Copy Editor (Contract)
Description Division: Curriculum and Training Reports To: Managing Editor Employment Type: Contract (1099) Hours: Up to 40 hours per week (one contractor) or approximately 20 hours per week (two contractors) Location: Remote or Hybrid About Reading Horizons At Reading Horizons, our mission is to eradicate illiteracy by empowering educators with proven literacy solutions grounded in the Science of Reading. We are passionate about helping all learners become confident readers and believe high-quality content plays a critical role in achieving that mission. Position Overview Reading Horizons is seeking an experienced Copy Editor to support the Curriculum and Training Division in producing high-quality educational content. This contract role ensures accuracy, consistency, clarity, and adherence to editorial standards across instructional materials, assessments, professional learning resources, and digital content. The ideal candidate combines exceptional editorial judgment, mastery of grammar and style, experience working within content management systems, and the ability to manage multiple projects in a deadline-driven environment. We are actively seeking qualified candidates who can contribute immediately.
Key Responsibilities
- Edit and proofread educational content, instructional materials, assessments, professional learning resources, and supporting documentation.
- Ensure content adheres to the Chicago Manual of Style and Reading Horizons editorial standards.
- Review content for grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax, consistency, readability, formatting, and accessibility.
- Review, edit, and maintain content within a Content Management System (CMS), ensuring accuracy, consistency, and publishing readiness.
- Maintain consistency in terminology, voice, tone, and instructional language across materials.
- Identify editorial issues and recommend improvements while preserving author intent.
- Collaborate with curriculum developers, learning designers, writers, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders.
- Provide constructive editorial feedback to content creators and contributors.
- Support content publishing workflows and content governance processes.
- Support the maintenance and evolution of editorial guidelines, style guides, and quality standards.
- Manage multiple assignments simultaneously while meeting project deadlines.
Requirements
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in English, Professional Writing, Journalism, Communications, Education, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
- Demonstrated professional copy-editing and proofreading experience.
- Strong working knowledge of and experience applying the Chicago Manual of Style.
- Exceptional command of grammar, punctuation, spelling, syntax, and usage.
- Ability to improve clarity, consistency, and quality while maintaining author voice and intent.
- Exceptional attention to detail and commitment to quality.
- Strong organizational and time-management skills.
- Ability to work independently in a remote environment.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working within a Content Management System (CMS) to create, edit, review, and publish content.
- Experience in maintaining content quality and consistency across digital learning platforms.
- Familiarity with structured content, metadata, tagging, and publishing workflows.
- Experience editing educational publishing, curriculum, assessment, instructional, or professional learning content.
- Familiarity with the Science of Reading and evidence-based literacy instruction.
- Experience in maintaining editorial style guides and quality standards.
- Experience collaborating with distributed or virtual teams.
- Portfolio or samples demonstrating professional editing work.