Health & Fitness Director, SELF

Job Description

Location: New York, NY

SELF is seeking a creative and strategic Health & Fitness Director to lead our health, fitness, and women’s sports coverage. This role is ideal for a sharp, innovative editor with a deep interest in and understanding of the health and fitness landscape, particularly as it intersects with popular culture.

The Health & Fitness Director will assign and edit daily news hits, service-driven stories, and long-lead assignments, ensuring content meets the highest standards of accuracy. You’ll work closely with the video, social, and audience development teams to develop content that is both engaging and strategically aligned with overall brand goals.

The ideal candidate is an effective leader who can manage a small team and thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative editorial environment. You bring strong editorial judgment and a proven track record of producing high-quality, engaging digital content, and willingness to experiment, innovate, and iterate.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Oversee all editorial coverage across the health and fitness verticals (including our women’s sports coverage), ensuring stories are accurate, engaging, and aligned with audience interests.
• Assign and edit a range of content—including daily news, reported features, service articles, and op-eds.
• Lead larger editorial projects, packages, and series on key health, fitness and sports topics as needed.
• Stay tapped into trending topics.
• Manage and mentor direct reports, providing guidance on story development, research, sourcing, and professional growth.
• Maintain rigorous editorial standards, particularly around sourcing, fact-checking, and medical accuracy.
• Use analytics to inform and optimize content strategy, making quick, thoughtful adjustments when performance trends shift.
• Collaborate closely with the Executive Editor to set and refine weekly and monthly editorial priorities.
• Work with video and social teams to ideate and execute high-quality, commercially-viable editorial packages.
• Occasionally participate in brand extension opportunities when available, such as appearing in social content or attending SELF events.
• Additional duties as required by management

Desired Skills and Qualifications:

• A minimum of 8+ years of editorial experience, including at least 2 years in a leadership role with direct reports or freelancers.
• Demonstrated success assigning and editing high-performing health and fitness journalism, including in-depth reporting and service content.
• Proven ability to manage a digital lineup of at least 20 stories per month while balancing speed, quality, and accuracy.
• Strong knowledge of health, fitness, and medical reporting best practices, including how to evaluate and vet scientific research and expert sources.
• Collaborate closely with the Executive Editor to define and refine weekly and monthly editorial priorities and meet content goals.
• Highly attuned to reader behavior, search trends, and what drives health and fitness engagement across platforms.
• Excellent organizational, leadership, and communication skills—able to guide, inspire, and elevate a small but strong team.
• An interest in women’s sports.

The expected base salary range for this position is from $110,000 - $135,000. Salary offers are based on a wide range of factors including but not limited to relevant skills, training, experience, and education.

What happens next?

If you are interested in this opportunity, please apply below, and we will review your application as soon as possible. You can update your resume or upload a cover letter at any time by accessing your candidate profile.

Condé Nast is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, familial status and other legally protected characteristics.