Overview

We are looking for an editor to work 40 hours per week on contract to help readers make sense of the rapidly evolving category of tech and products in the worlds of fitness, health, and personal care. In addition to performing detail-oriented evaluation of newer items, such as fitness trackers and smart scales, the editor will be responsible for steering coverage of non-tech gear such as running apparel, yoga mats, and home-gym equipment, as well as medical and health tech such as menstrual cups or blood-glucose monitors. The ideal candidate will have experience considering the relationship between people and the things they use, through reviewing or conducting product research.

This position reports directly to a senior editor and will involve managing a combination of staff writers and freelancers. This job may be remote, but preference will be given to candidates in New York City. This is a freelance position with the possibility of becoming full-time by the end of the year, depending on the success of the category.

Requirements

  • Three-plus years of experience working at a media company in an editorial capacity with at least one year of experience managing writers
  • A passion for fitness, health, and technology balanced by a skepticism toward marketing claims and unproven ideas
  • Empathy for readers of all abilities and body types
  • A frank and forthcoming communicator
  • Familiarity with Google Docs

Preferred qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in a scientific discipline
  • Feature writing and editing experience
  • Experience collaborating with an art director or photo director to present content visually
  • Experience presenting complex ideas using visualizations such as charts, graphs, or infographics, and a functional understanding of statistics
  • Familiarity with reading and interpreting medical and scientific studies

Responsibilities

  • Develop a comprehensive plan for covering fitness-related gear and apparel such as running tights, yoga mats, and dumbbells, as well as health technology such as fitness trackers, apps, GPS watches, bathroom scales, and menstrual cups. (We have a separate outdoors section and team, so this position will not cover outdoor-sport products such as tents or hiking/climbing gear.)
  • Lead new guides and coverage through the research phase to the final draft.
  • Inform coverage by helping with edits in other fields and sitting in on peer review panels.
  • Hire and manage a combination of regular freelancers and staff writers.
  • Ensure that our positions on various concepts and technologies remain consistent across all health and fitness coverage.
  • Work with our science team when necessary to address health-related issues.

Please submit an email application with subject line “Fitness Tech Editor FirstName LastName” containing the following:

  • Attached PDF résumé (or link to personal website with a CV)
  • Cover letter, no more than 800 words, no attachments
  • Answers to the prompts below, no more than 400 words each, no attachments
    • Describe an instance when technology or a product augmented or impeded your fitness or medical routine.
    • How did you go about making your most recent major purchase? Did it live up to your expectations? Why or why not?

About The Wirecutter

The Wirecutter, and its associated sites, are about helping people find the best gear to buy using dozens of hours of research of all available sources and our own testing.

What’s different in how we do things is our directness in recommending people exactly what we would buy ourselves or recommend to our loved ones--we don’t ask people who are looking for our advice to click through multiple pages of reviews or meaningless industry news to exploit them for advertising inventory. We just give them our recommendation in a single page, and the evidence of why that is and why they should believe us, and let them them get on with their lives. It's that simple.

You may be aware that we run our company in service of our readers. Less known is our commitment to the people with which we work. We ask everyone who works here to be effective, to be efficient, and to move the needle every day.

In exchange, we offer you the ability to work from wherever on your own hours for competitive pay at a reasonable pace. We love working with people who can get it done in a world-class way and can communicate well with a team, and who know how to enjoy a balanced life outside of work.

Salary and perks: Although we are a small, bootstrapped company, we pride ourselves in offering competitive compensation including, but not limited to, healthcare coverage, PTO, and a flexible work schedule. We want to make sure every employee is happy and has the tools, resources, and knowledge to grow with the company.