Data Journalist, PoliticAtlanta Journal-Conss

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's mission is to be the most essential and engaging source of news and information for the people of Atlanta, of Georgia and the South. To achieve that mission, we will transform ourselves from a storied daily newspaper into a modern media company.

As part of that mission, we are looking for a data journalist who will set a high standard for data-driven politics coverage through analysis and visualization.

The data journalist's first focus will be the 2024 election in Georgia. You will envision and execute an exclusive data-driven centerpiece of a new site that will explore voting trends and historic voting and demographic patterns in each of Georgia's 159 counties. You will also work with a team supporting significant expansion of Georgia political coverage.

The goal will be a rich, engaging experience for political junkies and analysts seeking to understand the nation's most important battleground state and the role it will play in the 2024 election cycle. If selected, you will report to the Digital Storytelling (Data & Presentation) editor and the politics editor and will be embedded on the AJC's politics team.

You will be comfortable working quickly with data from AJC-commissioned polls (and others), voter registration databases, the U.S. Census and other sources to look for patterns and trends throughout the South, with a particular focus on Georgia. You'll also know how to cut through the noise of complicated campaign finance data collected at the local, state and federal level.

You should apply if you are interested in doing the following:

Building and maintaining a project analyzing the voting trends in all of Georgia's 159 counties through rich data analysis and visualization.
Analyze and visualize political data on a regular basis.
Analyze and report on early and absentee voting trends in primary and general elections.
Analyze and report on polling in 2024 presidential primaries and the General Election in Georgia.
Work with the politics team to identify important daily politics stories that can be told with data.
You'll compile historical data, including voter registration data, elections results and other datasets from public agencies.
You'll collect new data and will create the most comprehensive analysis of politics in the state of Georgia.

Skills

These skills are desired. If you don't check every box, that is ok. If there are skills you have that are not listed here, let us know:

You know how to use SQL for data analysis. Experience with either R or Python (we work with both) for complex analysis is even better.
You have experience covering elections and polling data.
You know how to build data visualizations using third party tools like Datawrapper and Flourish. Knowledge of building custom data visualizations is a plus.
You know how to find and negotiate for public records dealing with elections, voting and campaign finance.
You have experience using Mapbox, ArcGIS, QGIS or R for mapping data.
You can work with complex polling data, precinct data and other sources of election information.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree preferred.
With a BA/BS, need to have 4+ years of relevant experience (may have a Master's with 2+ years of experience or Ph.D. with 1+ year of experience or 8 years of total relevant experience)