Trans Journalists Association Co-Director

The Trans Journalists Association has been a volunteer-led organization since its founding in 2020. We support a community of hundreds of trans journalists and advise the journalism industry with resources to reflect trans experiences accurately and humanely in the news. We do so through programming, training, and commentary, at a time where our communities are facing increasing restrictions on our civil and human rights.

Our growing association seeks to hire its first mostly full-time staff member to support our transition from a volunteer working board to a staff structure. The person in this role will work closely with a dedicated board. They will be benefits-eligible and work approximately 30 hours a week.

We will review applications on a rolling basis; we will continue to consider candidates as long as the posting remains live. Apply via this form.

Individual inquiries may not be responded to.

About the work

We’re a community that supports journalists, newsrooms, and journalism support organizations across the entire media ecosystem. Our membership is primarily U.S.-based, but we have a growing international cohort. We’re also building a growing network of members and allies who are invested in covering trans communities and fostering the professional development of trans journalists.

You’d be expected to work about 30 hours per week, in tandem with another more part-time co-director and a volunteer board.

This work will likely include the following tasks:

• Lead and oversee a team of freelancers, contractors, volunteers, and TJA members on various programs, ranging from coverage advice to regular newsletters to professional development stipends
• Create and help execute a TJA programmatic roadmap for the year
• Work with the board, contractors and key stakeholders to create an acceptance and prioritization framework to help navigate the very busy space ahead.
• Coordinate with partners on coverage analysis and coalition-building projects
• Event and conference planning, including smaller-scale webinars and panels and a larger convening in fall of this 2025
• Organizational development, fundraising, and strategic planning, including maintaining funder and donor relations through leadership expansion
• Travel a few times a year for conferences or team events, as needed and as safety and other considerations allow

About you

If you have experience with event organizing, project management, media analysis, and fundraising, that’s great. We are a very small team, five board members and a half-dozen regular contractors; we also work with external accountants, fundraising experts, and consultants as-needed.

We do every part of each project ourselves, or help work with contractors to complete projects. We’ve found that this role is most suited to someone who’s both adaptive and pragmatic, willing to think big but also knows how to keep a project within a reasonable scope. You will be leading and overseeing a number of projects all at once. It’s important for this person to have some ability to manage and oversee projects and other people — delegation, prioritization, management.

Successful candidates may come to this role from a number of work backgrounds. But we would expect to see a strong sense of ownership and alignment around our vision for the organization, as well as a deeply felt importance around the mission itself. That means we’re looking for team members who have a history of supporting 1) fair and accurate coverage of trans communities and 2) trans journalists in their careers. If you have familiarity with the TJA’s operations as a contractor, volunteer, or member, even better.

We also hope to continue working with people who recognize the complexity and diversity of trans communities and are invested in continuing our work to make sure that our coverage guidance reflects as many perspectives and voices as possible.

We’re looking for someone who has many of the following tools in their toolkit. It’s OK if you are still growing in some of these areas; having a demonstrated interest is a great starting point!

• High-level management or executive experience (basically: have you led a project, a team, a group, or an organization at the strategic level?)
• Extremely systems-oriented or at least very organized
• Clear, concise communications style. There is room for so much to be taken out of context in our work. Do you actively consider the worst-case scenarios of what happens if someone else gets hold of your narrative?
• A strong understanding of the challenges and biases trans journalists face in the industry and society
• Confidence in external relationship and partnership building. A major part of this is fundraising, but it also includes other journalism organizations and groups with aligned missions. We can’t do our work alone, and we need this executive to lead the way in finding and building bridges across the trans journalism community and beyond.
• Experience giving feedback or critique in a gentle but meaningful way. This role involves helping newsrooms improve their coverage, which means offering productive feedback when they stumble.
• Audience or member-centric attitude. We serve our members, and our volunteers and contractors often come from our community. Trans communities must be important to this person.
• Extroversion or an ability to be in the spotlight as the face of the org, as needed. This could range from cable hits to podcast interviews.

When the TJA team was asked to describe important attributes of their next ED, they said things like:

• A wrangler and diplomat who knows how to communicate with the cisgender world.
• Extroversion, good with people, good in front of a crowd.
• Strategic thinking about the fact that we're operating in a hostile environment.
• Willingness to listen to a variety of perspectives but ultimately make hard decisions with organizational goals and priorities in mind.

We know there are great candidates who might not possess every qualification but still have important vision and skills we haven’t listed here. If that’s you, please don’t hesitate to apply.

The Trans Journalists Association is committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the diversity and nuance of the trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive community, as well as the broader news audiences we serve. We especially encourage applications by members of traditionally underrepresented communities, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and formerly incarcerated people.

To apply, please fill out our Airtable form. It requests some basic information, as well as a resume and short answers. Ideally, each response will be under 200 words, but please don’t stress over format and length. If the response is best expressed as a list or in bullet points, that is great, too.

Compensation and benefits

The position is eligible for full-time benefits. This is a fully remote job with flexible hours and some potential travel.

If you’re a good fit, you know what the news cycle has looked like for the past three months, and you can probably imagine that some weeks may be slow, while others may require more time and energy. We’re committed to making that sustainable.

• $80,000 salary for 30-hour week
• All-remote team
• QSEHRA reimbursements for health care costs
• Access to dental, vision, and other benefits through our HR platform
• 401k
• Commuter benefits
• Phone stipend
• Flexible work hours, holidays, vacation time, and sick time
• 1:1 compensatory time to reflect variability in hours and emergent/breaking news needs
• Support for executive director–related professional development and training

Because you will be our first full-time employee, we are still developing the details of our benefits; you will work with our board to determine workplace-wide policies.

About the team

Who you’d be joining!

Kae Petrin, interim executive director, a cofounding member of the association who has been steering the ship behind-the-scenes since 2020. They once found a $60 million duplication error in someone else’s financial contract.

Minami Funakoshi, board president, who keeps the wheels on. They were unavailable to provide a fun fact.

Adam Rhodes, board secretary, moderator extraordinaire and criminal justice reporter. They make really good scones. (Note: none of us have had one, so this fact has yet to be checked.)

Gina Chua, board-member-at-large, who volunteers on many of our coverage-focused initiatives. She has always wondered whether “at large” meant she had finally escaped and was being hunted down.

Graph Massara, board-member-at-large, our styleguide editor and all-purpose copyeditor. He worked his first paid job as a scarer at a haunted house, an experience that remains a useful metaphor for his career in media.

Plus a team of contractors and volunteers who are passionate about improving the coverage of trans communities and supporting the trans journalists who are often doing that crucial work.

The Trans Journalists Association is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics.

It is the policy of the TJA to maintain an inclusive work environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity. This policy applies to all employment practices and personnel actions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, compensation, disciplinary actions, and termination. It covers all employees, applicants for employment, volunteers, and contractors associated with TJA. See our diversity, equity, and inclusion policy for more information.

Compensation and benefits

The position is eligible for full-time benefits. This is a fully remote job with flexible hours and some potential travel.

If you’re a good fit, you know what the news cycle has looked like for the past three months, and you can probably imagine that some weeks may be slow, while others may require more time and energy. We’re committed to making that sustainable.

• $80,000 salary for 30-hour week
• All-remote team
• QSEHRA reimbursements for health care costs
• Access to dental, vision, and other benefits through our HR platform
• 401k
• Commuter benefits
• Phone stipend
• Flexible work hours, holidays, vacation time, and sick time
• 1:1 compensatory time to reflect variability in hours and emergent/breaking news needs
• Support for executive director–related professional development and training

Because you will be our first full-time employee, we are still developing the details of our benefits; you will work with our board to determine workplace-wide policies.