Editorial Director Job Description Template

[Company] is seeking an Editorial Director to manage our editorial team and be on the front foot of all editorial processes. We are looking for experienced candidates with at least 7 years spent in senior editorial roles. 

In this role, you will report directly to our CEO and be in charge of the Editorial team. Your core responsibility is to develop a brand voice and create stylistic guidelines. You will also work with Senior Editors to help the editorial team employ these guidelines and make sure all content is consistent.

Your day-to-day duties will involve managing the Editors’ workflow and mentoring Senior Editors on how to evaluate other editorial members.

In collaboration with our Content Analysts, you will review style guides and adapt them accordingly to improve our content performance.

Responsibilities

• Create the brand voice and stylistic guidelines
• Develop brand voice components and establish stylistic consistency across all content
• Assign tasks to the editorial team members
• Oversee Senior Editors’ work and mentor them when necessary
• Report to CEO
• Collaborate with Content Analysts to find areas of improvement

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in English, Marketing, or a related field
• 7+ years of experience in senior editing roles
• Impeccable command of the English language
• Proven track record of published work (portfolio required)
• Team management and leadership skills
• Strong communication skills
• Advanced knowledge of SEO
• Ability to create stylistic guides
• Experience with SEO tools

Salary Ranges for Editorial Directors

Editorial Director salaries in the United States vary from $32,000 to $225,000. The amount depends on a variety of factors, such as experience, location, and company size.

These are average annual salaries according to Glassdoor:

How Your Job Description Can Help You Find the Perfect Editorial Director

A job title that includes the word Director won’t deter unqualified candidates from applying. You will always receive unwanted applications, no matter what you do. You can minimize the number of them and save time and money during the hiring process, though.

To do that, you need to write a job description that goes into the specifics of the role and the candidate you’re looking for. You need to establish the exact requirements and go into as many details as possible in the responsibilities section.

A super-specific job description makes it clear to underqualified candidates there’s no point in applying since you won’t consider them for the role.

Editorial Directors rarely do any editing—they are there to establish guidelines and rules for other Editors to follow. If this is not what matches your needs, you should hire someone in a similar role, such as:

• Content Director—This role entails creating content strategies from scratch. They create writing briefs and manage Writers’ workload
• Senior Editor—Works under an Editorial Director and is in charge of mentoring other Editors and overseeing their work. While they can contribute to establishing writing guidelines, that is not their primary responsibility 
• Editorial Project Manager—This role deals with managing workload and creating workflow processes only. Experience in editing is a plus but not a prerequisite as Editorial Project Managers mostly manage the editorial team and various projects

Similar Roles to Editorial Directors

Looking for roles similar to Editorial Directors? Check out our other job descriptions:

• Editorial Specialist
• Editorial Manager
• Editorial Consultant
• Chief Editor
• Content Director
• Content Strategy Director 
• E-commerce Companies’ Director of Content Marketing
• Assistant Managing Editor
• Managing Editor
• Content Director in Sports Media
• Digital Content Director
• Executive Editor
• Specialist Editor
• Director of Content and Social Media for SaaS company
• Editorial Project Manager
• Editorial Assistant

Use our job description template database to find ready-made templates for every role your content team needs!

Get More Editorial Director Job Description Inspiration

If you need guidance on how to present your company to candidates, you should check out other job ads and get some inspiration. Here are some job description examples for an Editorial Director:

1. Indeed
2. Glassdoor
3. LinkedIn
4. SimplyHired
5. Zippia

Learn how to lower your content cost by 50% and hire top talent

Finding a Qualified Editing Manager Is Difficult—Unless You Use Pre-Hire Assessments

Hiring a senior member of your editorial team is a step above hiring an editor. They must possess certain skills that go beyond editing capabilities, and you’ll find hundreds of applicants on every job board that want to make the step up without the skill set to back them up.

The problem is, everyone can pimp their portfolio and prepare the right answers for an interview. The most efficient method of selecting the best candidate is through pre-hire testing. 

Another issue is—if you start sending out tests to hundreds of candidates manually, how do you keep track of them? You can’t—but skill assessment software can do that for you with ease. Workello helps you automate and optimize your hiring funnel, and you’ll find the perfect match in five easy steps:

1. Sign up for free and use pre-configured settings to set everything up in under 90 seconds
2. Post a job ad on various job platforms and link your Workello job post
3. Watch as applications start flying into your dashboard
4. Test candidates to quickly spot unqualified applicants with great resumes
5. Reject candidates, interview them, and extend contract offers with a single click

Minimize Manual Work With Workello’s Automated Pre-Employment Tests

With Workello, you won’t need any other recruiting solutions. It’s all-in-one high-volume recruiting software that will help you test content marketers, content writers, technical writers, SEO writers, and SEO copywriters with ease.

All you need to do is move candidates through the funnel with a single click, and you’ll automatically assess, test, interview, and hire the best ones. You can create a free account and see how the fastest pre-hire assessment works with Workello.