Senior Software Developer (Python, React, AI)

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 90 years. Our platforms on usnews.com include Education, Health, Money, Travel, Cars, News, Real Estate, Careers and Insurance.

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We reach millions of 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 such as Healthcare of Tomorrow .

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We believe in having a broad range of talent and backgrounds at U.S. News. We strive to maintain a welcoming and inclusive workplace where everyone is given an opportunity to succeed and contribute to their fullest.

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Your role in helping us shape the future:

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U.S. News empowers everyone to thrive. We are looking for an enthusiastic Full Stack Senior Software Developer with an interest in building dynamic, data-driven products. We value an “AI-first” mindset, requiring a positive attitude toward using AI tools to maximize efficiency and workflows. The developers at U.S. News have a great deal of independence and a minimum of overhead. By leveraging the latest AI-coding tools, React, Python, Amazon Web Services, Google BigQuery, data science toolkits and other modern technologies, you’ll be driving a major transformation within U.S. News.

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The successful candidate will become an influential member of a passionate, friendly and growing team that creates web applications which reach millions of visitors monthly. Developers typically see applications through from beginning to end, working directly with product owners to create, implement, upgrade, optimize and test features and projects.

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Are you up to the challenge?

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Join the Hospital Data Insights engineering team on U.S. News Health: we build and operate hospital data products—including ingestion pipelines, APIs and customer-facing applications—under strict launch schedules.

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This is a senior, backend- and data-heavy role. You will build and maintain Python services and PostgreSQL-backed data workflows (ETL, validation, reliability) and partner with product and methodology stakeholders when datasets or launch timelines shift. React and modern web standards matter when the application layer needs changes, but most of your impact is in data correctness, pipeline automation, and production operations — not greenfield UI alone.

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Our team uses AI-assisted development (Cursor, agents and similar tools) as part of everyday delivery—investigation, implementation, review and documentation. You will collaborate with engineers, analysts and product owners on a fast-moving Health portfolio; you will also be trusted to work through ambiguous, legacy-heavy problems calmly as release dates approach.

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As a senior software developer on HDI, you will:

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• Design, build and operate data pipelines and backend services that power hospital insights products
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• Improve ETL automation, monitoring and data quality as volumes and module complexity grow
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• Partner with engineering leadership and cross-functional stakeholders through coordinated releases (including embargo-driven launches)
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• Employ an AI-first approach to investigation, implementation and code review
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• Develop and maintain clean, efficient, well-tested code
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• Make pragmatic architecture decisions, mentor others, and serve as a technical role model responsible for promoting the overall quality of our team and technology beyond your individual contributions
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• Collaborate closely with product owners and stakeholders on product requirements to streamline and understand new feature work
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Requirements

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You should definitely have:

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• Five or more years of professional software development experience, with meaningful ownership of production backend or data systems (not only ticket execution)
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• Strong Python experience building and maintaining services, batch jobs or data tooling in production
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• Significant experience with PostgreSQL or a comparable relational database at scale—writing and optimizing complex queries, managing schema evolution and migrations, and operational troubleshooting
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• Hands-on ETL or data pipeline ownership—data modeling, batch processing, automation, reliability, and reproducibility
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• Experience owning APIs or backend services consumed by applications or internal customers
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• Working knowledge of React or similar SPA frameworks—enough to collaborate on full-stack features when needed
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• Familiarity with and frequent usage of AI-assisted development tools (e.g. Cursor, Copilot, coding agents) or shipped engineering work involving LLM / AI product features
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• Comfort with Unix-based environments (macOS or Linux), Git and modern code review practices
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• A bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field or equivalent practical experience
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It would be nice if you had:

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• Experience with healthcare or other regulated or sensitive datasets
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• Familiarity with large-dataset ingestion, transformation, validation, and integration testing at scale and across multiple sources and release cadences
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• Comfort evolving legacy codebases incrementally (refactoring and hardening vs. rewriting)
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• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (e.g. Jenkins) and AWS (or similar cloud) deployments
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• Exposure to ML inference, model serving, or tools such as MLflow, OpenMetadata, or Amazon SageMaker
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• Prior work on high-pressure, date-certain releases dependent on clear communication when requirements or data change late in the development cycle
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What it’s like to work with us:

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Talent is our best asset!

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We invest in people with passion and potential who understand U.S. News’ dedication to our consumers.

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• Entrepreneurial, mission-driven culture with core values of quality and integrity
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• Focus on fostering personal and professional growth
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• Competitive benefits including paid vacation time, medical, tuition reimbursement, and training
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• Collaborative Work Environment ~ Fun, diverse, inclusive and ambitious co-workers
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Other Job Info:

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• 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.
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• U.S. News & World Report strongly encourages all employees to be fully vaccinated (including boosters).
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• Only Washington, DC or New York or based applicants to work a hybrid schedule. The anticipated base salary for this position is $100,000 - $140,000. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, interview performance, and if applicable, the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job.
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