Job Description
Copy Editor — Job Description Template
A complete job description for a mid-level copy editor role, including required skills, bonus skills, and key responsibilities.
About the role
We're looking for a detail-obsessed copy editor to join our editorial team. You'll take assigned pieces from rough draft to polished publication: fixing errors, enforcing our style guide, checking facts, tightening prose, and flagging issues back to writers.
What you'll do
- Copy edit 8–12 pieces per week across our main content verticals
- Enforce our house style guide and AP / Chicago (as assigned) style
- Fact-check names, dates, statistics, and primary sources
- Query writers on structural or argumentative issues via tracked changes
- Maintain and propose additions to our internal style sheet
- Handle occasional proofreading passes on time-sensitive pieces
Required skills
- 3+ years of professional copy editing, in-house or on staff at a publication
- Demonstrable mastery of AP or Chicago Manual of Style
- Comfort with Google Docs + Word tracked changes, plus our CMS (full training provided)
- Strong written communication when querying writers
Bonus skills
- Subject-matter familiarity with our vertical
- Experience with a custom house style guide
- Basic SEO editing (meta titles, headlines, internal links)
How we assess
We use a timed skills assessment from EditingTests.com as part of our process. It takes about 45 minutes and measures mechanical accuracy, style-guide adherence, and editorial judgement. We'll send you a sample report before the formal test so you know exactly what to expect.
Compensation and logistics
[Fill in: salary range, equity, benefits, location / remote, PTO, start date.]