Senior Editor and Writer

About New America

New America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. New America is dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation’s highest ideals and honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change.

About the Role

New America seeks a highly skilled Senior Editor and Writer to join its Central Communications team. Reporting to the Director of Editorial and Publications, this role is responsible for editing and writing content that advances New America’s mission and showcases its programs and experts. The ideal candidate is an expert editor with a journalistic eye, capable of translating complex research into clear, accessible, and engaging publications.

Responsibilities

Editing and Writing (80%)

• Perform developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading for New America’s research publications (blog posts, policy briefs, reports) as needed.
• Review editorial content and publications to ensure adherence to house style and reshape for clarity and accessibility.
• Collaborate with research and communications teams to draft and publish timely opinion pieces (500 to 1,000 words) for The Thread, New America’s blog.
• Write executive summaries or explainers for general audiences.
• Craft effective, SEO-friendly headlines that drive engagement and convey the core message.
• Provide copywriting for event announcements, promotional blurbs, and newsletters.

Content Development and Related (20%)

• Lead efforts to refresh and maintain New America’s brand language manual and editorial style guide.
• Advise on messaging across content types, including videos, multimedia, infographics, and social media.
• Host writing workshops to enhance staff’s storytelling and communication skills.

Qualifications

Candidates for this position should have the following:

• 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Excellent editing and writing skills with meticulous attention to detail.
• Experience with policy-related or scholarly content across various formats.
• Ability to tailor content to diverse audiences with the right tone and messaging.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• Journalism or nonprofit experience is preferred but not required.
• Familiarity with project management tools like Asana or Trello is a plus.
• Knowledge of the Chicago Manual of Style is a plus.
• Understanding of public policy issues and trends is preferred.

Location

Washington, DC-based candidates are preferred, but fully remote situations will be considered for the right candidate.

Compensation and Benefits

This position is a full-time role with benefits. The annual salary will be between $95,000 – $105,000, depending on experience.

New America offers a highly competitive benefits package that includes health care, dental, and vision coverage; a generous retirement plan; paid time off; observes all federal holidays; and an office-wide closure between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

How to Apply

Submit a cover letter, resume, and two writing or editing samples. Applicants without a cover letter, resume, and work samples will not be considered. The deadline to apply is December 1. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so early submissions are recommended. Please, no phone calls or emails.

Physical Requirements

• This position is hybrid, working from home and in an office environment, sitting at a desk for extended periods of time and requiring dexterity to operate general office equipment.
• The person in this position will frequently communicate with peers, management, company partners/vendors, and the general public and must be able to exchange accurate and timely information verbally and in writing.
• This position may require walking, bending, kneeling, and standing and will require sitting for extended periods of time.

Work Environment

The work environment is an indoor office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, and filing cabinets.

Originality and Transparency

At New America, we value authentic voices and intellectual property rights. All application materials, including cover letters, writing samples, and any other submissions, must be solely your own original work. The use of AI text generation tools like ChatGPT, language models, or other artificial intelligence writing assistants is strictly prohibited for any part of your job application. Submissions found to contain AI-generated content will be immediately disqualified from consideration. Applicants have a responsibility to be fully transparent about authorship and any tools or resources utilized. We celebrate human ingenuity and want to hear your genuine thoughts and experiences.

Equal Opportunity Employer

New America is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization, thereby creating a culture that allows us to better serve our clientele, our employees, and our communities. We value and encourage the contributions of our employees and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential and drive outstanding results. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies to all aspects of one’s employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits, and termination.