Floodlight Inc. is hiring: Editor-in-Chief in Salt Lake City

Overview

Floodlight is hiring an editor-in-chief to lead the organization's journalistic mission, guide its team of investigative reporters through the next phase of organizational growth and deepen Floodlight’s partnerships with local and national newsrooms.

Read on for the requirements for this role and to understand Floodlight’s work. Floodlight is a nonprofit, independent newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action. Since launching in 2021, Floodlight has collaborated with local and national news outlets including The Guardian, NPR, ProPublica, the Los Angeles Times, the Texas Tribune, the Louisiana Illuminator and Capital B. Floodlight stories reach millions and are distributed directly to hundreds of news editors and republished through aggregation services. In 2025, hundreds of news outlets republished Floodlight stories. Our reporting is nonpartisan, adheres to the Institute for Nonprofit News standards for financial transparency and editorial independence, and Floodlight retains full authority over editorial content with decisions made independently of donor support. We work remotely with occasional travel for reporting, in-person meetings, industry conferences or events.

Our team of seven includes two reporters, an investigative producer, an audience director, a chief operating officer, an executive director and an editor-in-chief, who will retire at the end of 2025. This role will work closely with colleagues and with journalists at external partner organizations.

About the Role

The ideal candidate is a strong leader with extensive editing, reporting and management experience in investigative journalism and a deep understanding of Floodlight’s collaborative approach and climate journalism space. The editor-in-chief will manage a team of investigative journalists and work closely with a network of reporters and editors from external media partners on collaborative projects. The person should be tough, fair and collegial, and will lead and shape the newsroom culture, aligning team strengths with opportunities to deepen skillsets. Floodlight produces deep-dive investigations that reveal obstacles to climate action across topics such as disinformation, political influence, corruption and fraud. We aim for stories to be locally relevant and nationally resonant, and the editor-in-chief will ensure timely, high-quality work across formats, including medium- and long-form text and video scripts. Most work occurs through partnerships with national and local news outlets; the editor-in-chief will manage these relationships and determine, with the audience director, which partners are best suited for a given story and set expectations for development and schedules.

The editor-in-chief will work closely with Floodlight’s executive team to set vision and priorities and will oversee expansion of partnerships with external news organizations. The role may involve speaking at news industry conferences and contributing to contest entries and related activities. This position will work remotely, with occasional travel for events and team collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Work with the executive team to set and implement the strategic editorial vision in accordance with Floodlight’s goals and mission.
• Manage the editorial staff and audience director, including conducting quarterly and annual performance reviews and leading staff recruitment for those positions.
• Ensure reporting meets the highest standards of editorial excellence, including leading Floodlight’s extensive fact-checking process and guiding reporting through any legal reviews.
• Lead twice-a-week editorial meetings and maintain an up-to-date story budget.
• Oversee the editorial calendar and production of output across multiple distribution channels.
• Secure rights for visuals for publication and distribution of stories.
• Be the face of Floodlight, promoting its work by speaking at news industry conferences and preparing contest entries and other activities.
• Write quarterly and annual editorial reports for internal and external consumption.
• Consult with the business staff on grant proposals and reports.
• Oversee expansion of partnerships with external news organizations.

Ideal Candidate Qualities

• 5+ years experience managing a team of journalists and at least 10 years in journalism.
• Strong editorial judgment and skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to manage, motivate and mentor a diverse and talented team of journalists.
• Strong collaborative skills as liaison with partner media organizations.
• Exceptional organizational and project management skills with a fine attention to detail.
• Exceptional communication skills.
• Ability to weigh in on or make decisions with authority across all parts of the organization.
• Self-starter who is highly motivated and resourceful.
• The role will work remotely, with occasional travel for events and team collaboration.

Salary and Benefits

The salary for this position is commensurate with experience, starting at a minimum of $130,000 per year. Floodlight provides 25 days of vacation/PTO, plus 12 paid holidays, 10 days of medical/emergency/bereavement leave and 12 weeks of paid parental leave. To give staff maximum flexibility for health insurance, Floodlight reimburses health insurance premiums and other qualified health expenses up to the federal maximum ($529/month for an individual and $1,067/month for an individual and their family). Floodlight provides a 401(k) plan with matching up to 4% of employee contributions. We welcome candidates who may not check all boxes but bring important skills, and we encourage applicants from traditionally underrepresented communities, including people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.

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