Managing Editor

Helpful is a well-funded online media startup. We’re building a publishing platform to power a collection of consumer advocacy web properties with dynamic comparison features. Our editorial team is a small group of freelance writers so far, but we plan to add 2 in-house writers, a total of 4–5 freelancers, and an assigning editor this year, with plans to scale to multiple websites and 20–30 editorial team members over the course of a few years. This role will report to our VP of Content and Creative, Vilja Johnson (LinkedIn profile).

About the job

We’re in the exciting, initial phase of building our editorial content, and we’re looking for an experienced manager with strong strategic thinking and an eye for quality to oversee our editorial team. As our first managing editor, you’ll have significant influence on early decisions and play an important role in scaling the content to handle our initial site launch this year.

Here’s what you’d be working on:

• Recruit, hire, and train a team of writers and editors, both freelance and in-house
• Provide candid, constructive, and timely feedback and oversee career growth of editorial team
• Coach writers and editors on craft as well as strategic and soft skills
• Keep a pulse on employee sentiment and use insights to improve the employee experience and operational excellence of the department
• With input from SEO and subject-matter experts, create an editorial plan that, above all else, helps readers while meeting business goals
• Collaborate with social, outreach, email, and video teams to create cohesive content across channels
• Document content quality guidelines and a process to review quality, and maintain quality standards through documentation and coaching
• Collaborate on research methodology, editorial strategy, and an editorial vision for your team
• Be an integral part of helping create editorial processes and best practices
• Outline editorial objectives on a quarterly basis and hold self and team accountable for their completion
• Perform competitive analysis, and make content recommendations based on competitive research
• Use reports and data to surface opportunities to improve our editorial content
• As needed, help edit and publish content
• Develop trusting, deep partnerships with cross-functional peers

Requirements

About you

We’re looking for someone who’s excited by the idea of building consumer-facing brands from the ground up. You think holistically about the reader journey and know how to create a balanced content plan that resonates with our audience.

You’re also an experienced people manager who treats their teams with respect and empathy, while also giving clear direction and feedback. You’ve worked closely with cross-functional teams and see collaboration as an opportunity, not a roadblock.

The right person for this role will likely have 4+ years of experience in writing and editing, with 3+ years of experience directly managing a team of writers or editors. Beyond experience and skill, we’re looking for someone with these traits:

• Candid, but kind — You set the tone for your team. Team members and leadership alike can count on you to give clear and honest feedback, but you also build relationships of trust and make sure your team members feel supported as people, not just employees.
• Performance-minded, but user-focused — At the core of all your work is the drive to craft experiences that are genuinely helpful. You’re driven by growth and love digging into data to make strategic decisions, but never at the expense of the user experience.
• Autonomous, but collaborative — As Managing Editor, you’ll juggle a variety of strategic tasks while managing a team of people. You feel confident managing your time to get things done, but you know when to pull in other collaborators to influence direction and execution.

Pay and benefits
This is a full-time gig based out of our office in downtown Salt Lake City, UT. We’ll plan on working at least 4 days in the office, and we’ll be experimenting with half-day Fridays between Memorial Day and Labor Day (to get a head start on amazing Utah weekends).

Depending on years of experience and complexity/scope of projects managed, the salary for this position is $85,000—$110,000, with a 15% bonus paid quarterly. All employees are part of our bonus program.

The position includes 20 days of paid time off, plus 11 additional days for local/national holidays and 5 paid volunteer days. Each quarter, we’ll give you $100 to go to your happy place for a day just to think—a personal offsite of sorts. You're also free to take additional time off here and there as needed for any reasonable reason, like if you or your child/pet are sick, you need to run an errand or whatever. Some folks start the day sooner or finish it out later–that’s totally up to you. What matters to us is that you’re accountable and communicative; we’re not fans of tracking hours.

We offer competitive medical (70%), vision (100%) and dental (70%) insurance through United Healthcare as well as life insurance and short/long-term disability insurance. After 3 months of employment, you'll be eligible for our 401(k) benefit, which the company matches up to 4% of your salary.

We’ll set you up with great equipment (laptop, stand, monitor, keyboard) to do your best work, and we’re thinking a lot about other perks and cultural traditions that make sense.

About the company

This is an incredible time to be one of the first 20 employees at Helpful! We’re young enough that your ideas and voice will carry extra weight and have real impact. You’ll be a key contributor in the formative stages of our culture and strategy.