Editor, Audience Engagement

About us

Defrontera is a digital-first, nonprofit media organisation reporting on global health, medicine, and life sciences with depth, data, and narrative power. We are building an audience-centred newsroom that reaches policymakers, practitioners, and the public through impactful, open-access journalism.

We are seeking a sharp, creative, and metrics-driven audience engagement editor to lead how Defrontera appears across digital platforms. Our stories span short features, long-form investigations, data-rich explainers, podcasts, and policy commentary—your role is to make this work resonate online and connect it with the audiences who need it most. This role blends editorial creativity, technical fluency, and audience strategy. You will manage our social channels, lead the weekly newsletter, optimise content for distribution, and track engagement to help shape future publishing decisions. You will also act as a bridge between Defrontera and its communities—gathering feedback, sourcing insights, and building relationships with health professionals, journalists, and policy actors online. At times, you may also produce original stories exclusively for social platforms.

The ideal candidate is a digital native who thrives on experimentation, understands the rhythms of news and public interest content, and can translate complex health topics into compelling social narratives.

While this is a journalistic role, we welcome applicants from marketing or communications backgrounds who can demonstrate a strong grasp of digital storytelling, audience engagement, and Defrontera's mission to inform and influence through health journalism.

There are some platforms we love, like:

• We love the storytelling style in BrutAmerica.
• How Kenya's star Larry Madowo uses his Instagram to show us pieces of his interviews.
• Instagram reporting of the main articles, like what the Intercept has done here.
• Or how The Intercept uses audio and graphics to let sources explain something.
• The New York Magazine reporter lets the audience see all the work that went into a major investigative piece.

WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING AS AN AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EDITOR

Social Strategy and Execution

• Design and implement channel-specific strategies for X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and emerging platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
• Develop Defrontera's off-platform voice: bold, data-informed, grounded in lived experience.
• Produce visual and text-based social content: carousels, reels, quote cards, audiograms, LinkedIn, and short videos.
• Collaborate with editors and designers to package stories and investigations into accessible, story-first content.
• Write compelling headlines and descriptions optimised for sharing and discoverability.

Newsletter Production and Distribution

• Alongside the editorial team, curate and write Defrontera's weekly email newsletter with a mix of reporting, curated links, and updates.
• Manage the delivery platform (Mailchimp) and segment audiences as we grow.
• Track newsletter open and click rates and iterate on tone, format, and subject lines.

Audience Analytics and Optimisation

• Use platform analytics, GA4, and newsletter metrics to track performance.
• Run experiments on headlines, visuals, post timing, or platform-specific hooks.
• Share insights regularly with editorial and MEL teams—what worked, what didn't, and why.
• Contribute metadata suggestions (titles, descriptions, tags) to improve SEO and social sharing.

Community Listening and Feedback

• Monitor health and policy conversations on social media to identify relevant trends, story ideas, and framing cues.
• Engage followers and partners—respond to messages, tag relevant organisations, and amplify trusted voices.
• Collect qualitative feedback and build insights into editorial planning.

Internal Collaboration & Workflow

• Maintain a social content calendar and coordinate the publishing schedule across teams.
• Participate in editorial meetings to pitch social extensions and advocate for the audience lens.
• Support team members to adapt or repurpose stories for social or newsletters.
• Ensure all off-platform content upholds Defrontera's values and editorial standards.

Public Representation (as needed)

• Represent Defrontera at virtual or live events (e.g., launches, webinars).
• Host or support live social formats like X Spaces or LinkedIn Lives.
• Contribute to building Defrontera's visibility with key partners and communities.

Bonus Points If You…

• Have experience using visual tools (Canva, Figma, Adobe)
• Have worked in a newsroom or nonprofit/health setting.

WHY CHOOSE TO WORK WITH DEFRONTERA?

We offer competitive pay aligned with market rates, health insurance for you and your immediate family, opportunities for training and professional growth, a supportive and inclusive work environment where your ideas matter, and the chance to work on issues bigger than yourself, with the potential to drive real change.

As an organisation focused on health, we ensure you work in a healthy environment. We offer competitive remuneration in line with market rates, health insurance for employees and their immediate families, opportunities for training, and other benefits to ensure you are comfortable at work.

"We are an equal opportunity employer" is more than a statement at Defrontera; we welcome qualified applicants of all races, ethnicities, physical abilities, genders, and sexual orientations. It is a show-up-as-you-feel-most-authentic kind of place.

Our name comes from Spanish for "frontiers." There is no convention at Defrontera. We support bold, original, innovative ideas. Defrontera strives to grant autonomy to creatives, creating space for their freedom to explore their vision. We believe that imposing too many constraints on artists stifles their creativity, individuality, and ability to innovate.

We are stubbornly committed to the belief that people deserve access to quality healthcare and that the solutions to what hinders access can be found within Kenya's communities, universities, research institutes, and ministries. You will be working on issues bigger than yourself.