We're hiring | Senior Web Developer, Newsroom
Start date: Immediate
Location: Flexible, with availability during standard CET office hours
Status: Part-time, guaranteed hours
Application deadline: 8 Nov.
IRIN News, the world’s only media organisation dedicated to covering humanitarian news, is hiring a Senior Web Developer to support our journalism across all digital platforms. In this role, you will maintain and enhance our site and other publishing platforms while helping to shape our longer-term digital strategy. We are looking for a well-rounded developer with a strong understanding of technology trends, particularly as they relate to the media industry; content management systems; and the full cycle of the web development process, including design, development, and deployment. You will oversee a site re-vamp and help bring us to the next level in terms of digital reporting and storytelling.
You will be part of our small editorial team that works remotely across multiple time zones, collaborating with reporters around the world. Our main publishing platform is on Drupal (v7) with customisation, and we rely on online collaboration and cloud-based services.
Our journalists report on how conflict — from Congo to Syria — upends communities and how natural disasters and epidemics, climate change, and political and economic unrest disrupt livelihoods and families. You will help us use digital technologies to report on humanitarian crises and the multi-billion-dollar industry that responds to them, and to cover the institutions, policies, and practices that shape lives around the world. Our work informs policymakers and decisionmakers in government, NGOs, the UN and other international organisations; aid workers in the field; scholars and journalists; and, through re-publication by mainstream media, a globally concerned general audience.
As the technology lead within IRIN, you will bring improved functionality, ease of use, and consistency to our digital presence; ensure that all content displays smoothly on current and future platforms; implement changes needed for new editorial formats and distribution methods; improve the overall user experience; and guide our team in using current and emerging technology to its fullest potential.
You must be both hands-on and strategic, making every-day improvements to our digital platform while helping shape our longer-term online strategy. You will have both a strong technical background and enjoy working and communicating with non-technical staff. Your expertise and hands-on web development skills will help us launch new content formats and editorial products; be more responsive to data-driven story opportunities; and aid us in applying a more rigorous, analytics-based approach to engaging with existing users and new target audiences by consulting site and social metrics.
You'll report to the executive editor and work closely with our web producer, audience engagement manager, and the digital agency that hosts our website.
Responsibilities
- Implement new features and functionality to support richer multimedia content, sharper layouts and a more interactive experience, from developing new templates and bespoke microsites to day-to-day improvements on the digital platforms
- Oversee a site revamp, part of our rebranding process
- Monitor and improve overall functionality and responsiveness of website, newsletters, and new distribution platforms across devices
- Support the collection and analysis of analytics across IRIN’s digital platforms (website, social media channels and newsletter) to inform development and design priorities
- Improve the user experience of our site and other digital platforms
- Oversee the maintenance and routine work of the agency that hosts our website to ensure high performance
- Manage in-house technical aspects of content management system to ensure high performance and security of IRIN’s intellectual property
- Stay abreast of technology trends in the media sector and recommend updates and opportunities and advise on risks
- Participate in editorial meetings and pro-actively suggest ways to improve content delivery, news gathering and community engagement from a technological perspective
- Oversee technical work and manage projects as requested for new product development and initiatives, including events and outreach
Skills and Experience
- A full stack developer with broader software development experience in addition to Drupal
- At least two years' experience in Drupal development that goes deeper than basic theming and includes integrating with third-party applications and services
- Intermediate HTML/CSS/JavaScript skills
- Knowledge/experience of MailChimp, DFP, Google Analytics, MySQL, Linode, AWS
- Comfortable working in a newsroom environment. You'll be able to confidently work with our editorial team to take our journalism to the next level - think creative approaches to data presentation - and be able to cast a critical eye over our current approach and recommend enhancements
- Flexible and pragmatic, able to balance technical needs and editorial goals whilst working to tight deadlines
- Up-to-date on new tools and technologies
- Experience working in a web developer role for media organisations is highly desirable.
This is a part-time position with regular, dedicated hours. IRIN News is headquartered in Geneva, but in our decentralised newsroom the senior web developer can be based anywhere in the world. Availability during standard CET business hours is essential. Salary commensurate with experience.
IRIN News is a donor-supported non-profit newsroom, funded by a mix of foundations and governments.
How to Apply
Send your CV to [email protected] (subject line: Senior Web Developer), along with a cover letter outlining your experience, interest in working with IRIN News, and any suggestions on improving our website and overall digital presence. Application deadline: 8 Nov.
About IRIN
IRIN News is a non-profit newsroom focusing on humanitarian news and analysis. Founded in 1995 in response to the information gap exposed by the Rwandan genocide, it was hosted and funded for 19 years by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as an internal information agency. An independent newsroom since 2015, our on-the-ground reporters highlight overlooked crises around the world, amplifying the voices of some the world’s most vulnerable people and critically examining the multi-billion-dollar aid industry. Our work shapes the global humanitarian narrative, affects humanitarian policy and prompts on-the-ground action.
We are a go-to source for decision makers in the humanitarian aid sector, including in the UN, NGOs, and governments. Some 180,000 people visit IRIN’s website every month; 37,000 subscribe to our newsletter; and tens of thousands of people engage with our work through social media every month.
A 2018 reader survey found that IRIN’s journalism stimulates research and advocacy; informs the operational priorities of aid agencies; influences decisions to fund aid programs; leads practitioners to push for policy changes; and prompts journalists from other media to pursue stories often neglected by mainstream media.
Our work is regularly cited and reproduced in local and international media outlets, including the BBC and The New York Times.