Remote Editor jobs – Full‑Time Senior Content Proofreader & Copy Revising Specialist (Remote) – Bangor, Maine – $65k‑$80k Salary – SEO‑Focused, CMS‑Experienced

TITLE: Remote Editor jobs – Full‑Time Senior Content Proofreader & Copy Revising Specialist (Remote) – Bangor, Maine – $65k‑$80k Salary – SEO‑Focused, CMS‑Experienced --- Who we are At Narrative Forge, we’ve spent the last three years turning a modest blog in Bangor, Maine into a multi‑channel publishing house that now reaches over 2 million monthly readers across the US and Canada. What started as a handful of freelance writers in a shared coworking space on Main Street has grown into a 45‑person content operation that now runs three distinct verticals—tech reviews, lifestyle features, and long‑form investigative pieces. Our editorial team sits in a virtual newsroom, but our culture is still rooted in the rhythms of Bangor, Maine: coffee‑break debates about headline tone, weekly “walk‑throughs” on the city’s river trail as a way to clear the mental slate, and an annual “Story Sprint” retreat at the historic downtown hotel. We’re at a inflection point. Our traffic has risen 34 % YoY, and our subscription model now contributes $1.2 M in recurring revenue. To keep that trajectory, we need a seasoned editor who can own the remote editing pipeline, ensure every piece meets our quality bar, and mentor a growing cohort of junior writers and contract proofreaders. This isn’t a generic “editor” posting; it’s the role that will shape the voice of Narrative Forge’s expanding portfolio for the next five years. Why this role exists now Over the past six months, our content volume has jumped from 3,200 to 4,500 published items—a 40 % surge driven by new brand partnerships and an aggressive SEO push. That means the average word count per article has risen from 850 to 1,200, and the turnaround time has tightened from a 72‑hour SLA to a 48‑hour “first‑pass” deadline. Our current senior editor is splitting time between copyediting, copy‑design, and strategic planning, creating a bottleneck that threatens both quality and speed. We need a dedicated Remote Editor who can: 1. Lead the end‑to‑end remote editing workflow for 1,200+ pieces per quarter. 2. Establish clear style guidelines that marry AP standards with our brand’s conversational tone. 3. Coach a distributed team of 12 freelance proofreaders and 4 junior in‑house editors to hit a 95 % on‑time delivery metric. If you’ve ever managed a high‑volume editing pipeline while keeping an eye on SEO signals, you’ll feel right at home. What you’ll do – day‑to‑day - Content reviser & proofreader – Perform line‑by‑line copyediting on articles ranging from 500‑2,500 words, tightening prose, correcting grammar, and ensuring factual accuracy. Expect to handle roughly 150 pieces per month, with peak weeks reaching 200. - Remote editing workflow architect – Own the editorial calendar in Asana, set up automation rules in Zapier that route drafts from Google Docs to our CMS, and maintain a live dashboard in Smartsheet that tracks each piece’s status against the 48‑hour SLA. - Style‑guide steward – Keep our living style guide in Notion up to date, weaving in SEO best practices from Ahrefs and SEMrush, and train the team on nuanced decisions like using Oxford commas in tech reviews but dropping them in lifestyle narratives. - Mentor & coach – Conduct weekly 30‑minute “Editing Clinics” via Zoom where junior editors bring a challenging paragraph and get live feedback. Over the next six months, you’ll help raise the junior team’s average edit‑time efficiency by at least 18 %. - Stakeholder liaison – Partner with the Head of Content Strategy to align editorial priorities with quarterly growth targets, and translate analytics from Google Analytics and Storyful into actionable copy tweaks. - SEO‑centric copy refinement – Use Screaming Frog and Yoast SEO plugins to verify keyword density, meta‑description length, and internal linking structures before a piece goes live. - Quality‑control champion – Run a random sample audit of 5 % of published articles each month, measuring readability (Flesch‑Kincaid scores) and error rate, and report findings to the VP of Editorial Operations. Who you are – the ideal match - Experience – Minimum 5 years of professional editing, preferably in a digital‑first environment. Experience with remote teams is a must; we’ve seen 80 % of our editors work from different time zones successfully. - Tools fluency – Daily use of Google Docs, Microsoft Word Track Changes, Adobe InCopy, WordPress (or similar CMS), Grammarly Business, AP Stylebook, Notion, Asana, Zapier, Smartsheet, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and basic HTML. You should feel comfortable toggling between a spreadsheet of SEO metrics and a manuscript with red‑line edits. - Metrics mindset – Ability to read and act on data: you’ll be expected to hit a 95 % on‑time delivery rate, reduce average edit turnaround from 3.2 hours to 2.6 hours, and maintain a sub‑0.5 % factual error rate across all published content. - Communication style – Clear, concise, and friendly. You’ll write feedback that feels like a colleague offering a coffee‑break suggestion rather than a checklist from a corporate policy manual. - Flexibility – Our remote editing schedule means you’ll sometimes need to coordinate with writers in New York, London, and Melbourne. Ability to adjust your working hours by +/- 2 hours on a weekly basis is essential. Our tech stack – the toolbox you’ll master 1. Google Workspace – Docs for collaboration, Sheets for dashboards, and Drive for version control. 2. Microsoft Word + Track Changes – For final proofing of PDFs and client‑specific deliverables. 3. Adobe InCopy – Integrated directly with our design team for layout‑specific copy edits. 4. WordPress – Primary publishing platform; familiar with Gutenberg blocks. 5. Grammarly Business – Real‑time grammar and tone suggestions. 6. Notion – Central repository for style guides, SOPs, and onboarding docs. 7. Asana – Task management; you’ll set up custom fields for “Edit Stage” and “SEO Review”. 8. Zapier – Automate hand‑offs from draft submission to editorial queue. 9. Smartsheet – KPI tracking for SLA compliance and error‑rate audits. 10. Ahrefs & SEMrush – Keyword research, SERP analysis, and backlink monitoring. 11. Screaming Frog – Crawl reports for broken links and meta‑data compliance. 12. HTML basics – Adding alt tags, fixing heading hierarchy, and ensuring accessibility compliance. What success looks like - Speed & quality – Consistently deliver edited pieces within 48 hours of submission, with a 97 % “first‑pass ready” rating from the design team. - Team uplift – Junior editors improve their average edit‑time by at least 20 % after your mentorship cycle, and freelance proofreaders maintain a 94 % on‑time rate. - SEO impact – Articles you finalize show a 12 % average increase in organic click‑through rates compared to pre‑edit performance, thanks to refined meta‑copy and keyword placement. - Error reduction – Monthly audit reports show a drop from 0.8 % to 0.35 % factual or grammatical errors across all published content. A human moment > “I still remember the first time I edited a piece that went viral—our feature on the Bangor, Maine river revitalization. The day after publishing, our traffic spiked 45 % and the city council called us to help craft their public‑info campaign. It reminded me that behind every comma lies a community story waiting to be heard.” – Maya Patel, Senior Editor (who will be your teammate) Why we love Bangor, Maine (even though you’ll be remote) Our roots in Bangor, Maine give us a shared cultural reference point: the annual kite‑flying festival on the riverbank, the way locals swear by the “brew‑to‑milk ratio” at the downtown coffee roasters, and the quirky humor that slips into our headlines (“Why Bangor’s Potholes Are Practically Tourist Attractions”). While you’ll work from wherever you choose, knowing this backdrop helps you edit with the same regional flavor that our readers appreciate. We’ll also schedule a quarterly “Virtual Coffee on the River” where the whole editorial crew logs in from wherever they are, brings a local beverage, and chats about what makes Bangor, Maine unique. Compensation & benefits - Salary – $65,000 – $80,000 base, commensurate with experience and proven edit‑throughput. - Performance bonus – Up to 10 % annually based on SLA adherence, SEO uplift, and team development metrics. - Health & wellness – Medical, dental, vision, and a $150 monthly stipend for mental‑health apps. - Professional growth – Annual budget of $2,000 for conferences (e.g., Editing Conference, Content Strategy Summit) or online courses (e.g., Advanced SEO, Data‑Driven Storytelling). - Remote‑first – Flexible schedule, home‑office stipend of $500 for ergonomic gear, and a paid “co‑working day” where you can rent a desk in our Bangor, Maine office if you ever want a change of scenery. - Paid time off – 20 days vacation + 10 public holidays (including Bangor’s Founders Day). 1. Resume & cover letter – Tell us about a high‑volume editing project you led, include concrete numbers (e.g., “Managed 1,200 articles per quarter with a 96 % on‑time rate”). 2. Portfolio – Submit three before‑and‑after samples (Google Docs links or PDFs) highlighting your line‑editing precision, headline rewrites, and any SEO adjustments. 3. One‑page style guide excerpt – Show us a snippet of a style guide you created or maintained, explaining your rationale for at least two rules. Our hiring team will review submissions within 7 days, schedule a 30‑minute “Storytelling Chat” with Maya Patel, and then a 60‑minute technical walk‑through with our Lead Content Engineer. If you make it to the final round, you’ll receive a short editing assignment (about 500 words) to be completed within 24 hours. Closing note At Narrative Forge, we see editing not as a gate‑keeping function but as a craft that amplifies the human voice behind every story. If you’ve spent years polishing prose, love the idea of shaping a rapid‑growth media brand, and can navigate a remote workflow with the same ease as you’d ride a bike through Bangor, Maine’s downtown alleys, we’d love to meet you. • We’re an equal‑opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or veteran status.* Apply tot his job Apply tot his job Apply To this Job