The Financial Times’ award-winning Visual & Data Journalism Team is looking for an election data specialist to help in our efforts to take our quantitative coverage of elections to the next level in 2024.

With the US presidential election, a UK general election and a European Parliament election happening in the same year, the events of 2024 will shape global politics for the foreseeable future.

The successful candidate will be at the heart of the Financial Times’ coverage of these events, which are likely to be among the most heavily viewed pages across our digital platforms in the coming year. Our aim is to improve upon our previous products, such as our work on tracking polling ahead of (US, UK and EU) elections and displaying results of (US, UK and EU) elections.

You will report to our Data Editor and work closely with our Editorial Data Scientist along with an existing team of data journalists, developers and designers. Your main responsibility will be to build or improve on pipelines for ingesting, cleaning and visualising opinion polling and electoral results data, and/or to build or improve statistical models for analysing and presenting this data accurately.

You will also have the opportunity to develop new models and contribute to our news reporting of these elections.

Essential attributes

Please apply with a CV and covering letter that provides links to evidence of the following:

Either

• • postgraduate-level education in quantitative political science, statistics, or a related field, or
  • other training in data science or data journalism and relevant experience (see below)
• Demonstrable knowledge of analysing electoral politics, particularly any of the following:
  • predictive modelling of elections based on public opinion polling,
  • predictive modelling of the outcome of live electoral events based on partial data
  • analysis and visualisation of electoral and/or polling data
• Fluency in R (or Python and an ability to rapidly learn R to work with existing systems).

Desirable attributes

While not essential, please highlight in your covering letter if you have any of the following experience:

• Data analysis work in a newsroom, opinion polling agency, government department, political campaign or similar fast-paced environment producing high-profile work with a paramount emphasis on accuracy and clarity of presentation.
• Working with data pipelines, i.e. the data engineering aspects of automatically ingesting, cleaning, analysing and visualising feeds of live data using cloud services and continuous integration systems.
• Presenting data visualisations on live-updating interactive dashboards
• Working on writing software with others in an team, including collaborative coding using Git version control
• Working with live electoral data, particularly APIs providing live electoral results data for US, UK, or EU elections. (e.g. Associated Press, Press Association, European Parliament, or national elections agencies).
• Analysing public opinion polling data, particularly methods of aggregation and predictive modelling based on such data.
• Combining electoral and other data for analysis of the political sociology or political geography of elections, including analyses of voter demographics and national electoral studies.
• Applying machine learning, natural language generation or generative AI methods to analysing or presenting political data or news stories

This a full-time, one-year fixed-term contract beginning no earlier than December 1 2023.

Please submit your application by close of play, Monday 23rd October

We are not in a position to sponsor visas for this role, so you will need to have the existing right to work in the UK for the duration of the one-year contract.

Due to the subject matter, occasional night-time (and weekend) work may be unavoidable but is always pre-planned. Time off for recovery and in lieu is always given.

Benefits

Our benefits vary depending on location, but we are committed to providing best in class perks across all our offices as well as an inclusive environment to develop your career. Examples of our benefits include; generous annual leave allowances, flexible working (including working from home), medical cover, enhanced maternity & paternity packages, subsidised gym memberships and Giving Back opportunities.

How we work

Our hybrid setup means staff are expected to come into the office 3 days a week.

Our office is located across the street from St. Paul’s Cathedral and is easily accessible from all corners of London. There are the main train terminals such as Liverpool Street, Moorgate, Blackfriars, City Thameslink or Waterloo all situated within walking distance or there are several tube stations within a few mins walk such as Mansion House (District or Circle line), St. Paul’s (Central line), Bank (Central or Waterloo & City line) or Barbican (Central, Hammersmith & City or Metropolitan lines).

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace

The FT is committed to providing an inclusive working environment for all. We are an equal opportunities employer who seeks to recruit and appoint the best talent regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We believe that a supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves at work and have the flexibility they need to meet their personal needs.

Please let us know if you require any adjustments as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements, or have any questions, please contact a member of our HR team who will be happy to help.

About the Financial Times

The FT has an uncompromising mission: delivering independent, quality information, news and services to individuals and companies around the globe. It’s the cornerstone of our reputation and the heart of our ambitions for the future. But for our people, the FT offers so much more than what we do. FT people come from all kinds of backgrounds and work across a huge range of disciplines and locations, and find an empowering, warm and welcoming culture that values curiosity and rewards smart, ambitious thinking. Those who are willing to unite around our mission and live our values will find plenty to challenge, inspire and interest them. Like the audiences we serve, no two FT people are the same; but together we help our audience be better informed and understand the world around them. It’s a job that’s never mattered more, and a career that can take you anywhere you want to go.