Head of Visuals, The Business Times

About Us

SPH Media’s mission is to be the trusted source of news and lifestyle content in Singapore and Asia.

One of our core purposes is to produce credible, balanced, and objective news and analysis, always with a view to uphold the public good and fostering an informed, engaged citizenry.

We welcome talented individuals to join us and grow a career in a vibrant and collaborative environment built around a culture of respect and inclusivity.

As an employer, we are committed to rewarding our people fairly and developing them in their careers.

About the Role

Singapore's premier business daily The Business Times (BT) is looking for an enterprising leader to be part of its Visuals Team that drives and implements more visual and interactive storytelling in the newsroom. In addition to corporate news and commentary, BT covers economic policy, wealth, property, lifestyle and SMEs, with a growing focus on emerging markets, new investments, artificial intelligence and ESG (environmental, social and governance).

We are looking for a forward-looking, proactive, and dynamic individual to build and lead a diverse team of graphic designers and visual journalists.

You will find innovative ways to showcase and amplify content to various audiences across different platforms in a fast-paced environment. The ideal candidate must be able to create and edit visuals at an expert level, and have experience building visually appealing and insightful graphics, as well as interactive features.

The candidate must apply a mobile-first as well as audience-first strategy and collaborate with the newsroom to identify appropriate stories for daily graphics and long-term projects.

Responsibilities

• Art direct outstanding visual journalism. This could include data visualisation, photo stories and other visual formats.
• Construct visual narrative and deploy photography, illustration and design elements for effective storytelling.
• Drive daily graphics creation across beats, and also project-manage long form projects commissioned by journalists and editors
• Manage workflows and processes for seamless integration of visual content across platforms, including print and digital (web and mobile). This includes communicating schedules and information for long term projects, ensuring that delivery deadlines are met.
• Identify interesting data sets and initiate original reporting.
• Mentor and oversee a team of visual journalists with a mix of strengths in digital and print products.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism or equivalent newsroom or advertising work experience.
• At least 8 years’ experience in project management and running visual teams.
• At least 10 years’ experience in creating innovative online visual journalism, including data visualisation.
• Technical expertise in creative applications and front end web development fundamentals (HTML, CSS and Javascript) is a must.
• Strong proficiency in standard design tools (Illustrator/Photoshop/Figma) and Datawrapper, Flourish, Tableau or similar off-the-shelf chart creating tools. Familiarity with map making software (QGIS and other mapping tools), programmatic data manipulation and languages such as R or Python will be beneficial.
• A team player, collaborative mindset, excellent communication skills and the ability to work on several projects at once.
• Attention to details, and demonstrate strong analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Able to work on a flexible schedule, that may include nights, or public holidays.
• Prior experience in the media industry and an understanding of business news would be advantageous.