[Hiring] Senior Editorial Manager @WestEd Career

Role Description

The Senior Editorial Manager leads WestEd’s editorial team and ensures that the agency’s most important products are delivered on time and meet WestEd’s rigorous quality standards. This is a hands-on role, not a purely strategic one. Most days, you’ll be scoping, assigning, and managing projects and editing complex manuscripts. You’ll also lead an experienced editorial team made up of two senior developmental editors, a copyediting and proofreading manager, and a senior copyeditor and proofreader.

The time split below is approximate and may shift from week to week:

• Developmental editing (~35%)
• Project management (~35%)
• Leading the editorial team (~15%)
• Agency guidance on writing, editing, and product development (~10%)
• Additional editorial and Communications work (~5%)

Key Responsibilities

• Developmental editing (~35%)
  • Provide developmental editing on high-visibility, complex, and sensitive products.
  • Uphold WestEd’s standards for accurate, objective, evidence-based content.
  • Diagnose and resolve structural problems, revise content for overall logic and clarity.
  • Work collaboratively with designers, proofreaders, and accessibility experts.
  • Identify accessibility issues and suggest adjustments.
  • Work iteratively with authors as they review and approve edits.
• Project Management (~35%)
  • Lead intake for new products and publications.
  • Serve as the editorial team’s primary point of contact for project staff and leaders.
  • Make labor allocation decisions across all concurrent projects.
  • Track work in Asana and coordinate across editorial, design, proofreading, and accessibility staff.
  • Evaluate and continually refine standards and processes for intake, estimation, prioritization, and QA workflow.
• Leading the editorial team (~15%)
  • Lead an experienced, collegial team of four direct reports.
  • Serve as a Talent Manager for these direct reports.
  • Draw on the team’s expertise and institutional knowledge.
  • Delegate decisions and problem-solving to support the team’s autonomy.
  • Ensure editorial quality and consistency across the team’s output.
  • Guide the team’s responsible use of AI in editing.
• Agency guidance (~10%)
  • Communicate QA expectations to the agency.
  • Provide guidance on the responsible use of AI in writing.
  • Identify ways to strengthen writing across the agency.
  • Flag concerns about accuracy, objectivity, and adequate evidence for claims.
  • Lead decisions on WestEd’s house style.
• Additional responsibilities (~5%)
  • Serve on the Communications leadership team.
  • Edit or contribute to high-stakes funding proposals and agency materials.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in roles in which developmental editing of nonfiction publications was a core responsibility.
• Experience supervising, leading, or directing the work of others.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent projects.

Requirements

• Ability to set clear expectations and explain constraints and trade-offs.
• Exceptional developmental editing skills.
• Ability to quickly digest complex research content.
• Strong project management and prioritization skills.
• Sound judgment on appropriate use of AI in editorial work.

Benefits

• 15% contribution toward retirement effective day 1 of employment.
• Pre-tax Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Savings Account option.
• All health/welfare benefits are effective the first of the month following the hire date.
• PTO: 19 days (increases to 21 days beginning the third year of employment), 12 paid holidays.
• Life Insurance: value of 3x gross salary, max of 500k.
• Opportunities for annual merit-based performance increases + annual incentives.
• Professional development opportunities & mentorship program.