Interactive Story Designer

We are not currently accepting applications for this position.

ProPublica is seeking a talented interactive designer to craft stories with real-world impact.

You will work closely with ProPublica’s award-winning journalists to design and build rich story experiences, like our illustrated narrative about secretive night raids in Afghanistan, our visual recreation of a deadly naval accident or our deep dive into the failure of U.S. institutions to return Native American human remains. Your projects will range from designing custom story layouts to building multimedia features that elevate our daily storytelling to experimenting with innovative story and graphical forms.

You will be at the epicenter of one of the most exciting newsrooms in the country, where every day will be a chance to work in an environment where design is integral to the mission.

We’re Looking for Someone With:

  • An understanding of good design principles and how to design for clarity and impact.
  • The ability to communicate interactive story ideas through wireframes and prototypes with visual journalists as well as reporters and editors.
  • Fluency in web development including HTML, CSS and Javascript.
  • A solid knowledge of UX fundamentals, layout, typography and storytelling techniques (experience with illustration, photo editing or art direction is a plus).
  • A love for details and making things.
  • An ability to work on several projects at once. You’ll need to stay organized and focused.

We look for people who have proven that they can use technical and design skills for journalistic ends, are clear communicators and are thoughtful, passionate advocates for the user.

This position will report to our graphics director and will collaborate with members of our other departments including visuals, video, news apps and design and product, as well as writers and story editors.

This job is full time and includes benefits. Applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S.

The team is distributed, so remote applicants anywhere in the U.S. are welcome. For those who prefer working from an office, our headquarters are in New York City, and we have editorial offices in Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and Berkeley, California.

The expected salary range for this position is $95,000 to $125,000.

This is a good faith estimate of what we expect to pay for this position. The final salary figure will take into account a person’s experience, accomplishment and location. ProPublica is committed to paying its staff equitably, and these ranges should not be considered career salary limits or caps.

What You Should Send Us:

Projects are the most important part of the application, not fancy degrees or deep resumes. Your application is a chance to show us your ability to contribute to great work.

You’ll be able to send us three projects from your portfolio (if you don’t have a portfolio, links or screenshots are fine). Here you can walk us through your contributions to those projects. Take advantage of this to tell us everything you did, from behind-the-scenes wins you’re proud of to how you helped your colleagues to what you might have done differently a second time around. Tell us what worked and what didn’t, and how that fit into the context of what was needed for the project.

If all of this sounds exciting to you, you can apply using this form.

We know there are great candidates who won’t fit everything we’ve described above or who have important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.

We are dedicated to improving our newsroom, in part by better reflecting the people we cover. (Here is a breakdown of our staff.) We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. And we are taking steps to meet that commitment. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities. We are an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age or any other status protected under applicable law.

This application will be closed on March 10.

Questions? Email [email protected].

No phone calls, please.

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