Staff Writer

Position description

The Atlantic is seeking an experienced, ambitious, and tenacious journalist to cover the intersection of national security, cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, AI, and defense. This is a role for someone who is obsessed with emerging technologies and the way they affect the global distribution of power and the shape of geopolitical alliances. This reporter would cover the companies, governments, intelligence agencies, and technologists who are building the systems that are changing the world.

The ideal candidate is someone who knows how to  cultivate sources at the highest levels of government, the defense establishment, and the private sector; who can move fast when a story breaks and go deep when the moment calls for it; who is as skilled at analyzing public records as explaining the stakes of a zero-day exploit to a general audience—and someone who can do so with creativity and writerly style. 

We seek a writer who already understands these technologies and the debates taking place within governments about how they are used and the implications for ordinary citizens and their privacy; someone who can make that understanding urgent, clear, and indispensable in the public interest, including by bringing new information to light.

What You’ll Do

• Break news, report and write original analysis on national security, cyber and information warfare, defense policy, and the intersection of technology and state power

• Monitor fast-moving developments in the AI industry and respond with authoritative, original reporting and analysis on tight deadlines

•  Step back at times from the news cycle to focus on ambitious and deeply reported stories that may take weeks or months to report

• Cultivate and maintain a robust network of sources in Silicon Valley, as well as in government (particularly the intelligence community and the military)

• Follow where the reporting leads in fulfilling The Atlantic’s founding commitment—intellectual honesty and freedom from faction—to coverage of issues that are often obscured by classification, spin, partisan or corporate incentives, and institutional opacity

• Collaborate closely with editors to develop story ideas, sharpen arguments, and ensure that every piece meets the magazine’s exacting standards

Qualifications

• An experienced journalist (10+ years of reporting experience) with a substantial track record covering technology, national security, defense, or cybersecurity 

• A writer of genuine authority and distinction, capable of producing both fast-turn analysis and reported narratives at a high level

• Someone who is energized by a major breaking-news environment, and who sees a major developing story not as a disruption but as an opportunity

• A rigorous thinker who runs toward complexity—understanding, for instance, that the most important cybersecurity story of a given week may be a geopolitical one, a corporate one, or a constitutional one, sometimes all at once

• Committed to The Atlantic's founding motto of being “of no party or clique,” able to follow stories where they lead and present findings with intellectual honesty and independence

This position is based in Washington, D.C. 

Salary Minimum: $175,000; Salary Maximum: $250,000

This is a Guild position. 

About The Atlantic:

The Atlantic has, for more than 160 years, advanced ideas that matter and sparked global conversation on the most important issues of our time. We aim to bring clarity and original thinking to questions of consequence, on topics ranging from politics, the economy, and global affairs to technology, science, and culture. As the third-longest-running magazine in America, we find ourselves at a remarkable moment: one of both continuation and transformation, of upholding our legacy while continuously reinventing ourselves for the future.

Application instructions

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