Data Engineer & Visualization Developer
McLean, VA • LinkedIn • Signal (by request)
I build data pipelines and interactive visualizations that help journalists, analysts, and the public make sense of political and economic data.
My work focuses on taking messy public datasets—campaign finance records, polling data, media coverage, foreign assistance spending—and transforming them into clear, interactive tools that reveal patterns and tell stories.
I specialize in:
- Data engineering – Building reliable pipelines that extract, transform, and load data from APIs, databases, and public sources
- Interactive visualization – Creating dashboards and data graphics that make complex information accessible and engaging
- Full-stack development – Deploying end-to-end solutions from database to user interface
The most comprensive pardon database/website available, drawing on data pulled from the Department of Justice, CourtListener, Wikipedia, MediaCloud and other sources. Designed database, frontend, admin back end, data pipelines and hosting scheme.
Polling data from the 2025 Cooperative Election Study, allowing readers to compare demographic crosstabs to national averages across key issues. Build custom front end in javascript using d3.js
Tracks media coverage of OpenSecrets and USAID since the shutdown, including both U.S. and worldwide coverage. Automated pipeline with Dagster + PostgreSQL + DuckDB updates the sites daily.
USAID US Press • USAID Mission Press • OpenSecrets Press • GitHub Repo
Pipeline to transform bulk files from the FEC into a star-schema Snowflake data warehouse. Explore data in a pivot table interface.
Interactive dashboard that tracks key judicial cases covered by Democracy Docket.
Curation and search for coverage of corruption during the first Trump administration. Developed as a contractor for the Sunlight Foundation.
Collection of solo projects, including lobbyists in the Trump administration, worldwide USAID funding, and competitive Fortnite leaderboards. Most projects are still active.
- Languages & libraries: Python (Django, FastApi, SQLModel, pandas), JavaScript (React, Typscript, D3), SQL
- Data journalism: foreign assistance financials and M&E, campaign finance, public opinion, media monitoring, regulatory filings, web scraping
- Visualization & UX: static data graphics, thematic maps, interactive dashboards, responsive web design
- Data Engineering: Dagster, dbt, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, DuckDB, AWS, Azure, CI/CD
- Data modelling: star schema design, dimensional data modeling, API design
Have a data project in mind? Email me at scottmckissock@gmail.com or find me on LinkedIn or Signal (by request)