Senior Editor, Output, Mandarin Desk, DC

Overview

Job Title: Senior Editor, Output

Department: Editorial, Mandarin Desk

Reports To: Editor in Charge

FLSA Status: Exempt

Location: Washington, DC | Hybrid

Schedule: Full-Time

Who We Are

Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with editorial and operational bureaus in Taipei, Bangkok, and Seoul. A congressionally funded grantee of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), RFA operates with full editorial independence.

Our mission is to provide accurate, uncensored news and information to people living in countries where a free press does not exist. We broadcast in nine languages and dialects — Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Uyghur, Burmese, Vietnamese, Lao, Khmer, and Korean — reaching audiences across China, North Korea, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and beyond via shortwave, satellite, and the internet. Our journalists work in some of the world’s most difficult media environments, often at considerable personal risk, filling a critical gap in access to truthful, timely news for millions of people who would otherwise have very little of it. That reality shapes everything about how we work and who we hire to lead this organization.

Job Summary

The Senior Editor, Output is the Mandarin desk's final editorial gatekeeper during the DC shift. Every story that reaches RFA's audiences has passed through this role: reviewed for accuracy, edited for clarity and standards compliance, correctly formatted, and published to the right platforms at the right time. This is a high-pressure, high-accountability role combining precision editing with real-time output management.

The role works alongside the Senior Editor, News, both based in Taipei, who manages story development and assignment. Output takes the handoff at the editing stage and sees every piece through to publication. Together the two roles form the editorial core of the desk's daily operation under the Editor in Charge.

Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

• Review and edit all stories before publication, ensuring accuracy, sourcing integrity, editorial standards compliance, and proper format across all platforms (web, social, shortwave, video).
• Manage Mandarin desk's publishing queue during the DC shift: sequence stories, coordinate publication timing, and maintain steady output across platforms.
• Apply and uphold RFA's editorial style guide, language standards, and visual guidelines for all published content.
• Flag stories requiring escalation — standards concerns to the Standards Editor, safety concerns to the Safety Director, legal concerns to General Counsel — before publication.
• Coordinate with the Senior Editor, News to ensure stories moving through the pipeline meet editorial requirements before reaching the output queue.
• Maintain CMS discipline: ensure all published content carries accurate metadata, captions, tags, and cross-links.
• Prepare clean end-of-shift handoff notes for the desk's counterpart, covering the status of stories in progress, outstanding edits, and anything requiring follow-up.
• Work with the Senior Producer and Producer on A/V output, ensuring broadcast and video content meets technical and editorial standards before air or publication.
• Contribute to training and standards development: flag recurring issues to the Editor in Charge and help desk journalists improve their adherence to RFA's editorial and format standards.
• Cover senior editorial responsibilities on the desk as directed by the Editor in Charge during absences or surge periods.
• Monitor real-time audience analytics during shift using tools such as Chartbeat or YouTube Analytics, Meta Business Suite; use performance data to adjust story sequencing and placement across platforms.
• Rewrite or test alternative headlines on underperforming stories during the publishing window to improve click-through and readership.
• Optimize short-form video titles and thumbnails based on live engagement data (views, retention, click-through rate) before and after publication.
• Flag high-performing stories to the Senior Editor, News for amplification consideration (social push, newsletter, or cross-desk sharing); include shift audience highlights in end-of-shift handoff notes.
• Responsible for attendance management and work coordination for DC team staff and stringers working in nearby time zones. 

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or above in journalism, political science, economics, or a related field; or a minimum of 7 years of professional journalism experience, with significant time in a news editing, assignment editing, or senior reporting role in a digital, broadcast, or multimedia newsroom, using the language of the served desk.  
• Demonstrated experience serving as an editorial lead within a news team — guiding reporters and producers through the production cycle, making real-time editorial calls, and maintaining accountability for output quality under deadline pressure.
• Deep substantive knowledge of the desk's coverage region, including its political landscape, geopolitical dynamics, and key actors; the editorial judgment to assess story framing, source credibility, and contextual accuracy requires this knowledge. Established professional networks within the region or diaspora community are strongly valued.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a high-volume publishing workflow under deadline pressure.
• Sound editorial judgment: ability to identify accuracy problems, sourcing gaps, standards violations, and format errors quickly and consistently.
• Familiarity with CMS platforms and multi-platform publishing workflows.
• Fluency in multi-platform publishing: web, social media, video, shortwave, and audio formats.
• Exceptional professional proficiency in written and spoken Mandarin, with demonstrated ability to write, edit, review, and approve accurate and clear Mandarin-language news stories, assess interview materials and quoted speech, and ensure consistency with professional newsroom and RFA editorial standards.
• Strong command of both journalistic Chinese and the political and cultural vocabulary used in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, including awareness of how official terminology shapes framing.
• Strong written communication skills for editorial guidance, reporter briefings, and shift handoffs.
• Working knowledge of China's information controls, including censorship, surveillance, and the Great Firewall, and how they affect reporting and audience access.
• Strong ability to work across languages and platforms, including coordinating with English-language editors and other language teams
• Professional working proficiency in English.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a follow-the-sun or distributed newsroom with cross time zone coordination.
• Familiarity with safety and security protocols for journalists working on sensitive stories or in restrictive environments.
• Familiarity with real-time analytics platforms (e.g., Chartbeat, Google Analytics); ability to translate audience data into immediate editorial decisions under deadline pressure.
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To be considered for this position, please include a cover letter with your application.

This is a full-time, exempt position based in Washington, DC. Some flexibility in work hours required to accommodate international time zones. This position is hybrid, with three days in-office and two days remote weekly. 

Salary Range: 87,000-118,500/Year. Final salary is commensurate with experiences and skills that are compatible with the requirements of the role. 

This position is ineligible for sponsorship by the company for any work authorization, applicant must possess existing work authorization to be considered for the position.