Role purpose and overview

This is an exciting opportunity to work in a senior role at the heart of the Telegraph, helping to craft the paper’s editorial positions alongside the leadership team. The role involves working with some of the best columnists in the country, coming up with strong ideas for columns, and commissioning opinion pieces that engage, entertain and inform our growing subscriber base in print and online.

Our benefits

The nature of our industry means life at the Telegraph Media Group is fast-paced, demanding, and interesting. We also want it to be rewarding for everyone who works here. From dynamic working opportunities, medical cover, and equal parental pay (six months fully paid for mothers and fathers), to life assurance, and season ticket loans, you can choose from a range of flexible benefits, designed to support your lifestyle and help you achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Training and development

With support from your manager and colleagues, you’ll also have access to a variety of training and development opportunities through The Academy. Covering a range of personal and professional skills, our courses enable you to develop an enjoyable and rewarding career.

Our commitment to inclusion

We want you to feel you belong here and welcome candidates from all backgrounds.

We have a number of internal networks that are totally inclusive and open for anyone to join. These include internal inclusion networks covering employees from ethnic minority backgrounds, working families, LGBTQ+, disabilities and long-term conditions, gender, wellbeing, and women in tech.

Your wellbeing is paramount, so we have trained over 100 Mental Health First Aiders in the last two years to help support our employees. We’ve also signed the Tech Talent Charter, and are committed to driving greater inclusion and diversity in tech.

Key responsibilities

• Commissioning, editing and publishing agenda-setting opinion columns for the newspaper and online
• Growing our subscriber base, and engaging existing readers, by identifying the subjects and arguments that will have most appeal
• Deputising for the Comment Editor, including attending editorial conferences with the Editor and Deputy Editors, and taking responsibility for major projects
• Planning for set-piece events, including elections, Budgets, and national occasions
• Working with our columnists and developing relationships with new external writers
• Developing junior team-members and identifying talent within the organisation
• Writing leaders for the newspaper when required
• Some Saturday and Sunday working

Key skills

• An interest in and in-depth knowledge of British politics and current affairs is essential. Sympathy with the Telegraph’s editorial positions is strongly preferred.
• Extensive relevant contacts.
• Substantial editing experience, ideally gained in a national newsroom or major digital platform.
• Online publishing experience, including headline optimisation, would be beneficial.
• Ghost-writing experience is desirable.
• Experience of other media, including video and podcasts.

The Telegraph’s goal is to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace and we are committed to building a team that reflects a wide variety of skills, perspectives, and backgrounds.

We are an equal opportunities employer, hiring solely on merit and business need. We encourage applications regardless of sex, gender identity, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, and disability. If you require reasonable adjustments in any recruitment process with us, please make us aware.
For more information on our purpose, beliefs, and people values, please visit our website.