Senior Staff Data Analyst

Join the future of news

We’re on a mission to deliver riveting storytelling for all of America. At The Washington Post, you’ll help reinvent news. Our work is driven by a deep investigative spirit and enhanced by innovation to bring audiences closer to the stories that matter most.

About Our Team

The Washington Post is powered by the passion and talent of our people. It takes all of us to reinvent news. Beyond our award-winning Newsroom and Opinions teams, we work across many departments, including Brand & Events, Communications, Customer Care, Engineering & Product, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing & Advertising, Print Operations, and Sales.

Why This Role Matters

The DAI (Data, Analytics & Insights) department drives strategic and operational decisions for The Washington Post.  This highly visible team applies data, analytics, and research to support strategic initiatives and day-to-day operational support company wide. 

As our Sr. Staff Data Analyst specializing in Customer and Content, you’ll lead data initiatives to understand and unlock actionable insights that drive audience growth, engagement, retention, and monetization. Your insights will be instrumental in fostering long-term customer loyalty and maximizing recurring revenue.

You’ll work in close collaboration with the newsroom, product, marketing, engineering, advertising and finance departments on a diverse range of projects that have a critical and strategic impact on all aspects of the company.  You will regularly interact with various stakeholders in these departments, understand needs, build reports, conduct data analysis, and make actionable recommendations. You will love solving open-ended problems by taking mountains of data, transforming it into meaningful analysis aimed at identifying solutions and opportunities.   
 

Motivation

• The ideal candidate for this role is passionate about using data to solve the unique challenges of content-based businesses. They will be motivated by the opportunity to influence growth and profitability by optimizing key metrics for customer and content. The Analyst will thrive in a dynamic environment, balancing strategic thinking with hands-on analytics to provide insights that directly impact the success of the business.
• The candidate must have strong desire for synthesizing different aspects of the business (finance, advertising, engineering, content) to make the more relevant recommendations to various teams. This work includes a balance of both technical data-wrangling (writing queries, code) and engaging presentations (summarizing takeaways, visualizing data).
• As a senior member of the team, the candidate should have a high drive to mentor junior members of the teams, provide recommendations for larger team workflows, and implement best practices that others can follow.
   

Responsibilities

• Audience & Customer Analytics
  • Drive deep analysis of audience behavior across platforms (web, app, newsletters, video, social, etc).
  • Develop and refine customer segmentation frameworks to inform content strategy and personalization.
  • Analyze customer journeys to optimize acquisition, onboarding, engagement, retention, and reactivation.
  • Build lifetime value (LTV) models and customer propensity models.

• Content Performance Analytics
  • Develop and maintain content performance dashboards and reporting to surface actionable insights.
  • Analyze content consumption patterns to inform editorial strategy, content formats, and programming decisions.
  • Partner with editorial, product, and marketing teams to test and optimize content strategies.
  • Identify trends in audience preferences and emerging content opportunities.

• Cross-functional Leadership
  • Serve as a trusted thought partner to leaders across Content, Product, Marketing, and Revenue teams.
  • Translate complex analytical findings into clear business recommendations.
  • Present insights and influence senior leadership on customer and content strategy.
  • Mentor and coach junior analysts on advanced techniques and best practices.

• Data Excellence & Innovation
  • Help define and measure key KPIs for audience engagement, content success, and customer value.
  • Advocate for improvements in data collection, tagging, and experimentation frameworks.
  • Partner with Data Engineering and Product teams to ensure high data quality and instrumentation coverage.
  • Explore and test new analytical approaches (e.g., causal inference, behavioral clustering, NLP for content tagging).
• Tools & Technologies
  • Leverage tools like SQL, Python, R, Tableau, and other BI platforms.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s or master’s in data science, Statistics, Business Analytics, or related field.
• Experience: 8+ years of experience in data analytics, with significant focus on customer and content in subscription businesses.
• Skills & Expertise:
  • Expertise in SQL, Python, and data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI).
  • Expertise in relational Database Systems, Advanced SQL and Microsoft Excel.  Experience with MySQL on cloud or AWS Redshift.
  • Excellent communication and storytelling skills with the ability to translate data into business strategies.
  • Collect and manage project ideas, charters, project priorities, and project benefit. Ability to multitask, prioritize projects, and meet deadlines.
  • Proven ability to independently lead projects and deliver high-impact outcomes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in media, publishing, streaming, ecommerce, or content-driven businesses.
• Familiarity with customer journey analytics, funnel optimization, churn modeling, and retention analysis.
• Understanding of content taxonomies, metadata frameworks, and NLP applications in content analytics.
• Experience working in cloud data environments (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, etc.).
• Background in experimentation (A/B testing, multivariate testing).
• Experience with infusing AI into code-writing and day-to-day operations
• Experience mentoring and developing other analysts.

Collaboration makes us stronger. That’s why our offices are designed with open layouts, modern technology, and easy access to transportation. With certain exceptions for newsgathering and business travel, we work on-site five days a week.

Compensation and Benefits

Wherever you are in your life or career, The Washington Post offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits for every step of your journey:

• Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage

• Company-paid pension and 401(k) match

• Three weeks of vacation and up to three weeks of paid sick leave

• Nine paid holidays and two personal days

• 20 weeks paid parental leave for any new parent

• Robust mental health resources

• Backup care and caregiver concierge services

• Gender affirming services

• Pet insurance

• Free Post digital subscription

• Leadership and career development programs

Benefits may vary based on the job, full-time or part-time schedule, location, and collectively bargained status.

The salary range for this position is:

The actual salary within this range will depend on individual skills, experience, and qualifications as they relate to specific job requirements. This position may be eligible for a bonus or incentive program, and a member of the Talent Acquisition team will discuss bonus payment terms and conditions during the interview process.