Executive Editor, Visuals

The Guardian is a global, reader-funded news organization that delivers fearless, independent journalism. From breaking news and award-winning investigations, to in-depth coverage of technology, sports, film, culture and lifestyle, the Guardian offers a global view that deepens our audiences' understanding of America and the world.

The Guardian's US edition – headquartered in New York City, with growing bureaus in Washington DC and Los Angeles – is an entirely digital operation that combines the best of the Guardian's international reporting with US voices and expertise. Core coverage areas include the climate emergency, economic and racial inequality, wellness, culture, digital privacy and sports – all highlighting the Guardian's distinctive role within the US media landscape: journalism that's global, independent, and free.

It's the talent, energy and commitment our people bring to the Guardian that make us who we are. Across our business we have some of the most creative thinkers in media and beyond: award winning journalists, cutting edge commercial teams, digital talent and more.

Department: Editorial, Visuals

Reports to: Creative Director, Guardian US and Executive editor, Guardian US
Location: New York, NY

Hybrid/Remote/In-Person: Hybrid
Terms and conditions: Full-time, permanent, News Guild Media position

Annual Salary: $170,000 - $190,000

About the role

Delivery lead for the Visuals team—incorporating photography, data graphics, interactive formats, design, art direction and illustration/animation—as a hands-on practitioner/producer in a fast-paced, dynamic newsroom, ensuring creativity and efficiency go hand in hand. Collaborate with the Creative Director/Head of Visuals and Executive Editor to shape visual ambitions, ways of working and team output, and with editors, journalists and creatives to elevate the experience of our journalism. Manage reactive daily demands with longer-term projects, team resources and stakeholders, keep projects on track and budget, and ensure that creativity is respected and protected throughout the process. Produce stories such as the US elections 2024, the impact of climate crisis, the investigation into Ice deportations and Bushwick, Brooklyn: the US's most exciting neighborhood.

Key responsibilities and accountabilities

• With the creative director and executive editor, lead the team of creative journalists working across photography, graphics, design, illustration, animation and interactive formats to enable creation of ambitious visuals-led stories in the fast-paced newsroom to amplify our journalism, with the reader in mind.
• A hands-on CMS user contributing to and implementing the creative team's work, you will maintain the highest standards of journalistic accuracy, storytelling techniques and visual clarity, quality, look and feel in the team's approach and output, ensuring functionality, accessibility and usability across platforms and devices. Be a source of visual, editorial and production expertise for projects and initiatives from inception to implementation.
• Oversee prioritization, planning, schedules, workflows and resourcing of visuals projects to ensure efficiency and delivery at pace. Use Slack, Trello, and other tools to track progress, visibility and communication across teams. With the Creative Director, identify and resolve blockers on progress, risks, and resource needs.
• Balance fast-turnaround, reactive requests with longer-form proactive projects, ensuring priorities are clear and achievable while maintaining high editorial and creative standards.
• Manage team rotas, budget and contributor payments. Ensure level of team cover supports newsroom operations.
• Actively foster a culture of collaboration, collaborative processes and efficiency, and a dynamic, creative office environment to motivate and cultivate the creative, technical and journalistic skills of team members. Support Guardian US journalism with photo research, commissioning, art direction, illustration, data visualization, interactives, motion graphics and animation.
• Work with clients of the visuals team, including US news, features, the west coast bureau, philanthropy projects and front page editors to ensure the team's work supports the intended journalistic purpose. Ensure that creative considerations are valued and embedded from the outset—acting as a firm and clear voice in the processes. Assist non-team members in understanding visual journalism, related issues and technologies.
• Develop an understanding of who our audiences are, how they interact with Guardian US journalism and apply this in the prioritization of visuals work. Work with the audience team, social and multimedia teams to amplify our journalism on other platforms.
• Coordinate with colleagues in our international editions on shared, global-facing projects.
• Catch up regularly with Guardian UK counterparts in photography, design and visuals teams as well as the product & engineering teams who maintain our CMS, apps, website and other services to ensure our work and processes function with their changing codebase and style guides.
• Help evolve visual journalism processes and output in the constantly changing media landscape, experimenting with and implementing new tools, approaches and structures where necessary.
• Be an ambassador for visual journalism in the newsroom and on related projects, communicating regularly with peers and senior stakeholders across departments, representing the team at meetings, contributing ideas, building relationships and ensuring smooth collaborations.
• Ensure excellent communication and feedback between the team with photographers, illustrators, designers, animators and other creatives to facilitate delivery of contributions of the highest quality. Work with administrators to ensure compliance with terms and payment processing.
• Track performance of Guardian US visuals work on and off platform, and enter team's work in industry awards.

Key contacts and relationships

Guardian US visual journalists, front page and desk editors, reporters, social and video teams. Guardian UK photo, design and visuals teams. Product, philanthropy and marketing teams for US initiatives. Guardian project managers, engineers and designers who maintain the website and app. External visual freelancers. Guardian administrators.

About you

Knowledge and experience

• Exceptional track record in creative and project management at a high-profile, deadline-driven, multi-section multimedia news organization.
• Experience in photo editing, design/art direction/illustration, data visualization or similar.
• Confident in managing concurrent, complex projects.
• Advocacy for creative needs while balancing production requirements.
• Project management tools such as Trello, Slack, or other digital collaboration platforms.
• Editorial workflows and the demands of a fast-paced newsroom.
• Demonstrable interest in and knowledge of news, features and multimedia journalism and communicating effectively with readers/viewers/listeners.
• Flexible and adaptable to frequently changing news priorities.
• A skillful hands-on creative manager to motivate a multidisciplinary team with a strong spirit of collaboration.
• Excellent management and interpersonal skills; ability to deal equitably with a wide range of people at different levels, in line with our values.
• Familiarity with The Guardian's editorial values, and a broad understanding of our existing and potential readership to influence the development of new projects.
• CMS, project management software. Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier, AfterEffects desirable.
• Consistent style and approach in line with brand guidelines and design system across products and platforms.
• Knowledge of web/native capabilities, HTML, SCSS and Javascript.
• Awareness of web accessibility guidelines and web standards.
• Up to speed on the latest trends and technologies.

Skills and behaviors

• Highly organized, efficient, and able to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Strong communication skills
• Ability to build effective, collaborative working relationships across disciplines and with stakeholders
• Firm but diplomatic, able to ensure creative priorities are respected while balancing deadlines and resources.
• Collaborative and solutions-oriented, with a focus on getting the best out of teams.
• Ability to work with and lead a team
• Ability to guide others through design process appropriate to briefs and deadlines
• Able to work with both basic and complex design briefs, and to show creative initiative.
• Attention to detail, patience and judgment
• A natural problem solver, with excellent time management skills
• Resilience under pressure, adaptable, flexible and comfortable working in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment
• Proactive and self-motivated to drive complex projects forward.
• Confident in own capabilities
• Commitment to The Guardian's values — honesty, integrity, courage, and fairness.

How to apply

We know there are great candidates who might not check all these boxes or who possess important skills we haven't thought of. If that's you, we encourage you to apply and tell us about yourself.

All candidates interested in applying should upload a resume and cover letter.

All roles at the Guardian are open for everybody to apply. It is important to us that you feel supported and comfortable throughout your recruitment process, in order to perform your best. Please let us know if there are any changes we could make to the application process to make it easier and more comfortable for you. Please email the recruiter listed on the job posting or at recruitment.us@theguardian.com to discuss further so we can work with you to support you through your application.

Compensation and benefits

• 25 days of vacation leave in addition to 12 company holidays
• Unlimited sick time
• Free Headspace subscription for you and your family members(Headspace is a company that offers evidence-based meditation and mindfulness tools, mental health coaching, therapy, psychiatry, and EAP services)
• 401(k) Match
• Subsidized healthcare coverage including medical, vision, and dental
• Medical and Dependent Flexible Spending Accounts
• Generous parental leave with 100% pay
• Long Term and Short Term Disability insurance
• Life insurance
• Commuter benefits
• Work/Life balance: Flexible hybrid schedule

Culture & wellbeing

We want everyone to feel like they belong at the Guardian and we champion diversity of thought. You will also have the opportunity to hear unique insight from our journalists in our morning conference, a live discussion on the news story of the day.

We offer great tools to help you prioritize your wellbeing including a free Headspace subscription and access to an Employee Assistance Program.

Learning & development

We encourage personal and professional growth. Employees have access to a broad range of tools and solutions, and we are happy to support the pursuit of professional qualifications through vocational courses and apprenticeships.

Sustainability

Our goal is to become an environmentally regenerative company and we have signed up to a sustainability vision and strategy to reach it. Find more information about sustainability at GNM here.

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The Guardian is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, national origin, ethnic origin, citizenship status, disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law in its employment policies. In addition, the Guardian will provide reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities.

We value and respect all differences (seen and unseen) in all people at the Guardian. We aspire to have inclusive working experiences and an environment that reflects the audience we serve, where our people have equal access to career development opportunities, their voices are heard and can contribute to our future.