ProPublica announced today that it has hired data journalist Derek Willis as a news applications developer covering politics. He will start on August 10 and be based in Washington.

Willis has been at The New York Times since 2007 as a member of its interactive news desk and, more recently, as a reporter for its politics and policy site, The Upshot. Previously, he was a database editor at The Washington Post and covered politics and government for Congressional Quarterly and earlier at The Palm Beach Post.

“I’m very excited to be a part of ProPublica, which has done such strong public accountability journalism in so many different ways,” Willis said. “I can’t wait to join my colleagues.”

Over the course of his career, Willis has been recognized with two Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism. He’s also won a Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award in public service for his work at The Center for Public Integrity on questionable nonprofit activities.

“Derek Willis is one of the best data journalists on the planet,” said Scott Klein, Assistant Managing Editor at ProPublica. “He’s already had an enormous influence on us, with the data he’s helped open up and with his leadership and vision for how data can help improve politics coverage everywhere. He joins a world class data team that is completely thrilled to get to work with him. We will kick ass together.”