Senior Data Journalist, BBC Verify

JOB DETAILS

JOB BAND: D

CONTRACT TYPE: Full time, 12 Months FTC

DEPARTMENT: BBC News

LOCATION: London Broadcasting House

PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £47,000 - £57,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

BBC Verify is looking for a senior data journalist to join its team, based in Broadcasting House in London. This one-year fixed-term contract is for a role that covers the whole news agenda from domestic to international coverage.

The successful candidate will be expected to find and develop original news stories using their skills working with data. In addition they would support the daily and investigative output of the rest of the BBC Verify Team, as well as collaborating with a variety of teams across the whole of the BBC’s newsroom.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM
This is an excellent opportunity to become an important member in a well-established and high-profile data journalism team. We comprise data journalists, data scientists, data designers and statisticians. 

We are part of BBC Verify, this means our work is often a collaboration across teams who focus on mis- and disinformation, fact-checking and open source reporting. 

As part of BBC News our work has a wide reach across online, TV and radio audiences. 

These are some recent examples of our work - 

Documents falsified to evade tax on Abramovich's wealth, BBC finds

Just how hot and dry was your summer? Use our postcode lookup to find out 

 ‘We have nowhere to return to’: How Russia is seizing homes in occupied Ukraine

18 deaths from battery fires show hidden danger of UK's e-bike boom

Track UK's latest migration numbers - net migration, visas, asylum and small boats

PURPOSE OF ROLE CONTD

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT:

As a senior data journalist in BBC Verify’s data team you would be expected to work on both short-term graphic or data requests, live page posts and longer-term projects and investigations. 

You would be expected to work swiftly with data, finding simple and striking ways to explain and visualise the figures that are driving the headlines. 

A key part of your role would be to come up with original story ideas based on data and to work effectively to pitch those ideas with the most compelling treatments.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:

• Demonstrable experience in a specialist data journalism role, including bylined projects and original stories
• Proven ability to develop news stories and interactives using software, such as R or Python, spreadsheet software, Flourish and GIS software as well as familiarity with using AI responsibly
• Demonstrable ability to combine data from different sources, whether it is unstructured data captured from many sources, or structured data in APIs, databases or spreadsheets
• Demonstrable experience in advising non-specialists on how to understand and interpret data
• Demonstrable experience of leading informal project teams,  involving colleagues from design and development teams

DESIRED:

• Strong story pitching skills 
• Writing skills
• Statistical knowledge
• Ability to spot the opportunities (and dangers) of using AI to help in the creation of data projects and improve workflows
• Knowledge of data viz best practice
• Broadcast experience
• Ability to plan across many different projects and daily requests
• Willingness to train others and share skills

As part of the application we are asking for 4-6 examples of your published work. 

If you can bring some of these skills and experiences, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.