Data Journalist

About us

The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide.

At the FT, curiosity thrives and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Here, you’re given the chance to reach millions, create work that matters and deliver impartial journalism in a polarised world.

In our warm, collaborative culture, you’ll connect with a diverse community of experts who support your growth, career aspirations and wellbeing.

Your future at the FT will be filled with opportunities that challenge and inspire you. With no fixed path, you’ll discover new skills and forge a career that can take you anywhere.

Build a newsworthy career at the FT.

The role

The FT’s visual and data journalism team is looking for an experienced data journalist to cover US politics, economics and financial news. This is a full-time staff position.

The successful applicant will collaborate with US-based news editors and correspondents across North America as well as colleagues in London, Hong Kong and beyond. You’ll help us deliver compelling journalism on our core coverage areas of trade, economics and financial markets, as well as US electoral politics and campaign finance. 

You will have a record of working self-sufficiently, from story pitch to final product, and an interest in providing a global perspective for both US and overseas readers. You will also collaborate with the wider Visual & Data Journalism team, and reporters and editors from across the FT’s network who need support applying data-driven methods to their work. 

We are happy to consider candidates wishing to be based in Washington DC or New York City. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

Occasional weekend/flexible working may be required as part of covering fast-moving news.

Essential skills

You will have a strong portfolio of work in data journalism, ideally focused on business, finance, economics or politics in North America. In addition, we are looking for:

• Experience using data journalism or data science techniques to find and tell news stories
• Confidence using R or Python for data sourcing (including web scraping, APIs and large databases), cleaning and analysis
• Excellent communication skills, particularly the ability to explain your quantitative analysis work simply to non-specialist audiences
• A passion for continuously learning in order to keep your skills at the forefront of current practice
• The ability to pitch, write and deliver original data driven stories

Desirable Skills