Senior Manager, Special Projects 

Senior Manager, Special Projects

Location: Remote

Job Summary:The Senior Manager, Special Projects is a strategic leader responsible for driving innovation, cross-functional collaboration, and the successful execution of high-impact initiatives. This role directly oversees a team of editors and multi-platform content creators-including freelance contributors-ensuring alignment with audience growth (on and off platform), revenue, and audience goals across multiple verticals (e.g., USA TODAY Pets, USA TODAY Grocery) and may expand to additional verticals as organizational priorities evolve. The Senior Manager is accountable for developing and executing strategies, managing direct reports, and serving as a cross-functional connective force. This position reports to the VP, Integrated Initiatives & Innovation.

• Manages a team of editors and content creators, including freelancers.
• Oversees the team's editorial calendar and ensures timely, high-quality content delivery.
• Provides coaching, feedback, and professional development for direct reports.
• Delegates tasks to ensure all editorial functions are covered.
• Proactively solves problems and considers alternative solutions.
• Adapts quickly to changing priorities and leads teams through industry shifts.
• Fosters an inclusive environment and ensures content reflects our communities.
• Upholds rigorous journalistic, ethical, and legal standards for all content.
• Ensures strategic and timely use of resources to meet goals.

• Owns and refines strategic roadmaps and set priorities for special projects and content verticals.
• Develops and executes audience growth strategies for both on- and off-platform channels.
• Ensures strategies leverage text and video content aligned with audience trends.
• Collaborates with the content strategy team to set, track and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and measure progress toward objectives.
• Collaborates closely with project managers as the strategic lead while maintaining a distinct role as the strategic lead.

• Facilitates cross-functional communication for alignment with product, B2B, consumer, analytics, marketing, and other teams.
• Partners with content strategy and data teams to facilitate performance analysis and modeling for each project.
• Coordinates with stakeholders to ensure project goals are met and outcomes are.

• Champions innovation by piloting new editorial and product ideas, rapidly prototyping, and scaling successful models.
• Develops, maintains and shares playbooks, documentation, and training materials to scale learnings across teams.
• Drives the strategic adoption and integration of automation and AI technologies to advance audience engagement, streamline editorial operations, and position the team at the forefront of digital innovation.

• 7 years of experience in editorial or related leadership roles, with at least 3 years managing direct reports.
• College degree in journalism, marketing or communications or equivalent work experience.
• Demonstrated success in strategic planning, cross-functional leadership, and project execution.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with a proven ability to lead teams and facilitate collaboration.
• Experience editing content, managing editorial calendars and freelance contributors.
• Experience with workflow automation, AI tools, or digital product launches.
• Demonstrated ability to grow audiences on and off platform, and to develop strategies for both text and video content.
• Candidates should have facility with AI and automation and experience in using it to enhance their journalism.

1. Your resume - one to two pages.
2. A cover letter that outlines how you would approach the job.