Political Data Scientist (CONTRACTOR)

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world's population sees AP journalism every day.

The Associated Press is seeking an independent contractor to work on a contract basis as a political data scientist. If you are passionate about the U.S. electoral system, deadline driven and can commit to seeing the project through to the end of 2024 then we want to hear from you.

AP has played an essential role in elections since 1848 and this project is one of the many keys to our success. The project involves statistical modeling of expected turnout for races in every locality tabulated by the AP.

Project deliverables include the following:
Statistical modeling of expected turnout for races
Specific deliverables related to synthesizing and manipulating elections data

Skills and Experience:
Contractor must be able to successfully synthesize and manipulate information in a pressurized, time-sensitive election night atmosphere and be willing to collaborate with other researchers, data scientists and programmers working on elections. To that end, familiarity with the following is essential.
Advance and election day turnout trends
Election night reporting
Historical election results
Voter files
Advance data
Campaign finance data
Polling data
How voting rules as well as political climate contribute to voter turnout
Mapping data across various sources

Requirements:
Commitment to non-partisan work
Availability and willingness to work nights and weekends during peak election season
One or more statical programming packages, including R or Python
Predictive modeling
Relational and Non-relational data
Time series modeling
Data cleaning/manipulation

Experience in the following is a plus:
Cloud based computing
SQL
Prototype dashboards (i.e., R Shiny, or Flask Apps)
GIS/geographic data
Excel
CI/CD build pipelines

Authorization to work in the U.S. will be mandatory. Advanced-level professional competency in written and spoken English.

This project is expected to last through the end of 2024.

AP seeks to build an inclusive organization grounded in respect for differences. We support all aspects of diversity and provide equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, marital status, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or status as a veteran. We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply.