Website:
ie.media
Job details:
IE Media, Inc. is a leading global digital media publisher reaching millions of readers and over 25 million social media followers with the most important and exciting developments in technology, engineering, and science. From the ground-level engineering of global conflict to the mind-expanding science at the edge of the cosmos, we write for a global audience that geeks out about how things work — the inventors, the engineers, the curious.
IE's portfolio includes our flagship Interesting Engineering brand, Military Mechanics (our defense-technology vertical), and IE+, our paid subscription product. Our fast-paced, international team spans India, Pakistan, Türkiye, the UK, and the US.
We're looking for a Managing Editor to run the desk. If the Executive Editor authors the editorial strategy, you are the person who makes it real, every single day. You own daily output, quality, deadlines, and the humans producing the work. You are the reason nothing slips, nothing publishes late, and nothing embarrassing gets through. This is a hands-on operating role. You will edit. You will assign. You will chase. You will kill weak stories and rescue good ones. You'll manage writers across four time zones and make sure a breaking story at 3 a.m. in Delhi lands cleanly for a reader in Chicago.
Responsibilities:
- Own the editorial calendar and daily publishing schedule across Interesting Engineering and Military Mechanics.
- Assign stories, set deadlines, and hold them. Deadlines are commitments, not suggestions.
- Edit for accuracy, clarity, structure, and voice — line editing, not just approval.
- Own breaking-news response: who covers it, how fast, and to what standard.
- Manage a distributed team of writers and editors across India, Pakistan, Türkiye, and the UK.
- Build and run shift rotations and weekend coverage with clean escalation paths — nothing falls through the cracks.
- Give direct, useful feedback. Develop writers. Raise the floor and the ceiling.
- Flag performance problems early and address them, rather than absorbing the work yourself.
- Enforce editorial standards: fact-checking, sourcing, attribution, and legal red flags before publication.
- Ensure every story earns its place — no press-release rewrites, no filler.
- Maintain editorial voice consistently across articles, newsletters, video scripts, and apps.
- Execute against Google Search, Discover, News, Apple News, MSN, Yahoo, SmartNews, and NewsBreak.
- Use analytics to shape assignments: what's working, what to replicate, what to stop doing.
- Write and commission headlines that are direct and assertive, not hedged.
- Deliver the premium editorial output that the subscription product depends on — deep-dive explainers, original analysis, data-led features, member-only formats.
- Ensure premium content is rigorously human-written and human-edited, and hits its schedule.
- Use AI in real workflows — research, story discovery, document analysis, fact-checking support, newsletter automation.
- Keep editorial output human-written and human-vetted. Know exactly where the line is and enforce it.
Requirements:
- 7+ years in digital editorial, including at least one stint running a high-volume newsroom desk.
- Genuine interest in engineering, science, and technology. You don't need a physics degree, but you need to care about reactors, satellites, drones, semiconductors, and aerospace — and be able to tell when a story about them is wrong.
- You are still an editor. You've personally edited and published work in the last twelve months. This role is not a step away from the craft.
- Deadline discipline, without exception. You hit your deadlines and you hold others to theirs. If something is going to slip, you flag it early — not after it has already slipped.
- Full ownership. When something is yours, you own it end to end. No dropped balls, no waiting to be chased, no treating an agreed commitment as if it were never made.
- Relentless, reliable communicator. You respond to time-critical messages the same day. You acknowledge messages so people know things are in hand. Your Slack presence is consistent and dependable — this is a basic expectation of the role, not a bonus.
- International team management. You've managed writers across time zones and you know how to plan coverage so nothing goes uncovered.
- Google Discover and SEO fluency. You understand topical authority, E-E-A-T, and how distribution actually works for a publisher of our size.
- AI-native. You've used AI tools in real editorial workflows and can talk specifics: which tools, which workflows, what worked, what didn't.
- Working hours that overlap meaningfully with both the US East Coast and Europe/Asia.
- You've run a desk inside a subscription-driven publication and understand what premium content has to do that free content doesn't.
- You've led a newsroom through a Google algorithm update and have a recovery story you can walk us through.
- You bring a personal network of science and engineering writers and subject-matter experts.
- You've worked inside a startup or founder-led publisher and know what "all hands on deck" actually means.
- You've handled sensitive or defense-adjacent content with the care and legal awareness it requires.
Compensation:
- Competitive base salary, benchmarked to senior editorial management.
- Performance bonus tied to editorial delivery and IE+ subscriber milestones.
- Remote-first, with travel for team gatherings and key events.
We're a startup, not a legacy publisher. That means:
- Decisions get made fast and adjusted faster.
- Slack is the nervous system. Asana is the spine. Both are kept current.
- The CEO is reachable and so is everyone else. No moats, no gatekeeping.
- We measure outcomes, not activity. Looking busy is not the same as delivering.
- We hire owners and we trust them. We don't manage by surveillance.
Not for you, if:
- You need a fully built team, a quiet seat, and a clean org chart.
- You haven't personally edited a piece in over a year.
- You treat deadlines as aspirational.
- You go quiet when things get difficult.
- You think AI is a threat to editorial rather than one of the most important editorial tools of the decade.
- You want someone else to chase the work through to publication.
IE is dedicated to supporting its diverse and inclusive editorial staff. IE urges women, people of color, armed forces veterans, people with disabilities, and gender-nonconforming people to apply. IE does not discriminate based on sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, affectional choice, or gender identity. We recognize a person's unique experiences as points of strength and welcome them as journalists on our team, working in service of the mission to explore and report on engineering, in whatever form it takes.
Click on Apply to know more.