Senior Editor, Science

Job Description

Location:

New York, NY

WIRED is seeking an experienced editor for our science desk. Reporting to WIRED’s director, science, politics, and security, you’ll work with a team of experienced reporters to break news, shape insightful analysis, and support enterprise reporting.

In this role, you’ll be responsible for WIRED’s science news coverage, which encompasses the impact of climate change, the latest advances in biotech, the furthest reaches of space exploration, and much more. We’re looking for an editor with experience covering these or related areas, and a demonstrated ability to break news. We’re less interested in tracking incremental policy developments than we are in research and ideas that give us a glimpse of the future—and the people most responsible for and impacted by those innovations.

Our priority is ambitious, impactful work. That can take many forms: a major scoop, a deeply reported investigation, timely analysis, a special project. You should be comfortable with editing and assigning these types of stories, as well as the iterative news coverage that fuels them.

To be successful in this position you should have a good eye for surprising angles on stories and the ability to spot the wider significance of a new development. You should also be a sharp line editor, good at structuring an argument and eliminating jargon. You’ll need to be able to work autonomously while coordinating and collaborating with colleagues in San Francisco, New York, London, and points between. You’ll not only work closely with your own team, but also collaborate with other desks as coverage demands. You’ll also collaborate frequently with WIRED’s digital video team to execute cross-platform coverage that brings the best of WIRED to platforms including YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels.

This position is based out of our New York City office.

This is a Guild position.

Primary/Ongoing Responsibilities:

• Assign and edit stories from a team of WIRED science reporters.

• Maintain and assign to a roster of freelance writers to round out coverage as needed.

• Work with WIRED’s director, science, politics, and security to define goals and priorities for your coverage areas, ensuring all content plans ladder up to broader brand goals and objectives.

• Proactively seek out interesting, diverse voices who can help WIRED deliver differentiated science coverage.

• Coordinate with other WIRED teams on all aspects of the story process, partnering with photo/art on visuals and design; answering fact-checking and copy queries; seeing stories through production processes; and partnering with social and/or video to ensure stories have maximum impact.

• Meet individual and/or section KPIs as assigned (i.e. production expectations, UPVs, engagement, time spent, and/or other related goals).

• Contribute to brand extensions, social platforms, and additional projects as needed.

• Represent the brand in a public-facing way as necessary, such as on social media, in press opportunities, panels and speaking engagements, and internal company presentations.

• Additional projects/stories as assigned.

Desired Qualifications:

• At least 4 years of experience as an editor in a fast paced, digital and news-driven environment.

• A past portfolio of work that reflects significant experience with science coverage, including a consistent record of breaking news.

• Experience overseeing multi-platform content from brainstorm to execution; the ability to balance daily deadlines with longer-lead projects.

• Experience and passion for delivering big, ambitious coverage, particularly around climate, biotech, and other core areas of focus.

• Highly collaborative with excellent communication skills; adept at working with a diverse team of fact checkers, copy editors, designers, photo editors, digital producers, social media producers and story editors.

• Excellent time management and prioritization skills.

The expected base salary range for this position is from $95,000-$150,000. Salary offers are based on a wide range of factors including but not limited to relevant skills, training, experience, and education.

This is a guild position.