Freelance Student Writing Jobs in Silver Spring, MD

Job Description: * Build and maintain PowerPoint products for decision briefs, governance forums, program reviews, and headquarters engagements, working from rough content supplied by action officers and technical subject matter experts.
* Design charts, tables, timelines, organizational views, and process diagrams that make comparison, trend, dependency, and risk visible at a glance, selecting the chart form that fits the underlying data rather than defaulting to the template.
* Rebuild inherited slides that are technically accurate but visually unreadable, reducing text density, correcting hierarchy, and imposing a consistent visual grammar across a deck.
* Own slide masters, layouts, color and type systems, and reusable component libraries so that products remain consistent across many authors and multiple briefing cycles.
* Produce the graphic elements required for data presentation, including custom vector icons, callouts, annotation systems, and modular diagram components.
* Apply corporate and government template standards, required document markings, and accessibility requirements including sufficient color contrast and colorblind safe palettes.
* Maintain version control and source traceability so that every figure can be tied back to the data that produced it, and so that late changes to a number propagate correctly.
* Hold quality under compressed timelines. Tasking frequently arrives late, changes after it arrives, and is due before the next senior forum.
Job Requirements: •    Bachelor's degree in graphic design, information or communication design, data visualization, statistics, journalism, or a related field. Demonstrated equivalent skill will be accepted in lieu of a degree.
•    One to three years of relevant experience. Internship, academic, freelance, student publication, and personal project work all count toward this. Candidates at the entry level are encouraged to apply.
•    Advanced PowerPoint proficiency, including slide masters and layouts, alignment and distribution tools, merge shapes, the selection pane, and vector editing inside the application. Keyboard driven working habits are expected.
•    Demonstrated ability to build charts from raw data in Excel, including pivot tables and formatting well beyond default chart output.
•    Working command of visual design fundamentals: grid and alignment, typographic hierarchy, contrast, use of negative space, and restraint in color.
•    Ability to take disorganized source material and return a coherent visual argument with limited supervision and limited subject matter hand holding.
•    Precise written English and a high tolerance for detail work at the headquarters level.
•    Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or Advana, including publishing figures intended for a briefing rather than for a dashboard.
•    Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, used for figure production and document layout.
•    Familiarity with Navy or DOD briefing conventions, including standard decision brief structure and classification and CUI marking requirements.
•    Ability to produce simple explanatory graphics for technical subject matter such as network architecture, identity services, or cloud hosting.
•    Basic scripting or automation experience, for example Python or VBA, applied to repetitive chart or deck production. A portfolio is mandatory. Applications submitted without one will not be reviewed. Candidates should submit a PDF or a link to an online portfolio containing, at minimum, the following.
•    Three or more figures or slides in which the candidate began with raw or messy data and produced the final visual, each accompanied by one or two sentences explaining why that chart form was chosen over the alternatives.
•    At least one before and after pair showing a dense or poorly structured slide rebuilt for clarity, with the original included.
•    At least one multi slide sequence demonstrating consistency of layout, type, and color across a set rather than a single polished one off.
•    Willingness to provide native source files or to walk the panel through construction of a selected item, so that the panel can confirm the candidate built the artifact rather than restyled a purchased template. The anticipated salary range for this role is $125,000 to $145,000 annually. The anticipated salary range for this position is provided in accordance with applicable pay transparency laws. The final starting salary will be determined based on a variety of job-related factors, including the selected candidate's qualifications, skills, relevant experience, education, certifications, and work location (where applicable), as well as internal equity and market considerations. We use E-Verify to confirm the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires.