Data Journalist

ACAPS, a project hosted by the Norwegian Refugee Council, is looking for a professional and creative Data Journalist to join its team in Geneva or in another country!

Purpose of the position

ACAPS aims to boost the story telling aspect of the data analysis and is seeking a professional to contribute to the continuous improvement of this body of work. ACAPS is looking for a flexible and creative professional focused on delivering the right information required for decision-makers across the world to make rapid evidenced-based decisions. The post-holder will primarily support ACAPS analysis work across teams including new development, remote analysis, and contribute to the overall development of the ACAPS portfolio.

Roles and responsibilities

• Generate ideas for data-driven stories and for how they might be developed and visualized
• Explore those ideas using statistical tools – and presenting them to wider stakeholders from a non-statistical background
• Report on and analyze data in a way that contributes to telling compelling stories on an array of news platforms
• Develop solutions to apply the ACAPS visual identity to code-based products (e.g. packages or configuration files for python and R to apply colors and aesthetic fixes in line with the ACAPS style)
• Implement improvements to the visual presentation of data products built with different tools (both code-based and GUI-based)
• Support making large and/or complex data more accessible, understandable and usable
• Collaborate with analysts, editors, designers, and developers to bring those stories to publication
• Create cross teams data story workflows and support the further development of the visual identity of the organization
• Support the editorial process on data projects as required and oversee the work of other data team colleagues
• Use skills and experience to advise on best approaches to data-led storytelling and the development and publication of data-led projects
• Contribute to creation of guidelines and user interface (UX) standards for interface design, visualization techniques, rich charting, and analytic dashboards
• Participate in the design and development of capacity building projects across the organization.
• Maintain working relationships and proactively search for opportunities for collaboration across teams as well as externally
• Contribute towards learning and innovation within ACAPS
• Other relevant duties, as assigned

Critical interfaces

• This role will closely collaborate with the GIS expert, ACAPS analysts and data scientists
• Coordinates and collaborates with all ACAPS teams and hubs, the Training unit, and the Communications department

Competencies and qualifications Qualifications and experience

• Master’s degree in a relevant field. Bachelor’s degree with an additional 3 years’ experience will be accepted instead.
• 3+ years of professional experience in a similar role, including demonstrable experience of visualising data, using either tools or scripts in the social sciences sector.
• A broad knowledge of humanitarian and social sector data sources.
• A good understanding of statistics and statistical analysis and a strong grasp of how to clean, parse and query data.
• Good knowledge of some of the following: spreadsheet software, and Python or/and R. Willingness to learn other tools.
• Experience with JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Python to support data visualisation
• Experience with embedded data visualisation and analytics tools and libraries such as D3, Plotly, Flourish, Power BI and Tableau
• Django familiarity and awareness of data engineering and ETL processes preferred
• Familiarity with geospatial visualisation tools such as Mapbox and ArcGIS StoryMaps preferred
• Fluent written and oral communication skills in English and ideally French and/or Spanish.

About ACAPS

ACAPS is dedicated to improving analysis of humanitarian needs in complex emergencies and crises. We are independent of specific operational and sectoral agendas or interests, and therefore guarantee objective and evidence-based analysis. Our team supports the humanitarian community by providing up-to-date information on key crises around the globe. By bringing together different sources of secondary (and where appropriate primary) data and using robust methodologies, we move beyond descriptive analysis to explanatory and interpretive analysis: in other words, we enable data to tell us: ‘so what?’ This allows crisis responders to better understand, and thereby better address, the priority needs of the affected population.