Investigative journalism professor and investigations editor (Howard Center for Investigative Journalism)

Job Description

Application Links

• Direct Link to Apply on UMD Job Board
• Link to Official Job Description on UMD Job Board

Overview

The University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism is seeking an experienced investigative journalist to join its faculty as an investigative journalism professor. This person will also serve as the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism’s lead investigations editor.    

The Howard Center is an investigative reporting unit and journalism training program based at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Funded by the Scripps Howard Foundation, it regularly partners with major national newsrooms — such as NPR, PBS NewsHour, KFF Health News and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project — to produce deeply reported investigations. The center, founded in 2019, specializes in investigative reporting that incorporates complex data and digital document analysis, advanced computational methods, and, increasingly, visual forensic and open source intelligence (OSINT) reporting techniques. In a partnership with the Associated Press global investigations team, a FRONTLINE (PBS) documentary unit and the Howard Center at Arizona State University, the center was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting in 2025 for an in-depth, data-driven investigation into police custody deaths. The center has also won dozens of major journalism awards for its investigations, including two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a National Headliner Award and an IRE Medal.  

Responsibilities

This person will work full time as investigations editor in the Howard Center. In that role, they will:

• Serve as lead editor on investigative reporting projects produced by Howard Center graduate fellows and undergraduate students, working with Merrill College faculty, professional newsroom partners and partners at other journalism schools.  
• Teach one course per semester — a total of two courses per year — that are directly integrated with Howard Center investigations. This includes a foundational Howard Center investigative reporting methods course and an intensive, multiday Howard Center investigative reporting capstone course.
• Work with the Howard Center director to identify, establish and manage partnerships with professional newsrooms and manage projects.

Job Requirements

Minimum Requirements

Applicants must have: 

• A bachelor’s degree.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience working as a journalist. 
• Experience producing investigative journalism as a reporter. 
• Experience managing complex investigative journalism projects as an editor.  

Preferred Experience

We expect successful candidates to bring some of the experiences listed below. No candidate is expected to have all of them. We are looking for someone who can demonstrate relevant experience in some of these areas, while articulating a clear interest in the others:

• Teaching and mentoring experience, which could include university-level teaching or consistently running workshops at professional conferences like IRE and NICAR.
• Experience working with data journalists on data-driven investigative projects and an openness to experimenting with new reporting methods that incorporate artificial intelligence and open source intelligence.
• Experience leading or participating in investigative collaborations involving multiple newsrooms.  
• Experience with long-form writing and editing.
• Experience with — or a clear interest in learning — storytelling forms tailored to reach new audiences on multiple platforms. 

Application Materials 

Please provide:

• A CV 
• A cover letter in which you: 
  • Succinctly explain your interest in the position.  
  • Explain, with specifics, how your experience and interests align with the listed responsibilities, requirements and preferred experiences. 
• Links to three examples of your work, along with a brief explanation of your role in their production. 

Job Title and Other Details

This position is a full-time, year-round, in-person position based in the Howard Center in College Park, Maryland. It is not eligible for a fully remote or hybrid schedule, although occasional remote work is allowed.  

This position is posted as an “open rank” position. We expect to hire this person as a “Professor” or “Associate Professor” — formal University of Maryland titles that provide tenure — or as a “Lecturer” or “Professor of the Practice” — titles that do not provide tenure or eligibility for tenure in the future.

If this person’s record of professional accomplishment meets or exceeds the university’s high standards for appointment as an “Associate Professor” or “Professor” with tenure, we expect to appoint them to that position. If it does not, we expect to appoint them as a “Lecturer” or “Professor of the Practice” on a five-year renewable contract.   

Benefits

The position has excellent State of Maryland benefits, including:

• 41 days of leave per year (22 vacation days, 3 personal days, 16 holidays) and 15 days of sick leave per year. 
• A choice of a defined-benefit retirement plan (a State of Maryland pension) or a defined-contribution retirement plan — the public sector equivalent of a 401(k) — with a generous employer contribution (employer contributes an extra 7.25% of salary, with no employee contribution required to receive it). 
• Excellent State of Maryland benefits (individual, spouse and dependent) for healthcare, prescription drugs, dental, vision, term-life, accidental death and long-term disability.
• Tuition remission at the University of Maryland, College Park, and other University System of Maryland schools for faculty and their dependents. 
• Up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Additional benefit details here: https://uhr.umd.edu/benefits-and-wellness

About Merrill College

The Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, consistently ranked among the world's top journalism schools, develops journalists and media scholars with rigorous reporting, research and analytical skills, a commitment to ethics, and an appreciation for the First Amendment’s key role in a free society. Located a few miles from Washington, D.C., the college prepares students for a dynamic profession, with a faculty that includes acclaimed researchers and repeat winners of journalism’s top awards — including the Pulitzer, Peabody and Emmy awards.

Merrill College students enjoy small classes and also have access to the resources and opportunities available at one of the nation's top public research universities. Our students leave the university with strong writing and visual skills, a command of technology and a nuanced understanding of data analysis, AI and audience engagement.

The college has approximately 450 undergraduate and graduate students, and about 60 faculty and staff. The college is housed in Knight Hall, located on the UMD College Park campus. The college also runs news bureaus in Annapolis and Washington, is the home of the award-winning Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and the Local News Network. It is also host to the national office of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Expected Salary Range

160,000-185,000

For Additional Information

If you would like to discuss the position before submitting an application please contact Howard Center Director Sean Mussenden at smussend@umd.edu or Merrill College Dean Rafael Lorente at rlorente@umd.edu 

Application Details

• Posting Date: Sept. 8, 2026
• Best Consideration Date: Sept. 30, 2026
• Open Until Filled: Yes
• Expected Hire Date: Jan. 4, 2027

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