Senior Visuals Developer, CNN
About The Position
CNN's global Visuals team is seeking a senior developer to create ambitious, innovative and accessible digital journalism. This role is for a visual thinker who can turn complex ideas into intuitive, high-impact experiences across breaking news, enterprise reporting and major planned coverage. As a senior member of the Visuals team, you will collaborate with editors, reporters, designers, data journalists and other developers to build interactive stories, reusable tools and visual formats that deepen CNN’s journalism. You will work across a range of storytelling approaches, from fast-turn projects and live experiences to immersive, highly produced stories. We are particularly interested in candidates with experience working with 3D to create spatial storytelling experiences. That could include work with photogrammetry, WebGL, 3D mapping, 3D modeling, animation or other emerging formats. You should be excited about applying those skills thoughtfully: not as a technical exercise, but when they offer the clearest and most compelling way to help audiences understand a story.
Requirements
- At least 7 years of experience in interactive development, creative technology, visual journalism or a comparable digital storytelling environment.
- A strong portfolio of published interactive work that demonstrates excellent technical execution, visual judgment and audience-centered thinking.
- Experience with modern front-end frameworks, component-based development and Git-based workflows.
- Demonstrated experience building 3D or spatial storytelling experiences using tools such as WebGL, Three.js, Mapbox GL, MapLibre, deck.gl or similar technologies.
- Fluency in HTML, CSS and JavaScript is required; familiarity with Python is a plus.
- Experience incorporating AI-assisted tools into development workflows, or an interest in thoughtfully using AI to improve coding, prototyping and production practices.
- A strong understanding of responsive design, accessibility, browser performance and cross-platform testing.
- Experience collaborating closely with designers, editors, reporters and data journalists from concept through publication.
- Ability to work on both deadline-driven news coverage and more complex medium- and long-term projects.
- Strong communication skills and an ability to explain technical possibilities and tradeoffs clearly to non-technical partners.
Nice To Haves
- Familiarity with data visualization libraries, automated data pipelines or newsroom publishing workflows is a plus.
- Experience with motion design, animation, computer graphics or creative coding is a plus.
- Experience building interactive election features, results displays or other data-driven news products – or an interest in applying development skills to elections coverage – is a plus.
Responsibilities
- Develop interactive graphics, visual stories and digital experiences for breaking news, enterprise journalism and major planned events.
- Partner with editors, reporters and designers early in the reporting process to identify the strongest storytelling approaches and determine where custom development can add value.
- Create engaging storytelling experiences using 3D models and photogrammetry, including interactive maps, explanatory models, animations and immersive formats.
- Build responsive, accessible and performant experiences that work effectively across devices and platforms.
- Develop reusable components, templates and tools that help CNN’s Visuals team move more quickly and consistently across the news cycle.
- Collaborate with data and graphics editors to integrate live data, automated feeds and visual analysis into interactive experiences.
- Contribute to editorial brainstorming, prototyping and experimentation with emerging technologies.
- Work closely with product, engineering and platform partners when projects require broader technical coordination.
- Review code, document workflows and share skills with colleagues across the Visuals team.
- Help maintain high standards for accessibility, performance, reliability and user experience.
Benefits
- health insurance coverage
- an employee wellness program
- life and disability insurance
- a retirement savings plan
- paid holidays and sick time and vacation
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
