Houston Chronicle is hiring: Data Reporter - Property Tax in Houston

Job Description

The Houston Chronicle is seeking a data reporter to produce high-impact data stories and help scale one of our most ambitious public-service projects: the Ultimate Guide to Protesting Your Property Taxes in Harris County. In 2025, the guide empowered over a million Houston-area homeowners to challenge their property valuations and save thousands on their taxes.

Role Context

The Houston Chronicle is part of the Hearst Texas Data Team, a collaborative group of journalist-programmers who partner with peers across Hearst Texas properties to produce impactful, data-focused reporting. The role offers the opportunity to pursue a mix of quick-turnaround and high-impact stories, with training and mentorship from award-winning data and beat reporters.

Responsibilities

• Analyze, interpret and visualize large public datasets to produce compelling graphics- and data-driven stories
• Partner with reporters and editors across Texas newsrooms to produce data-driven journalism on topics including property taxes, immigration, health, public safety, business, education and more
• Reverse-engineer and reproduce complex government algorithms
• Build scalable data pipelines to efficiently process millions of records
• Develop robust backend infrastructure and APIs that integrate with existing frontend frameworks
• Cultivate technical sources at government agencies to understand and obtain datasets on tight deadlines

Qualifications

Required

• A minimum of three years working in data journalism or a similar role combining journalism and programming
• Proficiency in Python and/or R
• Comfortable working with large, complex datasets in newsroom environments
• Experience building APIs and backend applications
• Experience working with data visualization tools such as Datawrapper or Adobe Illustrator/ai2html
• Command of version control and collaborative development workflows
• Demonstrated ability to work under tight deadlines and manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Strong news judgment

Preferred

• Familiarity with federal and Texas open-records law
• A track record building dynamic news elements, including interactive graphics and newsroom tools
• Experience with mapping tools such as ArcGIS or QGIS
• Understanding of statistical analysis and machine learning techniques

Additional Requirements & Information

This role is based in Houston.

To be considered you must submit all required documents in PDF format:

• One-page résumé
• One additional page that includes three work/character references including titles, email addresses and phone numbers, and links to at least three digital work samples

About the Houston Chronicle

The Houston Chronicle, recognized for its Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism, serves its 2.3 million residents with content and marketing solutions across HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com, along with our magazine, television and newspaper brands. Our mission is to spark conversations that inspire action to create a better Houston and to help Houstonians prosper for more than 120 years.

About Hearst Newspapers

With 2,500 employees across the nation, Hearst Newspapers encompasses a network of 24 daily and 52 weekly publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and Albany Times Union, as well as several top digital-only sites and related businesses.

Be a part of something bigger – your headline awaits.