Senior Staff Editor, Well

thenewyorktimes

New York, NY · New York · United States

Posted Jul 17, 2026

Freelance
Editing

Job description

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for.

The Times Well desk is seeking a senior staff editor to edit our weekly newsletter and other reporting about health and wellness. This role is a key position on the team, requiring an editor who has experience working with reporters and freelancers and has a proven track record in health coverage.

You will supervise reporters and assign and edit across many story forms, including news, reported features, visual pieces and profiles. Your work will be timely and ambitious. You should be able to connect the dots and spot trends before our competitors do, and shape stories that have perspective and authority. Your assignments should start conversations. You should have tons of ideas and a willingness to experiment.

Your work will support Well's mission to use evidence-based journalism to explore important issues in health and to help people live healthier and more fulfilling lives.

This role requires high productivity, attention to detail, meeting deadlines and the ability to work seamlessly with other editors on the desk. You are joining a successful team that thrives in part because we're highly collaborative and we embrace constant change and opportunity.

This is an in-office position, based in New York City and includes regular attendance in the office four days each week. There may be some flexibility to work remotely per your departmental guidance.

Responsibilities:

You will conceive, assign and edit articles, serving as a first editor on several stories per week.
You will supervise beat reporters and develop a stable of freelance contributors.
You will provide sophisticated second edits on stories as needed.
You will manage the digital life of stories, including writing engaging headlines, summaries and captions for digital presentation and promotion across platforms.
You will collaborate with our art team.
You will meet tight deadlines and juggle multiple priorities expertly.
You have strong communication and organizational skills.
You are collaborative, collegial and flexible.
You will abide by The Times's Code of Conduct and exemplify our Values and Behaviors.
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.
You will report to the Deputy Editor.

Basic Qualifications:

7+ years of experience as a health, science or lifestyle journalist.
Significant editing experience, including a deep understanding of digital publishing.
Experience supervising beat reporters and freelancers.
Science-literate with a proven ability to parse and contextualize scientific research for a general-interest audience.

Preferred Qualifications:

Passionate about news and service journalism.
Willingness to experiment and collaborate on the Well desk and across departments.

This position is represented by the NewsGuild of NY.

REQ-020405

Additional Compensation and Benefits

For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, employee stock purchase plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.

For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.

The annual base pay range for this role is between:

$124,979.94—$135,000 USD

Candidate Use of GenAI Tools:

We’re excited to learn more about you and your experience. To keep our hiring process as fair and authentic as possible, we ask that you submit your own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process.

If you’re an engineering candidate, we’ll let you know what specific GenAI tools you are permitted to use for your technical assessment.

The New York Times Company is committed to being the world’s best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do so, we embrace a diverse workforce that has a broad range of backgrounds and experiences across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate on the basis of an individual's sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)’s Know Your Rights Poster is available here.

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