Your New Role…

CNN’s global Visuals team is growing, andwe’relooking for an interdisciplinary journalist with deep experience in cartography, geospatial analysisand visual storytelling. This editor will produce essential, creativeand ambitious journalism across breaking news, daily coverageand enterprise projects, with a particular emphasis on maps and location-based storytelling.

As a member of the global Visuals team, you will work closely with editors, reporters,designersand developers across CNN to contextualize the news and help audiences understand the most important stories of the day. You will source and analyze geospatial data, identifyopportunities for visual coverageand create clear, compelling maps and graphics across a wide range of topics, including elections, international conflict, climate, culture, businessand policy.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role. The ideal candidate is a strong journalist and visual thinker who can move quickly during breaking news while also developing more ambitious mapping projects over time.This role is intended to strengthen CNN’s late-day and evening visual coverage and will ideally be based on the West Coast orworkan East Coast schedule that includes evening hours.

Your Role Accountabilities…

• Produce clear,accurateand engaging maps, charts and graphics for breaking news, daily coverage and medium- to long-term enterprise projects.

• Identifyand pitch opportunities for map-driven, visualand data-led storytelling tied to the news cycle.

• Source, clean, analyze and interpret geospatial datasets from public records, APIs, satelliteimageryand other sources.

• Develop original reporting and analysis that helps audiences understand where events are happening, how places arechangingand why geography matters to a story.

• Work closely with reporters, editors,designersand developers to integrate maps and visual storytelling into CNN’s coverage.

• Contribute to CNN’s elections coverage by working with election results, geographic and demographic datasets to produceaccurate,clearand compelling maps and visual analysis.

• Contribute to live and planned coverage of major news events, including elections, international conflicts, extremeweatherand other breaking stories.

• Adapt visual approaches for different devices,platformsand distribution needs, including home screens and off-platform storytelling.

• Experiment with emerging tools and formats, including interactive mapping, satellite imagery, 3D terrain,WebGLand other forms of geospatial storytelling.

Qualifications & Experience…  

• At least 7 years of experience in a newsroom or comparable data visualization, cartography or visual journalism environment. 

• A strong portfolio of published map-driven journalism, including work produced on deadline and more ambitious enterprise projects. 

• Advanced experience with geospatial analysis and modern mapping tools such as QGIS, ArcGIS, Mapbox, MapLibre, D3.js or similar platforms. 

• Experience working with elections data, electoral geography or political mapping – including familiarity with results data, district boundaries and demographic datasets – is strongly preferred. 

• Strong editorial judgment, attention to detail and commitment to accuracy. 

• Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across desks, disciplines and time zones. 

• Ability to source, clean and analyze geospatial data and translate complex findings into clear, accessible visuals. 

• Help adapt visual stories and graphics for home screens, apps and off-platform distribution. 

• Experience using some combination of Illustrator, ai2html, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, R, SQL, Excel and Git or the command line. 

• Experience balancing quick-turn breaking news graphics with medium- and long-term projects. 

• Curiosity and openness to experimenting with new techniques, tools and storytelling formats. 

If you don’t have every one of these skills, that’s OK. We want to hear from candidates who are passionate about this work and eager to bring their unique perspective and experience to the role.