Job Description
Senior Editor — Job Description Template
Job description for a senior editor responsible for line editing, developmental editing, and managing junior staff.
About the role
Senior editors at our organisation are responsible not just for polishing copy but for shaping narratives, developing writers, and setting the bar for editorial quality across the team. You'll line-edit, developmental-edit, mentor junior editors, and own a small stable of writers.
What you'll do
- Line-edit and developmental-edit priority pieces
- Mentor 2–3 junior editors with weekly 1:1s and structured feedback
- Lead pitch review meetings and help writers shape stories pre-draft
- Own our style guide — propose and ratify changes
- Partner with fact-checking and legal review on sensitive pieces
- Handle author pushback on edits with diplomacy
Required skills
- 6+ years of professional editing, with at least 2 at a senior or managing level
- Demonstrable track record of developing writers
- Comfort managing multiple concurrent deadlines
- Editorial judgement across both mechanics and structure
How we assess
We use a multi-stage process: a written exercise (real edit on a mid-length draft), a structured interview, an assessment via EditingTests.com covering editing judgement and industry vocabulary, and reference calls. About two weeks end-to-end.