Senior Investigative Data Reporter (Accountability)

Pareto is looking for experienced Senior Investigative Data Reporter (Accountability) professionals to collaborate with a leading AI lab on a groundbreaking project. The focus is on creating high-fidelity computer-use exercises that capture real investigative journalism workflows—complete with starting context, step-by-step actions, decision points, and final deliverables.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

TOPIC SCOPING : Identify and define investigative topics with high accountability impact.

DATA-DRIVEN EXERCISES : Publish 6–8 investigative exercises with ground-truth answers and reproducible methods within the first 90 days.

DATASET LIBRARY : Build and maintain a vetted dataset library including FOIA responses, public records, and scraped tables with clear provenance notes.

STANDARDS CHECKLIST : Develop and implement a checklist for verification, redaction, and ethical review used by all contributors.

MENTORSHIP : Mentor two contributors to complete their first complex investigative exercise from start to finish.

DOCUMENTATION : Write step-by-step exercise briefs and ensure reproducibility through code and queries.

LEGAL / ETHICS COORDINATION : Work closely with legal and ethics teams to ensure all exercises meet necessary standards.

EDITORIAL COLLABORATION : Collaborate with editors to ensure clarity and testability of all investigative exercises.

IDEAL QUALIFICATIONS

5+ years of experience in investigative journalism or a closely related field, with a focus on accountability reporting.

Proficiency in Python, Jupyter Notebook, OpenRefine, and DocumentCloud.

Exceptional written communication skills, with the ability to transform complex data and workflows into clear, reproducible instructions.

Experience with FOIA / MuckRock requests and cleaning / analyzing datasets.

Strong understanding of data verification workflows and ethical considerations in journalism.

Demonstrated ability to mentor and lead less experienced contributors.

TIME COMMITMENT

Calibration : Paid 1-hour trial within first week of acceptance.

Pilot : 1-week paid pilot; successful completion leads to being invited to the official project, which will last approximately 2 months.

Ongoing target : At least 10–20 hours / week during pilot; 2-month contract in case of project success.

Top performers during the 2-month official project will be invited to potential future AI Training projects.

COMPENSATION & CONTRACT

Hourly rate : $100-$135 / hr

Employment type : At-will contractor to Pareto.

Geographic flexibility : Remote work from anywhere; compensation adjusted by location while maintaining competitiveness.

HOW TO APPLY

For immediate consideration, please click the 'Apply' button above and follow instructions on the webpage. Applying requires signing up for Pareto's AI Training software platform.

Applications for this project are first-come-first serve, and we recommend applying as soon as possible to increase your chances of joining.

ABOUT PARETO

Pareto is a San Francisco-based company specializing in connecting elite professionals with cutting-edge AI initiatives. We help top AI labs accelerate progress by integrating expert human knowledge across domains. Our work directly contributes to making AI systems more reliable, safe, and genuinely helpful.

We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.

Skills Required

Python