Limited-term full-time contract role (mid-July through mid-October)

The Role

We are looking for a gifted developmental editor who is passionate about helping 20-25 writers hone their writing skills to craft compelling essays about human progress during our summer/fall fellowship program.

Our Blog-Building Intensive Fellowship program, which runs between July and October every year, is part of the larger mission of The Roots of Progress Institute to establish a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. Through this program, we are developing the intellectual talent and community needed to fulfill this mission.

Our fellows, selected from several hundred applicants, are super-smart, interesting, and thoughtful people writing on fascinating topics. As the developmental editor, you’ll work directly with our fellows, helping them to grow and improve their writing skills. You’ll help bring new blogs into the world and develop the careers of great writers, while helping to advance the progress movement.

You can also join the progress movement yourself. You’ll have the chance to participate in the fellowship program advisor sessions with some of the most innovative and interesting thinkers and builders in the progress space. You’ll also get to attend the invitation-only Progress Conference in October.

This role reports to Emma McAleavy, our Program and Community Operations Manager. It is a full-time but limited-term role (with the potential for ongoing part-time work) that is fully remote within in the contiguous US or Canada.

About You

• Are you an insightful structural editor? You have extensive structural editing experience. You can figure out why a long/complex piece just isn’t hanging together correctly. You know how to edit voice-y internet-first work. You know when line level edits are appropriate, and when it’s time to take a step back and look at the big picture. You are skilled at explaining your edits, either asynchronously or in a one-on-one conversation.
• Are you excited about working with writers one-on-one? You enjoy having conversations with writers about their work and coaching them on how to improve. You are gifted at seeing where a writer is struggling and helping them improve in that area. You are equally skilled at supporting beginner writers and advanced writers. You take delight in seeing an improved essay being published, and in knowing that your coaching has helped the writer grow their craft.
• Are you passionate about ideas in general and human progress in particular? You believe, like us, that ideas shape history and that builders, writers, researchers, storytellers, and educators need to have a community so they can do their best work and have the most impact. You’re fascinated by the amazing progress we’ve made in the last 200 years, and you are eager work with the thinkers and doers that will create an ambitious, techno-humanist future.

Nice to haves (but not essential!): if you have developed writing curriculum, taught—or participated in teaching—writing courses, or managed an editorial operation at a publication that would be wonderful. But still, not essential.

Day-to-Day

This is a full-time but limited-term role, over the summer and into the fall during the 8-10 week fellowship program and a couple of weeks before/after. If that goes well, there will also be an opportunity to continue the engagement part-time throughout the year.

Between July and October you will:

• Meet one-on-one with ~10-12 fellows per week to discuss their essays. You will prepare for these meetings by reading and editing the fellows' essays in advance; essays typically range from 750-2,500 words, with the occasional outlier. These meetings will take place over zoom and will be an opportunity for fellows to receive individualized feedback on the specific essay being edited, as well as general feedback for how they can improve as a writer.
• Lead group writing critiques. 1-2 times per week you will lead a group essay feedback session where you provide feedback to a fellow live in front of a group. You will also facilitate group discussions about fellows work.
• Participate in and support a weekly writing course. Our 8-10 week writing course will be taught by our program manager. However, as the developmental editor you will attend our weekly writing classes and participate in breakout sessions and group feedback sessions, and will draw upon and refer back to course lessons during your one-on-one sessions with fellows.

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Potential for a longer-term role

We are actively thinking about how to expand our programming, including, potentially: a curated Substack of fellows work, a limited topic-specific series published on the Roots of Progress Substack, fellowship programs designed for advanced writers, and ongoing alumni editorial support.

****While this role is a full-time, contract position for around 4 months, it is possible that the developmental editor role could expand to include some of the above in late 2025/2026, on a part-time or full-time basis.

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