Data Engineer - Data Journalism Development

Company Context

Here at the The Financial Times , gold-standard journalism is just the beginning. 500-people strong, our Product and Tech team keeps us ahead of the constantly evolving digital landscape by delivering innovative products to over one million digital subscribers every day. Our plans for growth rely on a diverse, dedicated and dynamic group of product, tech, delivery and data specialists - everyone’s welcome in this friendly, forward-thinking team. And with ambitious spirit, intelligence and opportunity at every turn, there’s no limits to where your FT career will take you.

Learn more about the FT, including announcements and career opportunities, at aboutus.ft.com.

The Financial Times is hiring a Data Engineer to join our Data Journalism Development (DJD) team within the Product & Technology department. The DJD team is part of the Visual and Data Journalism desk and works closely with newsroom reporters to produce impactful journalism. Together, we build innovative formats, conduct complex data analysis, and deliver data visualisations and tools that enable and amplify data-driven storytelling.

About the role

As a Data Engineer on our team, you will be instrumental in building and operating the technical infrastructure and data solutions that power our most bold projects. You will chip in to creating systems that automate and scale reporting, support data visualisation, and develop novel ways of gathering, processing, and analysing data for news stories. Working in a collaborative and agile environment, your work will directly support FT journalists and help shape the future of data journalism at the Financial Times.

Some example projects include:

• Building and optimising data pipelines and storage for news automation and visualisation. Examples include: election polling and results, Covid-19 trackers

• Collaborating with cross-functional teams to develop data processing frameworks and infrastructure to support fast-turnaround applications (real-time markets charts, tracking betting markets)

• Building pipelines for the automatic ingestion, cleaning, and parsing of unstructured data sources to establish a strong data foundation for sophisticated, exclusive investigative reporting. Examples include: Inside the UK government’s venture capital portfolio, The mystery of the Adani coal imports that quietly doubled in value

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain scalable, high-quality data solutions that support news reporting and visualisation needs.
• Build and manage data pipelines, ensuring data quality, accessibility, security and scalability.
• Automate complex data-gathering tasks, often working with varied and large data sources to reveal hidden narratives in complex data.
• Partner with software engineers, data scientists, and journalists to develop tools and insights that drive impactful storytelling.
• Collaborate with colleagues across the organisation to bring FT tooling and standard processes in data engineering to the newsroom, including code review, documentation, and standards for data quality and accessibility.
• Build high-resilience data systems to support critical, high-traffic newsroom events, such as election coverage.

We’re looking for candidates who are proactive, creative, and excited about the intersection of data engineering and journalism. You should have:

Essential Skills:

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to adapt messaging effectively for diverse audiences.
• Strong proficiency with SQL, database design, and modern data engineering frameworks.
• Proficiency in data processing and scripting languages (e.g., Python and/or R).
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS) and a solid understanding of data architecture principles.
• Knowledge of agile development practices and CI/CD.
• Experience mentoring and teaching colleagues with various levels of technical background — whether that be pair programming, lightning talks, good documentation, leading workshops or mentoring more junior members of the team.
• Familiarity with handling sensitive data and ensuring secure processing pipelines in line with cybersecurity best practices.

Desirable Skills:

• A demonstrable passion for using data to uncover stories. 
• Experience with big data technologies and distributed data processing.
• Understanding of cybersecurity standard processes for building secure data pipelines and protecting sensitive data sources.
• Knowledge of data visualisation techniques and libraries (e.g., D3.js, Flourish) is a plus.
• Ability to build partnerships and work effectively with a team while remote.
• Experience working in roles involving high-profile public communication of data analysis, though not necessarily in a journalism context. 

Characteristics we value

• Inquisitive and innovative, with strong problem-solving skills.
• Positive, collaborative, and proactive great teammate.
• Flexibility and pragmatism to balance technical needs and editorial goals, with the ability to adapt rapidly on deadline.
• A desire to experiment and learn continuously to keep your skills at the forefront of industry best-practice.
• Diligent, thorough, and capable of prioritising multiple projects.
• A product attitude and systems-level thinking, with the ability to contribute to the vision of scalable editorial data engineering tools.

Our Technology

We don’t expect you to be an expert in all areas, our current tech stack includes:

• Cloud Platforms: AWS

• Languages and Frameworks: Python, SQL, Pandas, Node.js

• Data Processing and Pipelines: Airflow, ElasticSearch, PostgreSQL

• Version Control and CI/CD: Github, CircleCI

• Infrastructure: Fastly, VCL

• Front-end and Visualisation: JavaScript, HTML, CSS (often SASS), React, SVG, D3, Flourish

This is a unique opportunity to use your technical skills to contribute to data journalism. You’ll be making content for the FT’s readership, using data to make news accessible, understandable, and impactful.

What’s in it for you? Our Benefits

• Annual bonus scheme
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program
• 25 days annual paid leave
• Private Health Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Enhanced Parental Leave policy
• Food Vouchers
• Multisport Card
• Work-life balance and work from home practice
• Both in house and external training programs
• Your own training dedicated budget (for conferences, courses etc.)

Further Information

At the FT, we are committed to providing an inclusive working environment for all. We are an equal opportunities employer that 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 also promote flexible working and will consider specific requests around flexibility for all roles where it can be accommodated. We aim to treat all employees in a fair and consistent manner, promote good working relationships to encourage high standards of conduct and performance within a work environment free from harassment, bullying and discrimination. 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.

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