Job Description
Job DescriptionDescription:
The Cato Institute seeks an ambitious and detail-oriented Editor and Project Manager to join the Publications team. This position serves as a liaison with other departments for certain tasks and projects, managing incoming work, reviewing copy for grammar, punctuation, clarity, style, and flow, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and adherence to established formats, providing layout support, and providing web editing support
This role requires close collaboration with other Cato teams and internal stakeholders, so the successful candidate must have strong communication and interpersonal skills.
This is a hybrid position in Washington, DC.
The projected salary range for this role is $60,000 - $75,000 per year.
Compensation is based on the successful candidate's educational background, experience, and skills.
About Cato
The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization—a think tank—dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues.
Founded in 1977, Cato owes its name to Cato’s Letters, a series of essays published in 18th-century England that presented a vision of society free from excessive government power. Those essays inspired the architects of the American Revolution. And the simple, timeless principles of that revolution—individual liberty, limited government, and free markets—turn out to be even more powerful in today’s world of global markets and unprecedented access to information than Jefferson or Madison could have imagined. Social and economic freedom is not just the best policy for a free people, it is the indispensable framework for the future.
Cato Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Responsibilities
- Reviews all incoming work to ensure documents are in good shape for content editing and/or copyediting.
- Communicates with the organization regarding forthcoming policy pieces.
- Coordinates with the data visualization team on gathering figures and tables and ensuring they are ready for copyediting.
- Responds to submissions and queries for the publications team and tracks assignments and workflow.
- Reaches out to departments within the organization on a regular basis to gauge incoming work and determine where/how the publications team can provide support.
- Provides guidance to authors, scholars, and other support staff regarding Cato style questions.
- Copyedits and proofreads policy reports, shorter public documents, development and marketing pieces.
- With the executive director, coordinates production and editing of special projects and publications, including Sphere projects, investigative reports, online-only publications, survey reports, and support documents for internal Cato use.
- Prepares documents for InDesign formatting.
- Performs layout in InDesign as needed.
- Adheres to established deadlines.
- Communicates with authors and editors at various stages of the editorial process.
Requirements:
Education/Experience
- A bachelor’s degree or equivalent level of knowledge.
- At least five years of experience in editing for corporate, nonprofit, government, academia, marketing/communications consulting, or news organizations.
- Experience in editorial production management.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Outlook, Adobe Acrobat, and InDesign.
- A working knowledge of Excel and familiarity with a project management program (e.g., Wrike).
- A familiarity with the Chicago Manual of Style is a must, and data visualization is a plus.
- An understanding of and appreciation for Cato’s libertarian mission and principles.
Skills
- Initiative: Demonstrated ability to evaluate, select, and act on a strategy for solving problems and meeting objectives before being asked or required to do so.
- Organizational Skills: Demonstrated ability to allocate appropriate amounts of time for completing work, adhering to timelines and milestones, and to identify more critical and less critical activities and assignments in order to adjust priorities when appropriate.
- Adaptability: Demonstrated ability to adapt to changes in the work environment, manage competing demands, change working approach or method to best fit the situation, and ability to deal with frequent changes, delays, or unexpected events.
- Analytical Thinking: Ability to synthesize complex or diverse information in order to follow the sense of a paper being edited and make proper queries to the author as needed.
- Research: Ability to navigate websites and other resources to check spelling of names, organizations, and other terms as needed; the ability to assess the validity of sources is necessary.
- Follow-through: Ability to connect with others to ensure the timely completion of tasks and establish a system to follow up on projects, tasks, and assignments.
- Problem Solving: Demonstrated ability to identify and resolve problems in a timely manner.
- Work Style: Works well independently but is comfortable collaborating with team members on projects as needed.
How to Apply
Applicants must submit the following documents to be considered for the position:
- Cover letter
- Résumé
- A copyediting test will be given to qualified candidates.
Benefits
All Cato employees are provided with:
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Employer contribution to a Health Savings Account (HSA)
- Generous vacation and sick days
- Paid parental leave
- Employer-provided life and disability insurance
- 401(k) employer match
- Transit/ Parking benefits
- Pet discount plan