News Editor at Code for Africa (CfA)

The ideal candidate combines strong investigative instincts with exceptional newsdesk management experience and has a proven ability to turn messy, complex research into clean, compelling editorial products. You should be comfortable working with structured data, digital verification techniques, and tight deadlines — all while juggling multiple formats, from longform exposés to donor updates and briefing memos. Experience in African media, OSINT workflows, and collaborative newsroom tools is essential.

Responsibilities: Your daily responsibilities will include:

• You will manage the iLAB diary and deadlines for investigative reports, insights, and online content for our online platforms and partners, ensuring that it is delivered on time, is well-written and meets rigorous editorial standards. 
• Managing the editorial production process and content diaries for the iLAB, producing analytic and investigative reports.
• Scheduling and running the weekly ‘insights diary’ used to shape iLAB reports and investigative outputs.
• Ensuring that analytical and investigative outputs are aligned with organisational goals and lead to meaningful outcomes.
• You will select and prioritise editorial leads for iLAB journalists based on the trends and insights of analysts and forensic investigators, as well as algorithmic ‘listening’ or media monitoring tools, to help ensure we focus our attention on the most harmful misinformation/conspiracies.
• You will facilitate editorial planning meetings at which editorial leads/assignments are brainstormed and allocated to in-country journalists/researchers, with clear editorial briefs and submission deadlines.

Required: minimum requirements include

• Minimum 10 years of editorial management experience, ideally in high-pressure, investigative, or data-intensive newsrooms (business, finance, or politics are a plus).
• Investigative reporting or editing background, with clear experience handling sensitive topics, disinformation, organised crime, or illicit financial flows.
• OSINT or disinformation monitoring experience — familiarity with foreign information manipulation tactics and narrative tracking is a major advantage.
• Strong editorial judgment, with the ability to turn messy research into sharp, structured stories.
• Excellent editing and writing skills, especially for fast-paced, high-clarity content.
• Proficiency in collaborative editorial tools like Google Docs, Trello, Slack, etc.
• Confidence managing remote, multilingual teams and multiple story formats.
• Meticulous attention to detail, with the ability to work collaboratively in a deadline-driven environment. This includes being an organisational whiz who can prioritise multiple simultaneous tasks while at the same time having the people skills needed to engage diplomatically and collaborate effectively with colleagues under tight deadlines.
• Demonstrable ability to self-manage, creating your own and wider team timelines and milestones with clear systems/processes.