Also called: Campaign Finance Researcher, Government Watchdog Researcher
Tracks who gives money to politicians and lobbyists, then publishes the data and investigations so the public can see who influences whom.
Researchers download campaign finance and lobbying filings, clean messy donor names (is 'J. Smith, Acme' the same person as 'John Smith'?), and build databases. They spot patterns like a company's executives all giving the same day a bill moves, then write reports or help journalists. They work for nonprofit watchdogs and newsrooms.
Nonprofit pay. Estimate.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's degree; data skills like spreadsheets, SQL, or Python.
Ways in: 4-year college, Self-taught. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Political Science, Data Science, Journalism, Economics.
Growing about average. Depends on nonprofit and news funding (approx.).
Medium risk for 10 years. AI matches donor names and finds patterns; deciding what matters and checking facts stay human.
Classes: AP Statistics, Government, Computer science.
Official data: O*NET occupation 19-3094.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.