Data Engineering Internship - Spring 2025 (Paid/Remote)

Intern Testimonials

"My internship experience at Ballotpedia was nothing short of exceptional. Working alongside a team of passionate and talented individuals, I felt like an integral part of the organization from day one. The collaborative atmosphere and the focus on personal development allowed me to learn and grow as a data engineer. I was impressed by the commitment to transparency and the meaningful impact Ballotpedia makes in promoting civic engagement. The experience not only enriched my technical skills but also instilled in me a deeper appreciation for the democratic process. I am grateful for the opportunities provided and would wholeheartedly recommend Ballotpedia as an outstanding place to work and contribute to a vital cause." - Abhishek Verma, Fall 2023 Data Engineering Intern

“Ballotpedia is an excellent place to work. You will be encouraged to grow and learn, and be given the freedom to explore new territories.” - Noah Pedroso, Spring 2023 and Spring 2024 Data Engineering Intern

"Working as a tech intern at Ballotpedia is one of the highlights of my year. It’s challenging, but I’ve been afforded the opportunity to work with some of the most professional and courteous staff members I’ve ever met. It's an excellent opportunity to learn about database structure and management, web design and even digital map drawing. The experience to be gained from working at Ballotpedia is invaluable for a multitude of careers ranging from IT and software development to database administration." — Eric Huang, 2019 Fall/2020 Spring/Summer 2020 Intern

Description:

As a Ballotpedia Data Engineering Intern, you will work with the Tech team to develop automated ETL workflows to process data used for local election coverage. We will be looking at official election data sources and developing reusable processes to acquire this data, convert it to a standard format, and import it into our database. This will help Ballotpedia’s coverage scale to more municipalities to better educate voters.

This will involve:

• Creating and modifying Python scripts
• Working with spreadsheets and databases
• Scraping candidate data from official sources
• Developing processes to convert data into a standard format
• Running processes to ingest data into a database
• Testing, QA, and manual review
• Conducting online research and some manual data entry

You will learn about elections administration, web scraping, and working with data, while surrounded by a small, enthusiastic, and open-minded team. Aspiring data scientists, researchers with a programming bent, or back-end software engineers might find this particularly interesting.

Some Python and SQL experience is required. Familiarity with some of the following is preferred, though not required: Google Colab or Jupyter Notebooks, Beautiful Soup, Scrapy, Google Sheets or Excel.

Ballotpedia’s spring 2025 internship runs from Monday, January 13, 2025 through Friday, May 2, 2025. Ballotpedia’s spring internship is a part-time internship program; interns will work approximately 10-20 hours per week depending on their availability. 

Ballotpedia is happy to facilitate credit for your internship experience if that is available to you. If you will be seeking credit for your internship, and if there is anything that Ballotpedia will need to do to assist you, please include that information in the same file as your cover letter.

Environment

Ballotpedia interns will work remotely, as all Ballotpedia staff work remotely. To join Ballotpedia, you must have a well-functioning computer with Internet access. Ballotpedia uses Google Applications (Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive and more) to accomplish our goals. Some familiarity with Google Applications is helpful.

Compensation

Interns will be compensated at $24.00 per hour.

Please note: If the minimum wage in your area is more than $24.00 per hour, you will be compensated per your area’s minimum wage.

To Apply

Please attach the following in PDF format:

• résumé
• cover letter which states your interest in the Data Engineering internship, desired track (Tech or Editorial) and a statement of what you hope to learn from this internship
• Optional: GitHub repository link and/or other examples of projects you’ve worked on that demonstrate your competencies

Please ensure that either your resume or your cover letter includes your current address. Applications that do not include a current address will not be accepted.

If you are hired for this position, Ballotpedia participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, Ballotpedia is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. For more information on E-Verify, or if you believe that your employer has violated its E-Verify responsibilities, please contact DHS.

About Ballotpedia

Ballotpedia is a mission-driven organization dedicated to providing Americans with accurate, relevant, and reliable information about politics, elections, and public policy. Our goal is to close the ballot information gap and help voters make informed decisions. We value innovation, humility, hunger, and a collaborative spirit and are committed to continuously improving our offerings to better serve our audiences, readers, and candidates.