Engagement Reporter

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

Applications will be accepted through at least May 15 2026 at 12:00 PM ET.

Engagement reporters do ProPublicas signature crowdsourced investigations using everything fromcallouts and tip lines to citizen-fueled science. As an engagement reporter youll team up with colleagues across the country to gather evidence and receipts for hard-hitting community-driven stories. You may also work with external partners on long- and short-term projects through our Local Reporting Network. Youll find and reach people who have important stories to tell figure out how to include them in the reporting process and work on journalism that could help improve their lives. Youll likely come across more stories and new leads in the process.

Like everyone in our newsroom our team focuses on accountability journalism and measures success by impact. Weve worked with communities to tell thousands of peoples stories including educators parents mental health providers wildfire survivors migrant dairy farm workers vulnerable workers and residents living near toxic hot spots. Weve filled information gaps with calculators guides and letter generators. And weve done our best to reach people in the spaces where they gather both online and off. This journalism has led to impact big and small from equipping patients with better information to a promised $2 billion to fix Idaho public school buildings.

What Youll Do Here:

• Identify promising crowdsourcing opportunities and team up with other reporters to do investigative stories that rely on community outreach and engagement.
• Craft and manage callouts surveys and other crowdsourcing tools for investigations. Help keep track of ProPublicas extensive network of respondents to our previous callouts and help reporters reengage relevant groups as reporting lines arise.
• Research communities and get to know people who live and work in the places were covering. Strategize methods to engage sources clearly effectively and compassionately.
• Listen for pitch and take the lead on service journalism opportunities such as tools and guides.
• Review flag and sometimes follow up on promising tips that come in through ProPublicas newsroom tip lines. Identify themes and promising angles.
• Develop relationships with long-term community sources such as union stewards members of the clergy Reddit moderators petition managers and other local leaders.
• Collaborate with national local and specialty reporting teams across ProPublica and in our many partner newsrooms including through our Local Reporting Network.
• Brainstorm the biggest ideas you can imagine with a team of the most creative engagement journalists in the country.

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

The expected salary range for this position is $85000 to $120000.

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

You Should Apply If:

• You have at least three years of journalism experience either in reporting or an engagement-focused role. Most successful engagement reporters come from backgrounds in newsrooms but we are open to people with skill sets from different industries.
• Youve worked on stories that shed light on injustices and hold the powerful accountable. You dont need to have done monthslong investigations but you do need experience reporting.
• Youve got a track record of creative outreach. Perhaps youve run a Facebook group optimized headlines for search built a newsletter list or user-tested an app. Maybe youve produced events A/B tested mass mailers canvassed neighborhoods or set up a listening post. Online or off you had a strategy and you adapted it along the way.
• Youre an active excellent listener and a thoughtful writer who can match your style to the occasion. You understand the difference between messaging the moderator of a Facebook group and emailing a PR person for comment.
• Youve got a strong news sense a keen eye for detail and the ability to connect the dots in investigations.
• Youve got the ability to work independently and with teammates on collaborative projects. You like working with others but youre also proactive about finding opportunities and pushing projects forward on your own.
• You have the patience and organizational acumen for long-term projects. You probably have opinions about spreadsheets.

This role will involve occasional travel for team retreats conferences and reporting projects.

What You Should Send Us:

Work examples are the most important part of this application.

The application form will require you to send us three projects from your portfolio and it will give you the space to walk us through your own contributions to those clips. Take advantage of this to tell us everything you did from behind-the-scenes wins youre proud of to how you helped your colleagues. Let us know how your engagement and outreach work shaped the output. Dont be shy tell us what succeeded including numbers and evidence of impact and feel free to share details on how youd do it differently next time.

Make sure to read the section above titled You Should Apply If because its also our evaluation criteria for the position. Use your projects and the rest of your application to show us that youve got the skills weve listed or why the skills you have are the ones we actually need.

We will begin reviewing applications as we receive them but we will continue to consider candidates as long as the posting remains live on our site.

Questions Send an email to .

No phone calls please.

We know there are great candidates who may not fit into what weve described above or who have important skills we havent thought of. If thats you dont 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.