Job Description
Title: Executive Editor
Location: United States – Remote
Full Time
The Opportunity: Executive Editor, Popular Science
Popular Science is hiring an Executive Editor to lead our Science, Technology, and DIY teams and help run our expanding features program. We’re looking for a seasoned science and/or technology journalist with experience managing editorial teams, who can guide and challenge our editors and writers on a day-to-day basis. The Executive Editor will work side-by-side with the Editor-in-Chief on developing, refining, and leading editorial content strategy for the 150-year-old brand. They’ll also spearhead special editorial projects and work with the EIC on long-lead story planning, including themed packages, quarterly digital editions, and our expanding PopSci+ storytelling.
We’re looking for a sharp editorial leader with a passion for exploring the intersection of science and technology with everyday life. We want someone who sees the big picture, with a track record of developing compelling stories and strategies across various editorial platforms and formatsfrom simple blog posts and long-form narrative features to podcast segments and newsletters. The Executive Editor also has to be comfortable getting into the weeds, making dozens of quick, authoritative decisions a day, directing content in a way that balances the news of the day with Popular Science‘s mission to delight and inform.
The Executive Editor will report to the Editor-in-Chief. Popular Science is a part of Recurrent Ventures, a virtual-first workplace with offices in New York, San Francisco, Austin, and Miami
Join the team that was voted a Great Place to Work!
The Responsibilities:
- Oversee Science, Tech, and DIY department leads
- Help shape popsci.com content strategy, and guide day-to-day story assignments to expand PopSci’s audience and overall reach
- Ensure all content aligns with PopSci‘s editorial voice and mission
- Monitor daily, weekly, and monthly popsci.com content performance
- Assign, edit, and top edit features and feature packages
- Top edit sensitive, high-impact, or high-value stories, as needed
- Work with the EIC to manage and prioritize the popsci.com contributor budget
The Qualifications:
- 8+ years of journalism experience, including some background in science or technologyor both
- Experience managing editors and writers in a digital newsroom, including mentoring new managers and early-career writers
- A solid rolodex of freelance science and tech writers
- A portfolio of work that includes editorial packages, and short- and long-form journalism
- Familiarity with SEO best practices, or an eagerness to learn and implement them
- A track record of spearheading the type of high-quality editorial initiatives and special projects that get noticed
- Comfort working in a fast-paced, and evolving, startup-like environment
The Person:
- A nimble strategist, who’s comfortable shaping and refining strategies in order to reach KPIs
- An editorial Swiss Army Knife, who’s as at home writing a pithy newsletter blurb as they are structuring a 2,500-word feature
- A skilled storyteller, who’s able to spot the headlines PopSci should cover and also generate a fountain of ideas for creative angles that set our stories apart
- A good listener, who checks the pulse of the newsroom and helps keep the editorial team energized
- A human BS detector, able to dig into the details that separate a good story from a great one
The Benefits & Perks:
- Medical, dental, vision & life insurance
- Unlimited PTO
- Remote – work from anywhere
- Parental leave up to 16 weeks
- Fitness reimbursement
- Monthly electronics stipend
- Matching 401k
- Equity package
