Summary
Jacob Fenton is a software developer with 15 years of experience building data-driven web applications, investigative tools, visualizations, and custom ETL pipelines for newsrooms and public-interest projects. He has a strong track record as a contractor for major media organizations and has led newsroom engineering at outlets including NPR, the Investigative Reporting Workshop, and the Sunlight Foundation. Currently working on air-quality data and visualizations at OpenAQ, Jacob blends backend systems (Python, Django, Node, AWS, PostgreSQL) with front-end mapping and cartography to make complex datasets discoverable and reproducible. His background in investigative reporting and a BA in physics give him a rare mix of storytelling curiosity and analytical rigor, and he’s known for translating messy document dumps and civic datasets into auditable, publishable analysis.
15 years of coding experience
7 years of employment as a software developer
BA, Physics, BA, Physics at Reed College