The Associate Editor is responsible for researching, writing, editing, and proofreading content for several sections of Food Technology magazine and for writing feature articles and newsletter items. He/she works collaboratively with members of the editorial team, communications department staff, and other IFT department personnel, and lends expertise and support to internal and external audiences. This job is located in Chicago, IL.

Essential Responsibilities

• Researches, writes, edits, and proofs Food Technology News section
• Researches, writes, edits, and proofs IFT World section
• Researches, writes, edits, and proofs New Products section
• Compiles and proofs Events section
• Writes, edits, and proofs Books section
• Researches, writes, edits, and proofs feature stories for Food Technology
• Provides support to Senior Associate Editor on pre-show and post-show ingredient articles
• Covers IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo and other industry events; contributes articles
• Contributes ideas and provides content for IFT Live. Writes articles for IFT Live, the IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo digital show daily, and conducts and/or provides support for video interviews of Food Expo exhibitors
• Serves as back-up to Senior Digital Editor for writing and posting of Daily News, The Weekly Newsletter, Nutraceuticals Newsletter, and other electronic news vehicles
• Serves as staff coordinator/liaison for IFT Press Advisory Group (IFT and Wiley partnership on book publishing)
• Lends technical expertise as a member of Scientific Program subpanel/s and in other capacities with internal and external audiences. Serves as a key contributor to content teams, annual meeting, and other educational programs. Supports IFT’s mission by contributing to cross-functional initiatives
• Utilizes social media, IFT community and other digital channels to promote and distribute content, engage with food professionals, for crowdsourcing, and to obtain feedback
• Seeks out opportunities to utilize multimedia (videos, audio, etc.) on IFT’s digital properties
• Reads and responds to content-related user email and calls
• Other editorial duties as needed

Experience Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, English, or science/technical field
A minimum of 5 years’ experience in written communications

Skill Requirements

• Mastery in reporting, interviewing, writing, story construction, news gathering, editing, grammar, and proofreading
• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite InCopy or other design-stage editing tool
• Demonstrated competencies in the Microsoft Office suite of products
• Proficiency in posting content on social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
• Familiarity with HTML
• Customer Orientation: Anticipating, understanding, and fulfilling customer needs and expectations by providing excellent direct and indirect service
• Building Collaborative Relationships: Able to develop, maintain, and strengthen partnerships with others inside or outside of the organization who can provide information, assistance and support
• Forward Thinking: Reasoning effectively and coming to logical conclusions as one type of analysis for problem solving
• Sees Big Picture: Recognizing & addressing issues that are outside a single perspective/role; issues are viewed without any pre-set biases or limitations; Understanding (almost intuitively) of how a business entity makes money i.e., beyond the equation of Revenue – Cost = Profit/Margin
• Influencing Others:
• Decisive: Making difficult decisions in a timely manner
• Entrepreneurial: Promoting creative, novel thinking and applying it to existing and emerging situations

Work Conditions

• Travel, including the ability to occasionally attend evening and weekend meetings, is essential
• Sitting for extended periods of time
• Operating a computer keyboard, mouse, and handling other office equipment

We are an EOE M/F/D/V employer.

Please apply on our website at : http://www.ift.org/about-us/ift-jobs.aspx