ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. 

We're looking for a full-stack senior product engineer to lead work on our publishing systems and core website. This vital role serves to amplify ProPublica’s mission — publishing web-first journalism with real-world impact — by crafting scalable, efficient and user-centric products.

The right candidate will believe in our mission and thrive in a multifaceted role, contributing both to the long-term product road map and to hands-on development. Your responsibilities will include shipping high-quality and resilient software, and working alongside designers, product managers, data analysts, engineers and agency partners. You’ll write code, contribute to our documentation, mentor your peers and proactively solve problems.

As a pivotal member of our expanding, cross-functional product team, you’ll work closely with colleagues across ProPublica’s newsroom and business operations, ensuring that our product strategies align and advance our organizational objectives. 

Responsibilities

  • Act as the primary technical point of contact for our web publishing system.
  • Lead the planning and technical execution of tools and product features that support ProPublica’s journalistic, audience and revenue goals.
  • Collaborate with designers and engineering leaders to establish technical standards for front-end web development.
  • Build tools and product features that showcase our journalism across platforms, including the web and third-party ecosystems such as Apple News and Google News.
  • Evaluate new products and features, troubleshoot issues and proactively lead improvements that increase the performance, reliability and security of our products and publishing platforms.
  • Collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders across the organization to understand their needs and translate them into actionable project briefs and high-quality code.
  • Serve as the subject-matter expert on the website and web platform, providing guidance and mentorship to developers, helping document coding standards and processes and ensuring that we’re following best practices.
  • Stay informed about industry trends, tools and platforms that can be leveraged to improve our newsroom’s digital capabilities.

Experience and Skills

  • A deep understanding of, and care for, the open web.
  • Minimum five years working with modern content-management systems, preferably WordPress, including strong proficiency with PHP and experience building extensions and integrations.
  • Experience and comfort with modern, well-structured, standards-based HTML and CSS, as well as website optimization using core web vitals as a guide.
  • Experience writing vanilla JavaScript and using front-end development frameworks such as Svelte or React.
  • Experience working with AWS-based website infrastructure and tools.  
  • Expertise using APIs to query and modify CMS content.
  • Familiarity with templating languages such as Twig or Liquid. 
  • Familiarity with popular third-party analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, Parse.ly and Google Tag Manager.
  • Experience working in highly collaborative, small, efficient teams, with strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills to support a cross-functional and growing organization.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

This job is full time and includes benefits. ProPublica is based in New York, but we’re open to remote candidates. We have offices in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Chicago; Austin, Texas; Phoenix; and Berkeley, California. Applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S.

The expected salary range for this position is $120,000 to $145,000.

This is a good-faith estimate of what we expect to pay for this position. The final salary figure will take into account a person’s experience, accomplishment and location. ProPublica is committed to paying its staff equitably, and these ranges should not be considered career salary limits or caps.



We know there are great candidates who may not fit into what we’ve described above or who have important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.

We are dedicated to improving our newsroom, in part by better reflecting the people we cover. (Here is a breakdown of our staff.) We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. And we are taking steps to meet that commitment. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. We are an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age or any other status protected under applicable law. 

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Additional Information 2024

We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages, and we’re taking steps to meet that commitment. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women and people of color.
 
The following questions are part of our efforts to ensure that we have attracted a diverse pool of candidates. Your answers to these questions will in no way affect your chances of being hired.  We are an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind.  All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law. It's also completely fine to indicate that you do not wish to answer these questions, and it will in no way affect your chances of getting hired. 

If you're interested, see how our staff answered these questions in our latest diversity report.

Which of the following best describes your racial or ethnic heritage? Select as many as apply.










Which gender identity best describes you?







Are you a military veteran? (Select one)



Does one or more of the following apply to you? You were eligible for a Pell Grant, first generation in your family to go to college, or your family was eligible for a government assistance program. (Select one)



If you’re a member of a community we haven’t mentioned that is underrepresented in journalism, let us know which below. For example: being a first-generation American/immigrant, being involved in a faith community, living with a disability, etc. (Select one)


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