Data Journalist: Storytelling with SQL & Insights

Imprint; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation and equity

Parental leave equal to 20 weeks

Fully covered healthcare

Flexible paid time off

One Medical access

FSA option

Job summary

Imprint is building a first-of-its-kind data storytelling function, combining data science with narrative journalism. The Senior Data Journalist will mine payments, merchant, and card member data to surface credible, data-driven stories and write production-grade SQL and dbt models.

Working closely with the data science team, you will own end-to-end story development—from analysis and methodology to publication—while defending your approach and maintaining editorial independence in a

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in data journalism, with a portfolio of data-driven stories that combine rigorous quantitative analysis and clear written narrative
• Advanced SQL and dbt skills, with real production experience building and maintaining data models, not just querying existing ones
• Working knowledge of statistics, including sampling, significance testing, and how to avoid common pitfalls in observational data, strong enough to defend a methodology under questioning
• Python or equivalent scripting ability for data transformation and analysis beyond what SQL alone can do
• Ability to independently QA your own work, build reproducible, version-controlled analyses that are retrospectively defensible if and when questioned, and maintain a high bar for quality and reliability with no analytics team backstopping you
• Strong writing and the ability to translate complex, technically rigorous data into compelling, accessible stories for a broad audience
• Track record of working independently to identify, develop, and publish stories without heavy direction
• Ability to hold a narrative strategy and push back constructively when requests fall outside of it
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where the function, and its technical infrastructure, is being built for the first time

Responsibilities

• Write and produce data-driven stories that contribute meaningfully to public discourse around how people live and buy today
• Own Imprint's data storytelling function end-to-end, from writing your own SQL and dbt models to story identification, statistical analysis, and publication
• Independently design and execute the analytical approach for each story, including sampling methodology, statistical significance, and handling of outliers or data quality issues
• Partner with the data science team as a technical peer to build and maintain infrastructure for ongoing story mining across Imprint's proprietary data sets
• Propose and iterate on story formats, publishing cadence, and distribution approach
• Maintain editorial independence: push back on ad hoc data requests that fall outside the narrative strategy
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders, including communications, brand, product marketing, data science, and leadership, to share findings and determine the best ways to distribute stories

Skills

Advanced SQL

dbt skills

Python

Data journalism

Story writing

QA analyses

Tools

dbt

Data visualization

Job description

Imprint is building a first-of-its-kind data storytelling function, combining data science with narrative journalism. The Senior Data Journalist will mine payments, merchant, and card member data to surface credible, data-driven stories and write production-grade SQL and dbt models.

Working closely with the data science team, you will own end-to-end story development—from analysis and methodology to publication—while defending your approach and maintaining editorial independence in a