Editorial Director, FlightStory

Editorial Director, FlightStory

Location: London, NY & LA

Reporting to: CEO // CGO

About FlightStory:

We are a media company and investment fund, and we’re on a mission to elevate the stories, build the communities, and support the founders that inspire a happier, healthier humanity. We scale creator-led new media IP and operate an investment fund and venture studio.

Mission

• Build and lead a world-class editorial function that defines the voice of FlightStory, turns IP into cultural moments, and positions the company at the intersection of journalism, storytelling, and social influence.
• Deliver an editorial strategy that transforms long-form IP and high-profile talent into global content ecosystems shaping narratives, sparking movements, and fuelling growth.
• Be a pioneer in how editorial teams harness the power of AI combining instinct, emotion, and human IP with the latest technology to operate faster, smarter, and more creatively than ever before.

Outcomes

Build and lead a high-performance editorial team

• Recruit, develop and manage a multidisciplinary team across editorial strategy, social narrative, de-centralised media content, and talent comms.
• Embed AI-powered tools and workflows into the editorial function to improve ideation, output, and execution at scale.
• Create systems and rituals that empower creativity, accountability, and experimentation.

Define and protect the FlightStory editorial identity

• Establish a consistent, compelling voice across all formats, channels, and IP properties balancing brand vision, cultural sharpness, and emotional depth.
• Build narrative frameworks that blend human creativity with AI-enhanced optimisation.

Launch and operate a newsroom-style function

• Build editorial infrastructure for reacting to and shaping news, culture, and social moments in real-time.
• Leverage AI for trendspotting, summarisation, research, and social listening increasing speed to insight and cultural responsiveness.

Maximise IP and social storytelling

• Architect story arcs and content strategies that expand our IP across platforms and mediums.
• Use AI to explore new formats, test content hypotheses, and personalise storytelling for global audiences.
• Build and scale a newsletter empire that transforms FlightStory’s editorial voice into a direct, high-leverage channel for audience growth, community building, and cultural influence.
• Leverage AI tools to personalise at scale, optimise performance, and identify emerging topics that drive engagement and retention across our newsletter portfolio.

Align editorial with business impact

• Partner with Production, Growth, Commercial, Marketing, Product & Ventures to ensure editorial strategy ladders up to tangible business KPIs including reach, engagement, impact, community building, brand affinity, IP monetisation, and talent longevity.
• Champion AI as a strategic advantage increasing efficiency, insight, and competitive edge across the storytelling function.

Competencies

Editorial Leadership

• Experience leading editorial or content teams in fast-paced, high-stakes environments.
• Able to build culture, deliver creative excellence, and make hard calls on story quality and relevance.

Cultural & Newsroom Instincts

• Deep understanding of the modern media cycle, journalism, and social virality.
• Excellent editorial judgement, platform intuition, and ability to move with or ahead of culture.

Human IP Expertise

• Skilled at working with talent, founders, and high-profile individuals helping them scale their stories into content ecosystems.
• Able to translate a voice or vision into powerful, principle-led storytelling.

AI Fluency & Technological Curiosity

• 
  Energised by the potential of AI to supercharge creativity, productivity, and storytelling.
• Actively engaged with new tools and technologies from AI-assisted content creation to data-driven insight platforms and able to implement them effectively across teams.
• Excited to build the editorial function of the future: human-led, tech-enhanced, and always evolving.

Strategic Execution

• Exceptional commercial awareness understands how storytelling fuels growth, brand, and monetisation.
• Able to move between strategy and hands-on execution without losing clarity.

You’ll Thrive Here If You:

• Think like a journalist, move like a creator, lead like an editor and build like a founder
• Are energised by the potential of AI and want to be at the forefront of how editorial teams and storytellers evolve in the age of intelligent tools.
• Can create clarity in chaos and urgency in ambiguity.
• Obsess over cultural relevance, audience psychology, and content formats.
• Are fluent in the languages of TikTok, YouTube, Meta, Substack, and News
• Know when to break the rules and when not to.
• Can balance multiple narratives, brands, and IPs while maintaining editorial excellence.
• Are energised by mission, momentum, and the opportunity to shape culture at scale.

What Success Looks Like

• A recognisable and respected FlightStory editorial identity sharp, emotional, timely, defining and original.
• A high-performing editorial team delivering consistently excellent content across platforms and formats.
• FlightStory operates a powerful newsletter empire each title a must-read editorial property that drives IP discovery, deepens fandom, and generates measurable commercial value.
• Our newsletters become essential cultural touchpoints, fuelling product launches, building first-party data, and reinforcing our position as a media brand of influence.
• FlightStory’s IP and social content regularly drives global conversation and news, earns media, and scales its audience.
• A clear feedback loop between editorial and commercial outcomes driving revenue,
• reach, and impact.
• A next-generation editorial operation: AI-enabled, insight-driven, human at its core and years ahead of competitors.

Your Background Might Include:

• Senior editorial or content leadership at a media platform, social-first brand, publisher, or newsroom.
• Experience building (or managing) a high-profile personal brand, either internally or agency-side.
• A track record of scaling digital IP or editorial franchises across multiple platforms.
• Background in journalism, social strategy, narrative production, or creative direction.
• Experience working with high-profile talent, founders, or creators.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams, build editorial systems, and operate at both speed and scale.
• Hands-on experience with AI or content automation tools or a strong desire to lead the charge in this space.

Location : London / LA / NY

• London - Shoreditch ~ we are an in-person-first culture and believe in fostering a vibrant and work environment centred around connection and community.
• Will require global travel, especially to the US, so flexibility in this aspect is important and your hiring manager will confirm this with you during the interview process

Process

Screening Process - Our screening process is designed to assess candidates in a fair way. This gives you an opportunity to share your skill, experience and passion.

Phone Call with the Talent Team - After screening you'll have a call with our talent team who will answer any questions you have about the role, our business and any next steps.

1st Interview - first stage will involve meeting your potential manager to go through the role, organisation and our values

2nd Stage Interview - Task - Through the task round you get an insight into the day to day responsibilities of the role and we get the opportunity to understand how you work.

Final Stage Interview - The final interview involves meeting a Senior Stakeholder in the business.