FiveThirtyEight is hiring a full-time quantitative editor — someone to help us edit articles that include statistical analysis across all our areas of coverage, including politics, sports and science. The quantitative editor will also have opportunities to do original analysis and writing for these stories.
We’re looking for someone with statistical skills and a journalistic mindset who can help keep the bar for our work as high as possible. This person will vet methodological choices made by FiveThirtyEight reporters and sometimes partner with them on stories that require both traditional reporting and more complex analysis or modeling. They’ll check the accuracy of statistical and empirical claims made in FiveThirtyEight stories before they are posted online. They’ll work with editor-in-chief Nate Silver and other members of our team to develop and refine FiveThirtyEight forecasting models in sports, politics and other areas.
The candidate must have a demonstrated ability to apply statistical training in a real-world, fast-paced context. Knowing esoteric programming languages or novel statistical techniques is not as important as having a nose for methodological shortcomings and blind spots. Beyond that, we’re open to candidates with a variety of professional backgrounds. For example, a post-doc or Ph.D. candidate who has strong statistical training could be a good candidate for this position, but so could someone with experience editing scientific or academic journal articles. Experience writing or editing articles for a nontechnical audience is a plus.
The position is based in New York City. If you’re interested, send inquiries to micah.cohen@fivethirtyeight.com. Please include “quantitative editor” in the subject line.