Associate Copy Editor

The Mission of MIM: The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) enriches our world by collecting, preserving, and making accessible an astonishing variety of musical instruments and performance videos from every country in the world. MIM offers guests a welcoming and fun experience, incomparable interactive technology, dynamic programming, and exceptional musical performances. MIM fosters appreciation of the world’s diverse cultures by showing how we innovate, adapt, and learn from each other to create music—the language of the soul.

Position Summary: As part of MIM’s creative and marketing team, the associate copy editor will work directly with MIM’s copy editor to ensure that in every place MIM presents itself using the written word, it does so in a style and voice that is appropriate to the medium and accessible to the public. The associate copy editor works closely with many departments—including creative, public programs, theater, institutional advancement, and curatorial—to bring clarity and polish to copy, ensure accuracy of information, and make sure that the writing corresponds to the preferred style (The Chicago Manual of Style) and the MIM Style Guide.

The associate copy editor reports to the creative and marketing manager. This is an on-site position.

Responsibilities:

• Edit text, shape key messages, and enhance wording at various stages of the writing process for email, web, advertisements, social media, and other MIM communications used both on-site and online.
• Ensure clarity and accuracy to assist content creators in reflecting a unified brand voice in all written assets.
• Work closely with stakeholders to ensure that authors’ intended meaning is conveyed.
• Verify facts and translations by conducting necessary research, consulting appropriate sources, or collaborating with subject matter experts for all MIM-generated documents.
• Contribute to maintaining MIM’s style guide.
• Additional tasks and responsibilities may be assigned as business needs arise.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in English, journalism, museum studies, or a relevant field
• Professional copy-editing experience or formal training in copy editing preferred.
• Experience applying style guides to various types of writing; experience with The Chicago Manual of Style preferred.
• Ability to understand complex, technical, or scholarly information and help writers adapt that information into content that is accessible and interesting to a general audience
• Exceptional grasp of English grammar and writing mechanics
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, including the ability to make and receive constructive suggestions
• Excellent attention to detail
• Experience using Microsoft Office applications
• Basic knowledge of legal issues involved in publishing, such as libel and plagiarism
• Highly organized, deadline-driven, and detail- and process-oriented
• Understanding of the basic principles of writing for marketing purposes
• Love for the music of the world and musical instruments is a plus!

Qualified candidates should submit a resume and cover letter in one merged document.