Associate Political Data Science Jobs in Secaucus, NJ

VERSANT (Nasdaq: VSNT) is an industry-changing media and entertainment business and home to trusted brands that shape culture, inform audiences, and build lasting connections. It operates across four core markets: political news and opinion, business news and personal finance, golf, and sports and genre entertainment. These markets are served through a powerful portfolio of iconic and innovative brands, including CNBC, MS NOW, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Versant's sports division USA Sports, along with complementary digital assets including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and GolfPass.

Versant Media is seeking a Data Analytics Manager, Elections to help power industry-leading political coverage across MSNBC and CNBC platforms. This role will spearhead the analysis, interpretation, and distribution of polling insights and election data across television, digital, and streaming platforms while helping audiences better understand voting behavior, electoral trends, and the forces shaping U.S. elections.

Reporting to the Director of Elections and working closely with editorial leadership, newsroom teams, operations, and technology partners, this individual will combine editorial judgment with advanced analytical and technical expertise to support real-time election coverage and long-form explanatory journalism. The ideal candidate has a strong background in data science, elections, polling, and statistical analysis, along with the ability to transform raw data into compelling insights and storytelling.

This role will also help drive innovative uses of AI and emerging technologies in election analysis, newsroom workflows, and audience-facing insights.

Key Responsibilities

Elections Data & Analytics

• Analyze vote count, polling, voter survey, and demographic data to identify and report on trends, voting patterns, and actionable editorial insights.
• Process and interpret raw election and polling datasets to produce original analysis for newsroom and audience consumption.
• Spearhead the distribution of polling insights and election guidance across broadcast, streaming, and digital news platforms.
• Monitor real-time election results and provide rapid analysis during breaking news and election-night coverage.
• Assist in evaluating race projections, statistical models, and forecasting methodologies from external vendors and partners.
• Create dashboards, data visualizations, and reporting tools that support editorial decision-making and audience engagement.
• Rigorously test election systems, including graphical, data visualization, and touchscreen software.

Editorial Storytelling & Audience Insights

• Contribute to original explanatory journalism focused on voter behavior, turnout trends, demographic shifts, and electoral outcomes.
• Help audiences understand not only how people voted, but why they voted the way they did through data-driven storytelling and analysis.
• Translate complex statistical findings into clear, compelling talking points, graphics, and editorial guidance.
• Collaborate with producers, reporters, and editors to integrate analytics into daily and long-form political coverage.
• Support newsroom teams with polling interpretation and best practices for reporting election data responsibly and accurately.

AI & Innovation

• Explore and implement innovative uses of AI and automation to enhance election analysis, newsroom workflows, data processing, and audience insights.
• Partner with technical and product teams to improve newsroom tools, data accessibility, and real-time analytics capabilities.
• Help identify emerging technologies and analytical approaches that strengthen elections coverage and storytelling.

Vendor & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with vote count and polling vendors to ensure data accuracy, integrity, and quality assurance.
• Collaborate with editorial, research, operations, graphics, and engineering teams across platforms.
• Assist in maintaining standards and workflows for election data ingestion, validation, and presentation.
• Support future partnerships and initiatives related to elections, polling, and audience analytics.

Additional requirements as needed by the business.

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Statistics, Political Science, Economics, Journalism, or a related field
• 5+ years of experience in political data analysis, polling, elections coverage, journalism, data science, or related fields.

• Strong understanding of the U.S. electoral system, election administration, polling methodologies, and voting trends, including familiarity with key states, districts, and counties in recent U.S. elections.
• Background in data science, statistics, quantitative analysis, or computational journalism strongly preferred.
• Experience in processing and analyzing raw datasets to generate original editorial insights and reporting.
• Proficiency with analytical and visualization tools such as Python, R, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, or similar platforms.
• Experience with statistical modeling, survey analysis, and large-scale data interpretation preferred.
• Familiarity with AI, machine learning, automation tools, or generative AI applications in media or analytics environments is a plus.
• Strong editorial judgment and the ability to communicate complex findings clearly to non-technical audiences.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills with experience working across editorial and technical teams.
• Ability to work effectively in high-pressure, deadline-driven news environments.
• Experience supporting election-night operations or real-time news coverage preferred.

Desired Characteristics

• Passion for political journalism, public opinion, democracy, and public affairs.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to accuracy and ethical standards.
• Innovative and solutions-oriented mindset with curiosity around emerging technologies and storytelling formats.
• Ability to balance technical rigor with audience-friendly storytelling.
• Calm, organized, and decisive during breaking news and election coverage.

Preferred

• Advanced degree in Data Science, Political Science, or a related discipline
• Background in election data, polling analysis, or political reporting
• Experience applying AI/ML techniques to data analysis or newsroom workflows
• Familiarity with data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, D3.js)
• Experience working in a newsroom or media organization

Additional Job Requirements:

• Must be willing to work in New York, NY.
• Must have unrestricted work authorization to work in the United States.
• Must be willing and able to work flexible hours, under tight deadline pressure, including breaking news.

This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other discounts and perks.  

Salary range: $130,000 - $185,000

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to candidateaccessibility@versantmedia.com.

VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc.

VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.