Responsibilities
- Manage and mentor a team to produce urgent, compelling, and high-quality visuals across all social platforms, ensuring we meet strategic goals for reach and distinction.
- Emphasize card-based formats across platforms, establishing best practices for combining visual editing and writing, and maintain synergy and collaborative opportunities with the Home team.
- Develop a high-level social visuals strategy and playbook, considering different platform needs.
- Oversee new tools and provide training for cross-functional teams to expand the scale and 24/7 availability of high-quality visuals.
- Embrace measures for success that combine editorial and visual judgment with data and Audience feedback about engagement, growth and specific reader responses.
- Partner with the Audience team to clearly define social visual resources for both breaking news and enterprise executions, working with social editors to structure shifts within resource constraints.
- Contribute strategic insights and plans to Social leaders, counseling them on best visual practices and fostering a trusting dialogue on strategy, programming, and visual quality.
- Refine systems and workflows that ensure the team upholds visual and journalistic standards and documentation to clarify best practices and routines.
- Champion the use of tools and resources that help the Times grow at scale and enable other teams to create high-quality visuals that support our off-platform report.
- Collaborate closely with the Photo, Graphics, Design, and Video desks to oversee asset usage and maintain communication with newsroom desks to ensure signature visual journalism has a sharp presence in social feeds.
- Maintain a conversation with the Reporter Video unit for overlapping work and inspiration.
- Provide bespoke direction and editing on high-priority and enterprise packages with a strong visual element, assigning a social visuals editor to collaborate with the Audience team.
- Drive the efficient use of visual assets for both off-platform distribution and the homepage.
- Conduct regular meetings to review visual quality and set visual priorities with the team each day
- Provide regular feedback, coaching, and training to adjacent editors (Social and desk audience editors) to enhance their visual editing and making skills.
- Manage and support your direct reports, including recruiting and hiring, career development, and training.
- Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.
Basic Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience, including collaborative design and project management, preferably in a digital newsroom or publication.
- Management and leadership experience
- Proven experience producing and editing visual journalism
- Deep understanding of evolving trends on mainstream and emerging social channels.
- Knowledge of digital tools and programs, including content management systems.
- Track record of developing successful visual approaches for a range of platforms.
- A refined visual design sensibility; hierarchy, typography, color, space.
- Well-versed in Adobe Creative Suite and Figma.
Preferred Qualifications
- Strong news judgement, and a deep understanding of journalism ethics and independent reporting.
- Design or Visual background at a major news organization.
- Experience working collaboratively to develop formats for visual journalism on a range of platforms
- Strong organizational and collaborative talents
- Strong communication and diplomatic skills
- A passion for visual storytelling and breaking news, feature and enterprise journalism.
- Comfortable managing multiple projects on a variety of timelines in a fast-paced and often challenging environment
- Flexibility to work extended hours
