How to hire a senior editor

How to hire a senior editor, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior editor hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior editor job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior editor
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior editor do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the senior editor you need to hire. Certain senior editor roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A senior editor's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior editors from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   Here's a comparison of senior editor salaries for various roles:

   Type of Senior Editor	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Editor	Editors plan, review, and revise content for publication.	$31-58
   Proposal Writer	Proposal Writers help clients win contracts, grants from the government, or even permission to perform a consulting service. They must ensure that all important information is included in the paperwork and documents.	$23-46
   Editorial Internship	An editorial intern is responsible for assisting the editorial team in publishing digital and media content, writing articles, and managing readers' reviews. Editorial interns must have excellent knowledge of the industry they work for, suggesting the latest trends and featured topics, taking notes of the tenured employees' advice and observations, and actively joining brainstorming sessions... Show more	$12-18

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Edit Content
   • Video Content
   • SEO
   • Digital Content
   • Project Management
   • Facebook
   • Editorial Calendar
   • PowerPoint
   • Instagram
   • Twitter
   • Web Publishing
   • Press Releases
   • Content Strategy
   • Content Creation

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Contract and manage editorial freelancers and full-service vendors for successful high school Spanish and Latin textbook and ancillary programs.
   • Post video to the Fox17 website and youtube.
   • Complete several robust DVD authoring projects for clients.
   • Redesign the look and the style of lifestyle magazine.
   • Double traffic on the Instagram page with newly implement marketing plan.
   • Content editing for automobile DVD user manuals (English, French and Spanish).

   More senior editor duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the senior editor job description is a good way to get more applicants. A senior editor salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a senior editor in South Dakota may be lower than in Connecticut, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level senior editor. Additionally, a senior editor with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average senior editor salary

   $90,094yearly

   $43.31 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior editor salary

   $66,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 19, 2025

   Average senior editor salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$111,023	$53
   2	Connecticut	$104,255	$50
   3	District of Columbia	$101,582	$49
   4	New York	$100,503	$48
   5	Washington	$90,319	$43
   6	Virginia	$88,384	$42
   7	Pennsylvania	$87,910	$42
   8	Massachusetts	$87,169	$42
   9	Georgia	$84,072	$40
   10	Illinois	$81,120	$39
   11	Tennessee	$81,073	$39
   12	Colorado	$80,782	$39
   13	Michigan	$80,696	$39
   14	Delaware	$80,547	$39
   15	North Carolina	$78,894	$38
   16	Alabama	$76,666	$37
   17	Florida	$75,760	$36
   18	Texas	$71,823	$35
   19	Wisconsin	$70,362	$34
   20	Indiana	$65,102	$31

   Average senior editor salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Apple	$129,173	$62.10	6
   2	Lincoln Institute of Land Policy	$113,530	$54.58
   3	The Walt Disney Company	$111,277	$53.50	43
   4	Bloomberg	$110,150	$52.96	28
   5	Yahoo	$109,225	$52.51
   6	Discovery	$108,945	$52.38
   7	McKinsey & Company Inc	$108,521	$52.17
   8	JUUL	$108,265	$52.05
   9	Amazon	$107,964	$51.91	11
   10	AbbVie	$107,561	$51.71
   11	Edelman Financial Engines	$106,680	$51.29
   12	The Economist Newspaper Group	$105,757	$50.84	1
   13	BNY Mellon	$105,181	$50.57
   14	The New York Times Company	$104,961	$50.46	24
   15	Middle East Institute	$103,036	$49.54
   16	SAIC	$102,898	$49.47	6
   17	Chewy	$102,052	$49.06
   18	ViacomCBS	$99,975	$48.06
   19	LinkedIn	$99,483	$47.83
   20	NBCUniversal	$98,936	$47.57	49

4. Writing a senior editor job description

   A senior editor job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a senior editor job description:

   Senior editor job description example

   The vision of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research is to create novel and practical ways to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice. We convene varied researchers and practitioners to foster exhaustive racial data collection, research-based policy innovation, solutions-focused narrative change initiatives, and practical advocacy campaigns. Together, these efforts power real-world antiracist change and impact.
   
   The BU Center for Antiracist Research was founded in 2020 by Dr. Ibram Kendi. The Center is rapidly growing and looking for passionate individuals to join its dedicated staff. The Emancipator is a digital publication that reimagines the first abolitionist newspapers in the United States. Just as 19th-century anti-slavery publications reframed and amplified the quest for abolition, the new Emancipator centers critical voices, debates, and evidence-based opinion to reframe the national conversation on racial equity and hasten racially just outcomes. The platform provokes new conversations and progress on racial justice through big ideas driven by data, commentary, and scholarship. It is a collaboration between Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research and The Boston Globe.
   
   The Senior Editor, Opinion will work with the editorial and product teams to recruit and coach contributors in producing solutions-oriented, evidence-based commentary, analyses, and original reporting. Run the day-to-day editorial operation, including managing the editorial calendar and pitching process. This detail-oriented position includes developing editorial standards for the entire operation and creating policy guides for editorial, social, and audience engagement teams. This position will be for a two-year term and renewable contingent upon funding.
   Required Skills
   
   Required Education Level - Bachelor's Degree Field(s) of Degree(s) - marketing, business, journalism, communications, public relations, or related field Work Experience Level - More than 8 years
   
   We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.
   
   Required Experience

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find senior editors for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your senior editor job on Zippia to find and recruit senior editor candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as problogger, media bistro, journalismjobs.com, content writing jobs.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting senior editors requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior editor

   Once you've decided on a perfect senior editor candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new senior editor. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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