality for media these days obligates us to find a different way, reliable and sustainable, to fund serious journalism. We’re nonpartisan because we live in the United States of Confirmation Bias — and we don’t need to be part of the problem. We don’t need to be yet another source of information affirming the voices and perspectives that are already in people’s heads. At the same time, nonpartisan is not non-thinking. We call B.S. when B.S. needs to be called.

The Texas Tribune seeks to ensure that its newsroom and its news coverage reflect Texas by including a wide range of perspectives from people of different backgrounds, ideologies and experiences.

Learn more about The Texas Tribune here.

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