Work with Us

The Urban Journalism Network is an award winning cross-border team of journalists, urbanists, developers, data journalists and designers. We work across 10 to 15 European media outlets, collaborating on international projects on issues shared among European cities. It was awarded the European Press Prize in 2022 for the investigation “Cities for Rent”, a project investigating corporate landlords in European capitals.

Since then, we have published several further data-driven investigations dealing with issues like housing crisis and land speculation, but also topics like drug consumption or demographic change. Our articles combine local and international investigative reporting with experimental methods of data gathering and interactive data visualization.

Are you interested in joining our growing team? Below you may find current openings.

Interface Designer / Information Designer
Data Journalist
Investigative Reporter
Frontend Developer

Dataviz Designer (Part-time, 10 months project)

The Urban Journalism Network is seeking Visual Designers with a solid experience in Data Visualization, Information Design and Interactive Interfaces to join one or more of its international data journalism projects in 2025.

Job overview

As a visual designer in our international team, you will work closely with the data journalists and developers – and with various local individual investigative reporters. Next to general smaller design tasks like creating lead images for investigations, your main focus will be on data visualization, the creation of interactive tools and explainer graphics of international structures.

Responsibilities

Design of static and interactive visualizations ranging from bar charts over radar plots to experimental visualizations
Creation of static and interactive maps
Design of highly interactive tools like calculators, questionnaires for user participation
Creation of diagrams to explain complex structures like multinational companies, flows of money or legal systems
Creation of visual material for promoting our investigations, e.g. collages or illustrations for header images of articles, social media posts or Merch
Data wrangling: You will work with available structured and unstructured datasets in order to find the appropriate ways of visualization and interesting findings in the data.
Support regional journalists: You will also provide help to local or international (data) journalists to explain certain visual approaches and methods and notify them of interesting findings in the data you discovered while working with it for visualizations.

Qualifications

Experience with the design of various types of data visualization
Experience in designing interactive web interfaces with a strong focus on intuitive usability
Experience with Geoanalysis and -visualization tools like Qgis
Experience in working closely with software developers and content driven people
Strong and consistent visual quality
Fluent in English, additional languages advantage
Solid UX and UI design knowledge

Advantages

Experience with working in diverse teams
Orientation in the topics of housing/environment/urban issues
Experience with frontend development
Experience with data analysis (R or Python)
Experience in Journalism is a strong Plus

What we offer

Part-time freelance job for six months initially, with option of extension
Fair payment
Home-office from anywhere in Europe, flexible working hours
Meetings with the network members in various cities
Networking with other data- and visual journalists across Europe
A friendly, young and innovative environment of data and investigative journalists

If you are interested, please send us your current portfolio, a short tabular CV focused on previous projects AND either a very short motivational letter (1/2 page) or a short video (1-3 min.) explaining why you want to work with us.

Make sure to include your ideal workload in hours per week and your daily salary expectations. Deadline for application is January 31st 2025. Job start date: As soon as possible, but depending on capacities and mutual agreement.
Send an email to [email protected] mentioning the subject „Designer job“

Frontend Developer for Dataviz and Interactives

The Urban Journalism Network is seeking freelance frontend developers to join one or more of its international investigative projects on housing in 2025.

Job overview

As a developer, you will work closely with the tech lead, the coordinator of dataviz production, interface and information designers – and sometimes with the various local individual investigative reporters. Next to pure frontend work, you’ll get to help thinking about appropriate ways of visualizing findings, help with data analysis and think about tools for crowd participation.

Responsibilities

Interactive Graphics: You will develop (interactive) data visualizations according to designs and previous examples, mainly in Svelte.js and D3.js
Maps: You will develop static and interactive maps using libraries like Maplibre and Mapbox, including custom tooltips and map functions.
Tools for user participation: You will help to develop interactive tools for crowd research, user feedback and playful communication of journalistic content.
Experimental visual journalism: You will think with us about new forms of interactive graphics, data collection and data analysis.
Prepare datasets for visualizations: Sometimes you will have to wrangle and normalize datasets collected by data journalists and regional journalists.

Qualifications

Experience in Frontend development using a modern framework like React, Vue or Svelte (we’re using Svelte)
Experience with data visualisation, ideally having implemented data viz from scratch
Experience with coding map applications using libraries like mapbox or maplibre
Experience in working closely with designers and content driven people
Fluent in English, additional languages advantage
Experience with working in diverse teams

Advantages

Data management experience with adequate tools
Orientation in the topics of housing/environment/urban issues
Experience with backend development (building APIs, using databases)
Experience with data analysis (R or Python)
Experience with basic Dev Ops (deploying web applications to cloud resources, server setup and maintenance)
Geospatial analysis (QGIS, Python)
UX and UI design knowledge

What we offer

Part-time freelance job for six months initially, with option of extension
Fair payment
Home-office from anywhere in Europe, flexible working hours
Meetings in person with the network members in various cities
Networking with other European data and investigative journalists
A friendly, young and innovative environment of data and investigative journalists across Europe
Chance to take part in the development of new technical methods and tools for data and investigative journalism

If you are interested, please send us a short tabular CV focused on previous projects, your GitHub handle and/or links to projects you built before AND either a very short motivational letter (1/2 page) or a short video (1-3 min.) explaining why you want to work with us.

Please include your ideal workload in hours per week and your daily salary expectations. Deadline for application is January 31th 2025 . Job start date: As soon as possible.

Send an email to [email protected] mentioning the subject „Developer job“

Data Journalist

The Urban Journalism Network is seeking a freelance Data Journalist to join one or more of its international investigative projects on housing in 2025.

Job overview

As a data journalist you will work closely with the coordinator of the individual investigative project, developers and the coordinator of dataviz production. You will be mainly responsible for data research, data collection across European partners and data analysis. And you can help think about appropriate way of visualizing the findings.

Responsibilities

Data Collection: You will scope the data availability on European, national and local level and approach institutions to request data.
Prepare datasets for visualizations: Compile and normalize the datasets collected by regional journalists, and prepare the handover to graphic designers and developers.
Data Analysis: You will search for leads and stories in the datasets in close exchange with investigative and local journalists.
Support regional journalists: You will also provide help to local or international (data) journalists in order to explain certain datadriven tools or methods and make sure that the data will be comparable and aligned with the overall aims of the project

Qualifications

Journalistic experience
Fluent in English, additional languages are an advantage
Experience with working in diverse teams
Data management experience with adequate tools
Some experience in collecting and building own datasets
Data analysis skills in R, or preferably Python
Good management and communication skills
Geo analysis skills with tools like QGis

Advantages

Previous participation on international collaborative projects
Orientation in the topics of housing/environment/urban issues
Experience with further geospatial data analysis
Experience in dataviz or coding frontend development

What we offer

Part-time freelance job for six months initially, with option of extension
Fair payment
Home-office, flexible working hours
Meetings in person with the network members in various cities
Networking with other European journalists at conferences/workshops
A friendly, young and innovative environment of data and investigative journalists across Europe
Chance to take part in the development of new technical methods and tools for data and investigative journalism

If you are interested, please send us a short tabular CV focused on previous publications/projects AND either a short cover letter (1/2 page) or a short video (1-3 min.) of yourself in which you explain why you want to work with us. Please include your ideal workload in hours per week and your daily salary expectations. Deadline for application is 17 November 2024 -> Prolongued due to high amount of enquiries (So we need more time to do the interviews).

Send an email to [email protected] mentioning the subject “Data journalist job“

Investigative Reporter

The Urban Journalism Network is seeking a freelance Investigative Reporter to join one or more of its international investigative projects on housing in 2025.

Job overview

As an investigative reporter you will work closely with the coordinator of the respective investigative project and involved local investigative journalists. You will be mainly responsible for conducting the research and investigation on a European policy level.

Responsibilities

Conducting in-depth research into the topic and preparing briefings
Forming own investigative hypotheses and searching for leads
Conducting interviews, sending FOI requests, searching for data, follow-the-money analysis
Writing summaries and articles in English
Cooperating with local investigative journalists and synchronizing findings across countries

Qualifications

At least 3 years of journalistic experience
Fluent in English, other languages advantage
Good knowledge in at least one of the following topics: housing, environmental policies, architecture, urban planning
Experience with researching EU policies and funds
Excellent writing skills
Ability to work both individually and in a diverse team

Advantages

Previous participation on international collaborative projects
Deep EU policy or institutional knowledge
Data journalism skills
Previous work as an editor

What we offer

Part-time freelance job for six months initially with option of extension
Fair payment
Home-office, flexible working hours
Meetings in person with the network members in various cities
Networking with other European journalists at conferences/workshops
A friendly, young and innovative environment of data and investigative journalists across Europe

Any further questions or interested? Send an email to [email protected] including the mail subject “Investigative Reporter Job”