Senior Copy Editor

Code for Africa (CfA) has an immediate remote vacancy for a Senior Copy Editor to join their Knowledge team to support initiatives across the continent.

The Senior Copy Editor will be highly proficient in English and have extensive experience working with a range of content from training presentations and marketing materials to grant proposals and donor reports. Candidates must have a demonstrable track record of professional copy/sub-editing in a journalistic or technical environment. An understanding of technology innovation, or digital activism/democracy topics will be an added advantage.

Responsibilities

• Copy/sub-edit (i.e., correcting format, grammar, syntax, spelling, and style) all content
• Verify facts and statistics using standard references sources
• Proofread and revise content for logical flow, clarity, consistency and conciseness
• Ensure that documents are well structured and neatly formatted
• Guide other members of staff on how to improve their rough drafts in order to reduce editing further down the line
• Assist in the creation and maintenance of an inhouse style guide.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years copy/sub-editing experience in a fast-paced newsroom or in digital journalism or non-governmental organisation.
• Exceptional command of the English language with impeccable grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax.
• Demonstrable ability to improve the meaning and clarity of copy through correct grammar, consistency of voice, tone and terminology, factual accuracy, logical sentence and document structure, and readability of the final product.
• Demonstrable experience in copy editing a range of content, such as grant proposals, donor reports, presentations, social media content, and blogs
• Proven ability to tailor content for a variety of audiences, channels, and formats, always avoiding a “one size fits all” editing mindset.
• The ability to work fast, creatively and accurately in a remote fast-paced deadline-driven environment to deliver content that is credible, consistent and always factually correct.
• Strong organisational and decision-making skills.
• Digital-first workplace skill-sets, including proficiency in collaborative work solutions such as Google Workplace (Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc.), Slack (or equivalents such as Teams, etc), and project management tools like Trello (or equivalents such as AirTable, etc).

How to apply

The deadline for applications is July 12, 2024. To learn more about this position and apply, please click here.