AI Newsroom Developer

AI Newsroom Developer 

The Houston Chronicle is seeking an AI Newsroom Developer to own the hands-on integration of AI into new content products, newsroom tools and workflows. The successful candidate will work closely with reporters and editors across the newsroom to identify high-impact opportunities to make our journalism more personal, efficient and accessible, while working to uphold our high newsroom standards regarding the use of AI. 

The role will entail building, testing, and maintaining AI pipelines; ensuring accuracy and transparency in AI-assisted content; training colleagues on tools; and working with LLMs to improve our journalism. The position combines technical know-how with journalistic judgment to help the newsroom innovate responsibly at scale.

The successful candidate will be comfortable coming up with their own ideas and identifying the best ideas from around the newsroom and the company. They will understand that the best local journalism is the product of human collaboration while also educating others about the benefits of generative AI. This person will report to the Senior Director of Innovation & Experimentation and will be expected to be the center of collaboration with the rest of the newsroom. 

Newsroom Integration

• Leverage AI in the building of utility products for consumers. 
• Build, evaluate, pilot and integrate generative AI and automation tools, including skills and agents, into the newsroom.
• Lead training sessions and provide support for editors and reporters using AI tools.

Engineering and development

• Identify opportunities where AI can augment journalism (e.g., enhanced data collection, transcription, summarization, civic coverage, audience personalization).
• Engineer reliable prompts and system instructions; evaluate and fine tune outputs for accuracy, fairness, and clarity.
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams on internal tools to improve efficiency and enhance storytelling.

Oversight 

• Ensure AI applications align with ethical journalism standards and company AI policies.
• Establish guardrails for accuracy, sourcing, transparency, and human oversight of AI-assisted content.
• Audit and monitor newsroom AI use, providing regular updates to editorial leadership.

Collaboration 

• Serve as a point person for AI use across the newsroom.
• Partner with editorial leads to identify reporting beats where AI-assisted workflows can expand coverage (e.g. civic meeting monitoring, local guides, data-heavy investigations).

Ideal candidates will be able to showcase many of the following. We do not expect candidates to be proficient in every area.

• Demonstrated experience with large language models and automatic speech recognition models, as well as expertise in prompt engineering.
• Demonstrated experience building agentic systems that go beyond a simple chat interface.
• Familiarity with newsroom AI applications for transcription, summarization and translation.
• Technical literacy: ability to work with APIs, structured data, or scripting languages (Python, JavaScript).
• Excellent communication and training skills; able to translate technical concepts for nontechnical colleagues.
• Ability to self-manage and prioritize multiple projects simultaneously, meeting tight deadlines without compromising on quality.
• Commitment to ethical journalism, transparency, and accuracy.

Success Metrics

• Adoption and effective use of AI tools across newsroom teams
• Documented guardrails and AI-use policies as we implement and create new AI-assisted products or workflows
• Increased efficiency in newsroom workflows while maintaining commitment to journalism ethics and standards
• Editorial projects that showcase innovative and responsible use of AI
• Positive feedback from newsroom staff on training and support

About the Houston Chronicle:

The Houston Chronicle, recognized for its Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism, serves its 2.3 million residents with content and marketing solutions across two of Houston’s largest websites — HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com, along with our magazine, television and newspaper brands.  Our mission is to spark conversations that inspire action to create a better Houston.  All our content and the innovative business solutions we provide invite Houstonians to join conversations about a community we’ve been committed to covering and helping prosper for more than 120 years. The community we all call home.

WHAT WE OFFER:

There has never been a more exciting time to join the Houston Chronicle. Our business is growing and transforming every day.  Advertisers are partnering with us to help them navigate new marketing strategies in today’s increasingly complex digital environment. Simply put, the Houston Chronicle is a media company that uses its rich history and data to deliver the most impactful media campaigns for our customers. We leverage our substantial audience reach, coupled with best in class advertising solutions to keep our customer’s brand in front of the right people at the right time.

 Why are we different? Our people! Our company is diverse and filled with smart, passionate people who want to make a difference in their community, regardless of the role they play in the company. We offer an upbeat and collaborative working environment and expect our people to challenge the norm.

About Hearst Newspapers:

With 2,500 employees across the nation, HNP encompasses a network of 24 daily and 52 weekly publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and Albany Times Union, several top digital-only news and lifestyle sites, marketing services businesses, and entertainment businesses such as King Features Syndicate. 

At HNP, we are investing in new and innovative ways to tell stories – growing newsrooms, diversifying tools, evolving platforms – to support the millions of people who trust us each month to help them make decisions, take action and be inspired.  

Be a part of something bigger – your headline awaits.

Recognizing the diverse needs of our candidates, if you are interested in applying for employment and need assistance or an accommodation to use our website or regarding the application process, please contact us by email at [email protected].  Please do not use this email address to inquire about the status of applications. We will only respond to inquiries concerning requests for a reasonable accommodation through this email address.

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