Research Analyst

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Job description

U.S. News & World Report is a multifaceted digital media company dedicated to helping citizens, consumers, business leaders and policy officials make important decisions in their lives. We publish independent reporting, rankings, data journalism and advice that has earned the trust of our readers and users for nearly 90 years. Our platforms on usnews.com include Education , Health, Money, Travel , Cars , News and 360 Reviews .

We reach more than 40 million people monthly during moments when they are most in need of expert advice and motivated to act on that advice directly on our platforms. Our signature franchises include our "Best" series of consumer guides on colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, diets, cars, financial services and more. These guides provide an easy-to-digest list for consumers to better understand and compare when making their decisions. We continue to publish annual guides of the authoritative Best Colleges and Best Hospitals rankings on our website and in print. And our U.S. News Live flagship conferences highlight important national conversations including Healthcare of Tomorrow and Healthiest Communities .

We believe in having a broad range of talent and backgrounds at U.S. News. We strive to maintain a welcoming workplace where everyone is given an opportunity to succeed and contribute to their fullest. Learn more about our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative.

Your role on the autos research team:

U.S. News, Autos empowers people to make educated decisions when shopping for new and used cars by providing rankings and reviews that are built on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. The autos research team is responsible for scoring approximately 300 new car models each year, which involves analyzing over 1,200 professional test-drive reviews, as well as gathering over 20 objective data points for each vehicle. This analysis serves as the backbone of the U.S. Best Car rankings and reviews. The research analyst will support the autos research team in all facets of the research and analysis process.

Your responsibilities as a U.S. News research analyst:

• Your primary responsibility in this job will be to perform research that directly informs our new and used car rankings. To do this, you'll source professional car reviews and analyze them using our team's content management system (CMS)

• Conduct analysis for U.S. News Best Cars awards, including the Best Cars for the Money, Best Cars for Families and Best Hybrid & Electric Cars. You'll use spreadsheets to collect and organize multiple data points per vehicle, and implement our award formulas to identify winners and finalists

• Manage the ingestion of third party data into our CMS, including safety scores from both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and fuel economy ratings from the EPA

• Assist in writing slideshow content to accompany the launch of U.S. News Best Cars awards. These pieces highlight standout attributes of winners and finalists and explain award methodology

• Write consumer-oriented buying advice and accompanying articles, informed by quarterly sales figures and industry research

• Manage photo content for our car reviews, using our CMS

• Provide additional assistance on research and data analysis projects as assigned

• Pitch ideas for the ongoing improvement of our autos research methodologies

POSITION REQUIREMENTS

You should definitely have:

• Strong research skills, including the ability to find, organize and analyze information. You should have experience taking advantage of multiple publicly available sources (e.g. automotive publications and government databases) to develop an understanding of vehicles on an individual and contextual basis.

• Strong Microsoft Excel/ Google Sheets skills; you should have experience integrating formulas into worksheets and using tools like pivot tables and functions (e.g. VLOOKUP), with the goal of distilling large datasets into digestible and actionable insights.

• Adept writing skills, with the ability to learn and implement U.S. News & World Report's writing style.

• A careful attention to detail and good problem solving abilities.

• Proactive and self-motivated approach to your work. You should be able to work both independently and in conjunction with team members.

• Strong interpersonal skills; you should be responsive to questions and requests from team members.

It would be nice if you had:

• Experience using an editorial content management system.

• Experience using SQL and Python to gather and organize data.

• Experience with and/ or interest in cars and the automotive industry.

Other job info:

• U.S. News & World Report is fully committed to diversity and inclusion. Even if you feel like your skills don't align perfectly with the above requirements, please apply anyways!

• The U.S. News Best Cars team is based in our Washington, DC office, but this position is also open to remote workers

• These statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this job. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of employees assigned to this job

• This position will require the successful candidate to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19. As an equal opportunity employer, the Company will provide reasonable accommodation to those individuals who are unable to be vaccinated consistent with federal, state, and local law.

• The job duties for this position don't include test driving cars