The Cato Institute is seeking applications for a Copyeditor/Proofreader. This position is responsible for reviewing copy for grammar, punctuation, clarity, style, and flow and ensuring accuracy, completeness, and adherence to established formats. This is not a writing position.

About Cato

The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization—a think tank—dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues.

Founded in 1977, Cato owes its name to Cato’s Letters, a series of essays published in 18th-century England that presented a vision of society free from excessive government power. Those essays inspired the architects of the American Revolution. And the simple, timeless principles of that revolution—individual liberty, limited government, and free markets—turn out to be even more powerful in today’s world of global markets and unprecedented access to information than Jefferson or Madison could have imagined. Social and economic freedom is not just the best policy for a free people, it is the indispensable framework for the future.

Cato Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Responsibilities

• Checks for grammar, punctuation, clarity, style, and flow
• Provides guidance to authors and scholars regarding style questions
• Adheres to established deadlines
• Copyedits and proofreads policy reports, including figures and tables
• Copyedits and proofreads shorter public documents, such as event invitations and website copy
• Copyedits and proofreads development and marketing pieces on a quick turnaround
• Provides editing support for monthly, quarterly, and annual organizational reports and newsletters
• Ensures accuracy, completeness, and adherence to established formats
• Follows Cato style manual
• Directs style questions to senior editor/publications director
• Directs content questions to authors
• Applies or checks Word styles in copyedited documents to prepare reports for InDesign formatting by the production team
• Communicates with authors at various stages of the editorial process
• Responds to submissions and queries for the publications team and tracks assignments and workflow
• Assists with special projects and performs other duties as assigned

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent level of knowledge is required.
• Two years of experience in editing for corporate, nonprofit, government, academia, marketing/communications consulting, or news organizations.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Adobe Acrobat; and a working knowledge of Excel.
• Copyediting test will be given to qualified candidates.
• Initiative: Demonstrated ability to evaluate, select, and act on a strategy for solving problems and meeting objectives before being asked or required to do so.
• Organizational Skills: Demonstrated ability to allocate appropriate amounts of time for completing work, adhering to timelines and milestones, and to identifying more critical and less critical activities and assignments in order to adjust priorities when appropriate.
• Adaptability: Demonstrated ability to adapt to changes in the work environment, manage competing demands, change working approach or method to best fit the situation, and ability to deal with frequent changes, delays, or unexpected events.
• Analytical Thinking: Ability to synthesize complex or diverse information in order to follow the sense of a paper being edited and make proper queries to the author as needed.
• Research: Ability to navigate websites and other resources to check spelling of names, organizations, and other terms as needed; the ability to assess validity of sources is necessary.
• Follow-through: Ability to connect with others to ensure the timely completion of tasks and establish a system to follow up on projects, tasks, and assignments.
• Problem Solving: Demonstrated ability to identify and resolve problems in a timely manner.
• Work Style: Works well independently but is comfortable collaborating with team members on projects as needed.
• Familiarity with the Chicago Manual of Style, Adobe InDesign, and data visualization is a plus.