Associate Director for Data & AI Investigations and Partnerships

umd

College Park (MD)

On-site

USD 155,000 - 180,000

Full time

4 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Excellent state benefits

Tuition remission for you and depend��

Up to 12 weeks parental leave

Retirement plan options

Job summary

The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism seeks an innovative Associate Director for Data & AI Investigations and Partnerships. This full‑time, in‑person role leads data‑driven collaborations with major national newsrooms and guides student projects while advancing AI in investigative reporting.

The position is based in College Park, MD, with competitive salary and excellent benefits.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree and at least 4 years post-college experience as a professional journalist, including data journalism.
Experience leading data journalism projects as an editor or manager.
Experience building and maintaining newsworthy databases or document collections.
Experience with large language models or AI in investigative reporting.
Experience establishing editorial collaborations with newsroom partners.
Teaching or mentoring experience in academic or professional settings.
Management experience supervising professionals or early-career journalists.
Experience with storytelling for broader audiences.

Responsibilities

Launch and manage data journalism initiatives and curated data/document collections.
Lead data-driven reporting collaborations with national newsrooms and partners.
Oversee student-driven investigative data journalism projects with partners.
Integrate large language models and AI into investigative workflows.
Supervise staff and graduate fellows in investigative data journalism.
Teach at least one hands-on class annually tied to Howard Center data investigations.

Skills

Investigative data journalism

Project management

News databases

AI in journalism

Editorial collaborations

Teaching/Mentoring

People management

Audience storytelling

Education

Bachelor's degree in journalism or related field

Job description

Job Description Summary & Additional Information

Organization's Summary Statement

The Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, consistently ranked among the world's top journalism schools, develops journalists and media scholars with rigorous reporting, research and analytical skills, a commitment to ethics, and an appreciation for the First Amendment’s key role in a free society. Located a few miles from the United States capital, Washington, D.C., the college employs acclaimed researchers and repeat winners of journalism’s top awards — including the Pulitzer, Peabody, and Emmy awards — and prepares students to join a dynamic profession.

Merrill College students — who enjoy small classes but also have access to the resources and opportunities available at one of the nation's top public universities — leave Maryland with strong writing and visual skills, a command of technology, and a nuanced understanding of data analysis and audience engagement.

The college has approximately 500 undergraduate and graduate students and about 50 faculty and staff. The college is housed in Knight Hall, located on the UMD College Park campus. The college also runs news bureaus in Annapolis and Washington, is the home of the award-winning Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism, and hosts the national office of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Several online services rank Merrill College among the top journalism schools in the country, including No. 2 by Course Advisor (2023), No. 3 by College Rank (2024), No. 4 by Universities.com (2024), No. 5 by CollegeVine (2024), No. 5 by Transizion (2024), No. 6 by College Factual (2025), No. 6 by CollegeRanker (2024), No. 6 by Successful Student (2024), No. 7 by AP Guru (2021) and No. 8 by College Transitions (2025). Merrill College is fully accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.

Overview

The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism is seeking an innovative and collaborative data journalist to serve as Associate Director for Data & AI Investigations and Partnerships.

The Howard Center is an investigative reporting unit and journalism training program based at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Funded by the Scripps Howard Foundation, it regularly partners with major national newsrooms — such as NPR, PBS NewsHour, The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) — to produce deeply reported investigations.

The center specializes in investigative reporting that requires complex data and digital document analysis, advanced computational methods, open source intelligence (OSINT), applied machine learning, large language models and other forms of artificial intelligence. The center is also launching a new program to maintain a curated set of newsworthy data and document collections for use by other journalists.

The center, working with AP and FRONTLINE, was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting in 2025 for an in-depth, data-driven investigation into police custody deaths. The investigation employed large language models to sift through hundreds of thousands of digital documents acquired through more than 7,000 public records requests. The team built an original database — shared with partner newsrooms — documenting more than 1,000 deaths after police used “nonlethal” restraint methods.

Responsibilities

Launch and manage a new initiative to gather and maintain a curated set of newsworthy data and document collections for journalists and researchers to use.
Assist the Howard Center director in establishing and managing data-driven reporting collaborations with professional and academic newsroom partners.
Manage selected student-driven investigative data journalism projects in collaboration with professional news organization partners.
Work to responsibly incorporate large language models and other forms of artificial intelligence into the investigative reporting workflow.
Oversee the work of a Howard Center staff member and graduate fellows specializing in investigative data journalism.
As a member of the Merrill College faculty, teach one hands-on class per year tied to Howard Center data investigations.

Preferred Experience

Experience producing investigative data journalism as a reporter.
Experience managing investigative data journalism projects as an editor, project manager or similar role.
Experience building and maintaining newsworthy databases or document collections for internal newsroom or external partner use — or managing people engaged in that work.
Experience experimenting with — or a demonstrated interest in learning — new approaches to investigative reporting using large language models, agentic systems, machine learning or other forms of artificial intelligence.
Experience establishing or managing editorial collaborations with internal or external newsroom partners.
Teaching and mentoring experience (which could include university-level teaching, running a workshop at a professional conference like IRE or NICAR, or informally teaching newsroom colleagues).
Management experience (which could include experience managing professionals or experience managing early career journalists, interns or students).
Experience with – or a demonstrated interest in learning – storytelling forms tailored to reach new audiences.

Minimum Requirements

Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree and a minimum of four years of post-college experience working as a professional journalist, including data journalism experience.

BENEFITS

The position has excellent State of Maryland benefits, including:

41 days of leave per year (22 vacation days, 3 personal days, 16 holidays) and 15 days of sick leave.
A choice of an excellent defined-benefit retirement plan (a State of Maryland pension) or a defined-contribution retirement plan — the public sector equivalent of a 401(k) — with a generous employer contribution (employer contributes an extra 7.25% of salary, with no employee contribution required to receive it).
Great State of Maryland insurance for healthcare, prescription drugs, dental, vision, term-life, accidental death and long-term disability.
Tuition remission at the University of Maryland, College Park and other University System of Maryland schools for you and your dependents.
Up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
Additional benefit details here: https://uhr.umd.edu/benefits-and-wellness

JOB TYPE DETAILS

This position is a full-time, professional track faculty position, based in the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. The internal university title is Lecturer. The position does not carry tenure.

This is a five-day-per-week, in-person position based at the University of Maryland campus in College Park, Maryland. The position reports to the Howard Center director. The position is not eligible for a permanent, fully remote or hybrid schedule, but occasional remote work is allowed with the approval of the Howard Center director. College Park is located three miles from Washington, D.C., inside the Capital Beltway, and is easily accessible by car, bike and public transportation (Metro, bus, campus shuttles).

Physical Demands: N/A.

Department

JOUR-Philip Merrill College of Journalism

Worker Sub-Type

Faculty Non-Regular (Fixed Term)

Salary Range

$155,000 - $180,000

Background Checks

Offers of employment are contingent on completion of a background check. Information reported by the background check will not automatically disqualify anyone from employment. Before any adverse decision, the finalist will have an opportunity to provide information to the University regardingdisclosablebackground checkinformation. The University reserves the right to rescind the offer of employment or otherwise decline or terminate employment if the information reported by the background check is deemed incompatible with the position, regardless of when the background check is completed.

Employment Eligibility

The successful candidate must complete employment eligibility verification (on Form I-9) by presenting documents that establish identity and work authorization within the timeframe required by federal immigration law, and where applicable, to demonstrate renewed employment authorization. Failure to complete employment eligibility verification or reverification within the timeframe set forth by law may result in suspension or termination of employment.

EEO Statement

The University of Maryland, College Park is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment. Please read the University’s Equal Employment Opportunity Statement of Policy.

Title IX Non-Discrimination Notice

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