Division and Unit Overview

C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News) produces authoritative, award-winning journalism about the world of chemistry, including coverage of recent advances in research, education, industry, funding, and regulatory policy.  It is published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society dedicated to a single discipline, and has a circulation of more than 100,000 and reaches over 6.2 Million readers online.

The C&EN BrandLab is an award-winning custom content studio that sits within the Sales & Marketing unit of the Communications Division at ACS.  The studio offers branded-content services to C&EN’s advertisers, such as the creation of sponsored native advertising, whitepapers and eBooks, interactive quizzes, infographics, and custom live and virtual events. C&EN BrandLab also provides custom content to other units within ACS in support of the Society’s mission.

Position Summary
We are searching for an Executive Editor to lead our custom publishing studio. We are looking for someone with a proven track record creating on-brand editorial that engages, informs, and entertains the audience while adhering to the high standards of rigorous scientific storytelling set by C&EN. These custom content projects may range from multipage, conceptual white papers to branded storytelling and custom events. The ideal candidate must have a keen eye for story in science and a passion to create memorable content for the print, digital, and social media spaces.  We are looking for a passionate leader who can envision the future of the branded content studio and develop strategies to scale operations effectively. 

Here is what you will be doing:

• Serve as a people manager for four team members providing effective leadership, ensuring collaboration across the team, and promoting a consultative approach to support the team in achieving their goals.
• Responsible for developing content and distribution strategies for custom publishing products, including native advertising on all platforms, white papers, webinars, social campaigns, and custom events. 
• Work closely with the Assistant Director of Sales & Marketing in liaising with clients so that projects meet the commercial needs of specific global markets and clients.
• Conceive, research and write pitches and proposals for concepts that meet client and market needs and position ACS as a leader in innovative custom content solutions. Ensure that editorial content and design meet quality standards and expectations set by senior management in a collaborative manner.
• Direct the content, design, and production teams and freelancers in the pitch, creation, execution, and effectiveness across all campaigns, ensuring that each campaign is impactful and authentic to both brand and reader while maintaining the highest standards for scientific accuracy. 
• Supported by the Senior Editor of C&EN BrandLab, manages a team of external science writers to ensure print and digital content delivers the desired message to the designated audience. Supported by the C&EN account manager, manage projects with financial controls adhering to approved budgets and processes. Maintain reporting and timeline status schedules for projects. 
• Inform clients on scientific communication best practices, assess program objectives, and provide insights and recommendations.  Stay up-to-date on content marketing and native advertising trends and competitors’ programs.  Write long- and short- form content as needed.

Desired Skills & Experience

• A bachelor’s degree in a science-related discipline or in journalism, communications, English, or a related field. 
• A minimum of 7 years of science writing and editing experience. Demonstrated ability to conceive and execute projects that are engaging, authentic, and shareable. 
• Familiarity with scientific/technical terms and the ability to comprehend research and academic writing and “translate” it for different audiences. 
• Ability to conceive and describe program elements such as articles, interactive infographics, personal profiles, social media campaigns and live action, motion graphic and video. Ability to explain multiple facets of an idea, from what it is and what it will look like to what the reader experience will be and why it will effectively deliver on the client’s goal. 
• Proven skill in assigning, editing, and creating digital news, features, and multimedia. Knowledge of SEO and social media best practices.
• Experience collaborating with sales, and/or advertising/marketing are a plus.
• Please submit a resume, cover letter, and 3 examples of work that best displays your scientific storytelling skills across print/digital formats.

About working at C&EN:
ACS believes in the strength of diversity in all its forms, because inclusion of and respect for diverse people, experiences, and ideas lead to superior solutions to world challenges and advance chemistry as a global, multidisciplinary science. In turn, C&EN believes that to meet its mission to be the world’s go-to source of news about chemistry, our reporting and our newsroom must include diverse perspectives. Therefore, we strongly encourage people of color, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and members of other historically marginalized communities in the chemical sciences to apply.

This position will be primarily based in the Washington D.C. office. ACS employees work a hybrid work schedule, consisting of working onsite, three days per week. ACS employees are in the office on Tuesday and Wednesday with the third in-office day scheduled in consultation with the manager. While always welcome to work in the office, employees may work the other two days of the week from a location of their choice. New employees are immediately eligible for this hybrid work arrangement. ACS offers relocation assistance, if applicable.

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About American Chemical Society

The American Chemical Society serves more than 170,000 members globally, providing educational and career development programs, products, and services. As the largest scientific society in the world, we are a leading and authoritative source of scientific information. The ACS vision is to improve lives through the transforming power of chemistry, and our mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of the Earth and its people.

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