Software/Data Engineer

$100,000 - $120,000/Yr

Columbia University - New York, NY

Full-time

New York, NY

Educational Services

About the position

The Software/Data Engineer position at Columbia University involves developing and maintaining high-quality technical infrastructure and tools to support local newsrooms and their communities. This role is part of the Local s Lab, a product team focused on transforming local journalism through data-driven decision-making. The engineer will work in a hybrid environment, balancing remote and in-person collaboration, and will contribute to the lab's mission of becoming a self-sustaining organization.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain stable, high-performing data infrastructure and software tools used by both the Local s Lab and our local newsroom partners.
• Drive engineering excellence by contributing to the development of and adherence to reproducible frameworks, unit and systems testing (including A/B testing), and technical documentation.
• Engage directly with our local newsroom partners to understand their needs and their communities' needs, ensuring that we're best serving these needs.
• Participate in product strategy development and refinement, ensuring that technical work meets our strategic goals.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required plus 5 years of related experience.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to understand technical and non-technical needs of diverse stakeholders.
• Basic foundation of programming knowledge in Python, Java, or other object-oriented programming languages.
• Basic understanding of cloud technologies and web analytics, especially Amazon Web Services and Google Analytics.
• Basic understanding of database architecture and programming.
• Ability to learn new software and technologies quickly.
• Passion for building community and supporting the role of journalism in healthy communities.

Nice-to-haves

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field (such as computer science or data science) OR a bachelor's degree in a non-technical field and four years of technical development experience.
• Experience building tools for and/or conducting analysis of quantitative and/or qualitative data.
• Experience in the journalism field, especially reporting and/or editing.

Benefits

• Competitive salary range of $100,000 - $120,000 based on qualifications and experience.
• Flexible working environment with a hybrid model of remote and in-person work.