Editor-in-Chief, Volunteer

Editor-in-Chief, Volunteer

About the Pet Cancer Foundation

The Pet Cancer Foundation’s vision is to increase the life expectancy and improve the quality of life of pets diagnosed with cancer. Each year, an estimated 12 million dogs and cats are diagnosed with cancer, six times the number of humans affected annually in North America.

As our volunteer organization scales and our website content becomes a primary resource for pet families, maintaining the highest standards of scientific accuracy, editorial excellence, and compassionate voice is mission critical. We’re seeking a new Editor-in-Chief to oversee all content across PCF’s website, ensuring every published piece reflects our commitment to trust, empathy, and reliability. That’s where and how you can help us.

About the position

The volunteer Editor-in-Chief is the final scientific authority on all published content for the Pet Cancer Foundation website. You oversee the entire editorial process, providing strategic direction and approval for articles across all sections (Pet Health, Treatment & Support, Cancer Info, and What’s New). With two Associate Editor-in-Chiefs reporting to you, one focused on core content and one on blog content, you ensure unified standards, consistent voice, and brand integrity. You own the PCF style guide, contribute to editorial policies and quality benchmarks, perform the ultimate review and sign-off on every article, mentor senior editorial leaders, resolve complex scientific or ethical questions, and collaborate with department heads to align content with organizational priorities and audience needs.

*Please leave a note with your application acknowledging your awareness of the volunteer nature of this position. We will only contact and proceed with candidates who confirm their understanding.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide strategic editorial leadership for the entire Website Editorial department, setting direction, priorities, and quality standards across all sections.
• Perform the final scientific editorial review and sign-off on every article before publication, ensuring scientific accuracy, conflict of interest integrity, clarity, empathy, accessibility, and full alignment with PCF’s brand voice and guidelines.
• Own and maintain the PCF style guide, editorial standards, publication policies, and voice/tone framework; update them as needed to reflect evolving best practices and organizational needs.
• Supervise and mentor the two Associate Editor-in-Chiefs (Core Content and Blog Content), ensuring consistent application of standards, smooth workflows, and high-quality output from their respective teams.
• Resolve complex scientific, ethical, interpretive, or editorial questions that arise across any content section, collaborating with senior writers, project leaders, and senior leadership.
• Collaborate with the VP of Health Content, department heads, and senior leadership to align editorial priorities with mission goals, audience needs, and strategic initiatives.
• Monitor overall content quality and pipeline health, identifying risks, bottlenecks, or inconsistencies and driving improvements in processes, training, or team capability.
• Represent PCF’s editorial integrity externally when needed (e.g., in high-profile collaborations, media interactions, or stakeholder communications involving content).

About You

You’re a senior scientific editor with deep expertise and impeccable judgment, passionate about building trustworthy, compassionate resources for pet families. You excel at leading through influence, maintaining rigorous standards, and fostering excellence in a large, distributed volunteer team. You bring:

• 10+ years of progressive editorial leadership experience, with proven success overseeing scientific or medical content (veterinary, healthcare, or life sciences preferred).
• Extensive publication experience contributing to a minimum of 30 peer-reviewed and journal-published manuscripts as a lead contributor (first or second author).
• Experience as a final decision-maker on published content, with a track record of upholding high standards of integrity, accuracy, clarity, empathy, and accessibility.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor senior editors, resolve complex scientific/ethical issues, and maintain unified voice across diverse content teams.
• Deep knowledge of editorial best practices, style guides, publication standards, and quality assurance in nonprofit, academic, or health-related contexts.
• Exceptional writing, editing, and analytical skills with the ability to distill complex information for a lay audience while preserving scientific integrity.
• Strong leadership presence, collaboration skills, and composure under pressure in a remote, volunteer-driven environment.
• A very high EQ, with the ability to understand how and why PCF communicates the way we do, continuing with the voice established by our previous EIC.
• Genuine passion for PCF’s mission and commitment to creating content that truly supports pet families facing cancer.

What we provide you with

Volunteering as Editor-in-Chief gives you the opportunity to define the editorial heart of PCF during a transformative growth phase. You’ll lead the organization’s most visible work, shape content that reaches millions of pet families, mentor senior editorial leaders, own the voice and standards of a trusted nonprofit resource, and make a lasting impact on how the world understands pet cancer, all while gaining unparalleled leadership experience in mission-driven publishing.

Footnotes

Community Service: Please include a short note with your application that clearly states you are willing to volunteer.

Location: Fully virtual, open to candidates across Canada and the United States (only).

Time Commitment: 8–10 hours per week on average, with flexibility (peaks during high-volume publication periods or strategic reviews).

Learn More: Visit www.petcancerfdn.org for more about our mission and impact.