Creative Technologist

About the Opportunity

JOB SUMMARY

Northeastern University is looking for a Creative Technologist to join its storytelling operation. The role focuses primarily on the design and development of Northeastern Global News (NGN), our award-winning news organization. This role invents and builds interactive storytelling experiences–multimedia features, new story formats, and data visualizations–that help audiences understand complex topics clearly and quickly. The Creative Technologist will collaborate closely with reporters, editors, photographers, videographers, and developers in a fast-moving newsroom environment, taking projects from concept through launch and helping shape how journalism is presented and experienced across NGN’s digital platforms.

The ideal candidate is a creative builder who can prototype quickly, iterate confidently, and ship polished work under deadline. They have a strong front-end portfolio demonstrating design excellence, storytelling instincts, and web development expertise, with a proven ability to work collaboratively across disciplines. They can translate complex ideas into clear, intuitive digital experiences with clean, well-organized code. This role requires creative ownership and hands-on technical execution while working as part of a broader digital team with shared standards, reviews, and workflows.

This role reports to the Director of Digital Engagement within the Office of Communications in Northeastern’s External Affairs team. Northeastern is a global research university with 14 campuses in three countries. The university’s Communications strategy focuses on promoting the university, its faculty, students, and community by showcasing global leadership and innovation across the enterprise.

This position is fully in-person, based on Northeastern’s Boston campus. Like all positions in the Office of Communications, after-hours and weekend work are routinely required. Experience in higher education is not needed for this position.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree

• 5-8 years of job experience

• Professional experience designing and building interactive digital experiences in a journalism, media, or publishing environment.

• A portfolio demonstrating interactive or experiential digital storytelling projects that ranges from quick turnaround work to more long-term, ambitious projects.

• Strong proficiency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

• Working knowledge of object-oriented PHP, with the ability to read, understand, and extend existing application or component code.

• Familiarity with and willingness to use AI-assisted design and development tools.

• Strong visual and interactive design instincts, including typography, layout, motion, hierarchy, responsive design.

• Ability to take projects from concept to prototype to production while shaping and iterating on ideas collaboratively.

• Familiarity with Git/GitHub, code review processes, and modern development workflows.

• Ability to write clean, organized, and maintainable code.

• Understanding of web accessibility standards and inclusive design practices.

• Strong communication skills and collaborative mindset, comfortable working at a newsroom pace.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Identify stories that benefit from interactive or experiential treatment and conceptualize appropriate approaches that go beyond traditional article formats.

• Design and build interactive storytelling experiences from prototype through launch, working collaboratively and incorporating feedback throughout the process.

• Translate complex ideas, narratives, and data into clear, engaging digital experiences.

• Build both quick-turnaround visual elements and more complex, immersive projects.

• Build mobile-first, responsive, accessible experiences that follow NGN brand guidelines using HTML/CSS/JavaScript and appropriate visualization tools.

• Work within and extend existing systems, including object-oriented PHP-based components, following team best practices and workflows and participating in code reviews to ensure all work is maintainable and reusable.

• Collaborate closely with writers, editors, designers, and developers on story packaging, considering layout, image placement, typography, visual hierarchy, color, and motion.

• Communicate timelines, tradeoffs, and technical constraints clearly to project stakeholders.

• Stay current on evolving tools, techniques, and best practices in digital journalism.

Job Duties

Hands-on Technical Execution and Engineering

• Design, build and ship interactive features, data visualizations, and custom story formats using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other visualization technologies

• Extend and maintain existing object-oriented PHP-based components and systems, adhering to established architectural patterns, coding standards, and workflows

• Write clean, maintainable and reusable code; participate in peer code reviews and technical discussions to ensure code quality and long-term maintainability

• Build mobile-first, responsive, and accessible experiences that meet WCAG standards and NGN brand guidelines

• Troubleshoot, debug and optimize performance across browsers, devices and platforms

• Apply emerging tools, including AI-assisted development tools, to improve efficiency, experimentation, and production workflows

Interactive Storytelling & Experience Design

• Primary focus: conceptualization, narrative translation, and experience design informed by technical expertise

• Identify stories that would benefit from interactive or experiential treatment and propose appropriate technical and design approaches

• Translate complex narratives, data, or abstract research concepts into clear, intuitive and engaging digital formats

• Design interactive patterns, layouts, motions, and visual hierarchies

• Rapidly prototype concepts to test ideas, iterate based on feedback, and refine experiences prior to coding and launch

Cross-functional Collaboration & Project Communication

• Work closely with reporters, editors, designers, photographers, videographers and developers throughout the lifecycle of projects

• Communicate timelines, technical constraints, tradeoffs, and feasibility clearly to non-technical stakeholders

• Balance editorial ambition with technical scope, deadlines, and available resources

• Contribute to shared standards, documentation, and best practices across the digital team

Position Type

Additional Information

Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience, education and skills when extending an offer.  

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Compensation Grade/Pay Type:

Expected Hiring Range:

With the pay range(s) shown above, the starting salary will depend on several factors, which may include your education, experience, location, knowledge and expertise, and skills as well as a pay comparison to similarly-situated employees already in the role. Salary ranges are reviewed regularly and are subject to change.