News Data Automation Lead, Content AI

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Alaska, +2 more states.

📋 Description

• Develop, maintain, and enhance data automation pipelines, scrapers, APIs, and AI-driven workflows that cater to high-value newsroom applications.

• Identify, source, and organize impactful datasets and signals that facilitate timely and distinctive coverage in local markets.

• Create and implement AI-powered tools and templates that enable journalists to work more efficiently while upholding high editorial standards.

• Collaborate directly with editorial leaders, reporters, and automation teams to convert newsroom requirements into technical solutions.

• Prototype, test, and optimize new automation and AI workflows, ensuring a balance between speed, reliability, and editorial relevance.

• Address automation, data, or tool-related issues as they arise, offering clarity and direction to colleagues across the newsroom.

• Assist in evaluating existing automation initiatives and provide recommendations for expansion, refinement, redesign, or retirement based on their value and impact.

• Produce newsroom-ready outputs, which may include story drafts, alerts, tip sheets, reporting leads, dashboards, or other editorial tools, tailored to specific use cases.

• Mentor and assist journalists and team members in utilizing automation and AI tools, fostering increased technical fluency and confidence.

• Thoroughly document workflows and systems to ensure they are understandable, resilient, and scalable beyond individual ownership.

• Stay updated on advancements in AI, data automation, and newsroom technology, and contribute to envisioning future use cases that ethically support journalism.

⛳️ Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, data science, computer science, or a related discipline. Equivalent experience is also considered.

• 3-5 years of experience in journalism, data journalism, newsroom automation, computational journalism, software development, or a closely related area.

• Strong technical expertise, including proficiency in Python, scraping, APIs, data cleaning, and workflow automation.

• Proven ability to work with complex, real-world data and transform it into reliable, usable systems.

• Solid news judgment and a comprehensive understanding of what constitutes a genuinely reportable, useful, and distinctive local data signal.

• Familiarity with AI tools and the wider generative AI landscape, including their benefits, risks, and responsible application in journalism.

• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to document technical processes and convey them to non-technical stakeholders.

• Demonstrated capacity to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment.

• Experience within a local newsroom or in roles serving multiple local markets.

• Experience in building or maintaining end-to-end automated journalism workflows.

• Knowledge of CMS workflows and digital publishing operations.

• Experience in designing alerts, triggers, or threshold-based systems for editorial purposes.

• Familiarity with public records or watchdog-style datasets such as inspections, enforcement actions, labor notices, court records, licensure data, or government records.

• Experience leveraging AI tools for data processing, classification, summarization, or enhancing workflow efficiency.

🏝️ Benefits

• Health insurance

• Retirement plans

• Flexible work arrangements

• Professional development

• Bonuses