Senior Visuals Developer

CNN's global Visuals team at Warner Bros. Discovery is seeking a senior visuals developer to advance ambitious, accessible digital journalism from their Atlanta base. This onsite role focuses on turning complex stories into interactive experiences and collaborating with editors, reporters, designers and data journalists to deliver 3D and spatial storytelling across breaking news, enterprise coverage and major events. The position carries a salary range of USD 79,800 to 148,199 per year and requires at least seven years of relevant interactive development experience.

Responsibilities

• Develop interactive graphics, visual stories and digital experiences for breaking news, enterprise journalism and major planned events.
• Partner with editors, reporters and designers early in the reporting process to identify storytelling approaches and determine where custom development adds value.
• Create engaging storytelling experiences using 3D models and photogrammetry, including interactive maps, explanatory models, animations and immersive formats.
• Build responsive, accessible and performant experiences that work effectively across devices and platforms.
• Develop reusable components, templates and tools to help CNN’s Visuals team move more quickly and consistently across the news cycle.
• Collaborate with data and graphics editors to integrate live data, automated feeds and visual analysis into interactive experiences.
• Contribute to editorial brainstorming, prototyping and experimentation with emerging technologies.
• Work closely with product, engineering and platform partners when projects require broader technical coordination.
• Review code, document workflows and share skills with colleagues across the Visuals team.
• Help maintain high standards for accessibility, performance, reliability and user experience.

Requirements

• At least seven years of experience in interactive development, creative technology, visual journalism or a comparable digital storytelling environment.
• A strong portfolio of published interactive work that demonstrates solid technical execution, visual judgment and audience-centered thinking.
• Experience with modern front-end frameworks, component-based development and Git-based workflows.
• Proven experience building 3D or spatial storytelling experiences using tools such as WebGL, Three.js, Mapbox GL, MapLibre, deck.gl or similar; fluency in HTML, CSS and JavaScript is required; familiarity with Python is a plus.
• Experience incorporating AI-assisted tools into development workflows, or an interest in thoughtfully using AI to improve coding, prototyping and production practices.
• A strong understanding of responsive design, accessibility, browser performance and cross-platform testing.
• Experience collaborating closely with designers, editors, reporters and data journalists from concept through publication.
• Ability to work on both deadline-driven news coverage and more complex medium- and long-term projects.
• Strong communication skills and an ability to explain technical possibilities and tradeoffs clearly to non-technical partners.
• Familiarity with data visualization libraries, automated data pipelines or newsroom publishing workflows is a plus.
• Experience with motion design, animation, computer graphics or creative coding is a plus.
• Experience building interactive election features, results displays or other data-driven news products, or an interest in applying development skills to elections coverage, is a plus.

Technologies

• WebGL
• Three.js
• Mapbox GL
• MapLibre
• deck.gl
• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
• Python
• Git

Benefits

• Health insurance coverage
• Employee wellness program
• Life and disability insurance
• Retirement savings plan
• Paid holidays
• Sick time
• Vacation
• Annual bonuses
• Short-term incentives
• Long-term incentives
• Program-specific awards

Your New Role

• CNN’s global Visuals team seeks a senior developer to create ambitious, innovative and accessible digital journalism. The ideal candidate is a visual thinker who can translate complex ideas into intuitive, high-impact experiences across breaking news, enterprise reporting and major planned coverage.