Editorial Director

athenahealth; North Carolina; On-site; USD 144,000 - 246,000; Full time

Job summary

athenahealth seeks an Editorial Director to own the enterprise narrative and the yearly editorial arc, guiding strategic messaging across campaigns and owned channels. You will lead a small team, shape editorial priorities, and collaborate with Marketing and executive communications to ensure consistent storytelling.

The role requires a strategic thinker with healthcare technology fluency, exceptional editorial judgment, and the ability to align across a matrix of teams to drive enterprise

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience required.
• 10+ years in corporate communications, journalism, brand strategy — health tech/healthcare preferred.
• Proven ability to translate complex product/tech strategies into clear narratives.

Responsibilities

• Own enterprise narrative and annual editorial agenda across messaging, campaigns, and channels.
• Lead enterprise editorial function and guide strategic messaging frameworks.
• Define AEO/GEO strategy and editorial standards for owned channels and social.

Skills

Editorial judgment

Writing skills

Strategic storytelling

Cross-functional leadership

Audience insights

Health tech fluency

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

10+ years in corporate communications/journalism/brand strategy

Job description

Join us as we work to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.

Position Summary

athenahealth helps more than 170,000 physicians and clinicians run their practices, deliver care, and improve the healthcare experience. The Editorial Director shapes how athenahealth tells that story — what the company stands for, where it is going, how its technology and services create value, and why its work matters.

In this role, you will own athenahealth’s enterprise narrative, narrative arc of the year, and strategic messaging developed against that arc. The enterprise narrative provides the enduring company story; the narrative arc of the year serves as athenahealth’s annual editorial agenda, defining the major topics and sub-topics the company will emphasize in response to business priorities, product evolution, audience needs, and market dynamics.

You will lead athenahealth’s enterprise editorial function, connecting that narrative and annual arc to the ways the company shows up across strategic messaging, organic social, enterprise thought leadership, and owned‑channel publishing. You will also help define athenahealth’s AEO/GEO strategy, using emerging signals about how AI‑powered search and answer engines understand, surface, and cite the company as part of an ongoing feedback loop that sharpens editorial priorities and messaging over time.

You will partner more broadly across Marketing — including the Portfolio, Ecosystem, and Segment Marketing teams, Marketing Operations and Services, and Digital and Demand Marketing — to ensure strategic alignment and execution against the narrative arc of the year in relevant campaigns and activations. You will serve as editor‑in‑chief of athenahealth.com and lead a small team with dedicated capabilities across strategic messaging, organic social, editorial and thought leadership, and AEO/GEO.

The ideal candidate is a strategic and critical thinker with exceptional editorial judgment, strong business and healthcare technology fluency, and the ability to build alignment across a complex organization. You lead and coach as naturally as you roll up your sleeves to write, edit, and solve difficult narrative problems directly.

About The Team

Brand & Communications sits within athenahealth’s Marketing organization and builds the market position, reputation, and executive credibility that support the company’s growth. The team spans brand strategy, enterprise editorial and strategic messaging, research and thought leadership, executive communications and integrated communications — all working together to ensure athenahealth speaks with a clear, differentiated, credible, and consistent voice.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Enterprise narrative and narrative arc of the year

• Own athenahealth’s enterprise narrative and narrative arc of the year, connecting company strategy, brand strategy, product evolution, customer value, market dynamics, and key moments into a coherent annual editorial agenda.
• Connect product strategy to the enterprise narrative and annual arc. Partner with Portfolio Marketing to understand athenahealth’s product vision, portfolio strategy, innovation agenda, and launch priorities and determine how those inputs contribute to the broader company story.
• Build coherence across enterprise storytelling. Partner with Brand, Portfolio Marketing, Executive Communications, Internal Communications, campaign teams, and other stakeholders so major moments across the company reinforce the enterprise narrative and narrative arc of the year while reflecting the needs of their specific audiences and channels.

Strategic messaging

• Ground Lead the strategic messaging function and translate the narrative arc of the year into messaging for priority moments. Develop enterprise‑level messaging frameworks that help teams across events, executive communications, campaigns, internal communications, owned channels, and other high‑impact moments tell a coherent company story.
• Ensure strategic messaging remains connected across the year rather than developed moment by moment in isolation. Identify opportunities to reinforce priority themes, proof points, and points of view across multiple audiences and channels.
• Partner with Executive Communications to map priority enterprise storylines to executive voice and provide narrative frameworks and editorial counsel for leader‑specific platforms and visibility plans.
• Serve as a senior narrative advisor and editorial reviewer for major campaigns, enterprise announcements, high‑profile thought leadership, and other moments when the company’s story must withstand close scrutiny.

Enterprise thought leadership and editorial content

• Shape enterprise thought leadership priorities in support of the enterprise narrative and narrative arc of the year. Identify where athenahealth has the expertise, evidence, credibility, and opportunity to contribute a distinctive point of view in the market.
• Partner closely with the Director of Industry Insights & Perspective as a key stakeholder in the enterprise research agenda. Help identify where original research, proprietary data, customer evidence, and market insight can strengthen priority storylines

Owned channels and organic social

• Serve as editor‑in‑chief of athenahealth.com and set editorial direction and standards across athenahealth’s owned publishing ecosystem, ensuring content is relevant, useful, differentiated, accurate, and credible.
• Lead organic social editorial strategy, using social channels to extend and reinforce the enterprise narrative and narrative arc of the year through timely, audience‑relevant storytelling. Partner with Brand and Communications, the Content and Creative Studio, and other channel stakeholders on planning and execution.

AEO/GEO strategy and narrative performance

• Help define athenahealth’s AEO/GEO strategy, focusing on how narrative, messaging, content structure, authority, and consistency influence how AI‑powered search and answer engines understand, surface, and cite athenahealth.
• Lead editorial execution through dedicated capability on the team and incorporate AEO/GEO performance into the broader narrative feedback loop, using emerging signals alongside other audience and channel data to refine editorial priorities and messaging.

Editorial governance and team leadership

• Lead the enterprise editorial calendar and governance model. Establish priorities, standards, intake processes, decision rights, review requirements, and approval pathways that guide ongoing narrative and editorial work.
• Introduce responsible AI‑enabled workflows. Improve research, content development, reuse, quality control, and collaboration without compromising accuracy, originality, security, and brand integrity.
• Lead the newly established Editorial team. Set direction, priorities, operating standards, and quality expectations; coach and develop talent; and build the function’s capabilities as athenahealth’s needs evolve.

Required

Expected Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of experience in corporate communications, journalism, brand strategy, product marketing — including significant experience working specifically in health tech and/or healthcare.
• Demonstrated experience building an enterprise narrative and translating it into an annual editorial agenda or narrative arc, strategic messaging frameworks, and practical tools that enable teams across an organization to tell a coherent story.
• Experience translating complex product, technology, platform, or business strategies into clear and compelling narratives for multiple audiences.
• Exceptional editorial judgment and writing skills, including the ability to identify what a story is truly about, strengthen its argument, and uncover gaps others may have missed.
• Experience using audience research, market intelligence, customer insights, performance data, or other evidence to shape narrative strategy and evaluate its effectiveness.
• Familiarity with AI‑enabled editorial tools, narrative measurement, answer‑engine optimization, generative‑engine optimization, and emerging approaches to understanding how brands are represented across AI‑powered information environments.
• Experience leading or overseeing organic social editorial strategy.
• Proven ability to lead cross‑functional work across marketing, communications, and other teams in a matrixed organization.
• Experience building, leading, and developing a high‑performing team.

Expected Compensation

$144,000 - $246,000

The base salary range shown reflects the full range for this role from minimum to maximum. At athenahealth, base pay depends on multiple factors, including job‑related experience, relevant knowledge and skills, how your qualifications compare to others in similar roles, and geographical market rates. Base pay is only one part of our competitive Total Rewards package - depending on role eligibility, we offer both short and long‑term incentives by way of an annual discretionary bonus plan, variable compensation plan, and equity plans.

About Athenahealth

Our vision

In an industry that becomes more complex by the day, we stand for simplicity. We offer IT solutions and expert services that eliminate the daily hurdles preventing healthcare providers from focusing entirely on their patients — powered by our vision to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.

Our company culture

Our talented employees — or athenistas, as we call ourselves — spark the innovation and passion needed to accomplish our vision. We are a diverse group of dreamers and do‑ers with unique knowledge, expertise, backgrounds, and perspectives. We unite as mission‑driven problem‑solvers with a deep desire to achieve our vision and make our time here count. Our award‑winning culture is built around shared values of inclusiveness, accountability, and support.

Our DEI commitment

Our vision of accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all requires addressing the inequities that stand in the way. That's one reason we prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in every aspect of our business, from attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce to maintaining an inclusive environment for athenistas, our partners, customers and the communities where we work and serve.

What We Can Do For You

Along with health and financial benefits, athenistas enjoy perks specific to each location, including commuter support, employee assistance programs, tuition assistance, employee resource groups, and collaborative workspaces — some offices even welcome dogs.

We also encourage a better work‑life balance for athenistas with our flexibility. While we know in‑office collaboration is critical to our vision, we recognize that not all work needs to be done within an office environment, full‑time. With consistent communication and digital collaboration tools, athenahealth enables employees to find a balance that feels fulfilling and productive for each individual situation.

In addition to our traditional benefits and perks, we sponsor events throughout the year, including book clubs, external speakers, and hackathons. We provide athenistas with a company culture based on learning, the support of an engaged team, and an inclusive environment where all employees are valued.

Learn more about our culture and benefits here: athenahealth.com/careers

https://www.athenahealth.com/careers/equal-opportunity