You have mastered your craft. Now you are ready to make an entire team better, without giving up the writing work you still enjoy.
Location: Edmonton, Alberta | In-office
Employment: Full-time salaried position
Starting salary: $75,000 per year
Role design: 50% lead content writing | 50% department leadership
The Opportunity
You may already be the person other writers come to for advice. You see where a brief is weak, where a process creates unnecessary rework, and where clearer standards could make the whole team stronger. Perhaps you have been mentoring, editing or improving systems without being given the formal opportunity to lead.
ATRIUM is hiring an Associate Content Department Lead to make that next step real. This is not a conventional Content Manager position and it is not a full writing workload with management added on top. The role is intentionally divided between hands-on craft and meaningful department leadership.
A true 50/50 role: Half of your time will be spent as a lead writer for select Search Marketing clients. The other half will be dedicated to co-managing the Content department alongside ATRIUM leadership: developing people, managing capacity, improving quality, building systems and helping evolve our service.
Why This Role Exists
For more than 25 years, ATRIUM has helped business leaders build more reliable marketing performance. Our proprietary Marketing Systems Engineering approach applies systems thinking to marketing so clients can pursue consistency instead of relying on disconnected tactics or occasional wins.
Content is central to that system. It helps clients demonstrate expertise, earn trust and turn Search Marketing into a durable source of business. As search expands across traditional results, AI answers and large language models, our Content department must keep developing the people, standards and workflows behind excellent work.
You Know How to Work With LLMs
You are comfortable using tools such as ChatGPT or Claude as part of a professional writing and thinking process. You can use them to investigate a subject, organize research, explore content angles, build stronger outlines and work through complex problems. Just as importantly, you know when their output is generic, unsupported or wrong.
In this role, you will use LLMs across the Content department to improve research and planning workflows, documenting processes, solving operational problems and helping other writers develop stronger AI-assisted working practices. Human judgment, original thinking, factual verification and client confidentiality remain essential.
Keep Practising the Craft
- Research client businesses, audiences and subject matter to find the useful story inside complex or seemingly dry information.
- Interview clients and subject matter experts, then turn their knowledge into accurate, credible and engaging content.
- Plan, write, proof and finalize focal content, webpages, articles and other lead assets for select Search Marketing clients.
- Write across narrative, technical and commercially focused formats while adapting to different voices, industries and audiences.
- Work closely with SEO Specialists, Technical SEO Specialists, coordinators, designers and developers to produce complete work.
- Use LLMs such as ChatGPT and Claude to strengthen research, synthesis and outlining while independently verifying claims and keeping human judgment, original authorship and client context at the centre of the final product.
Help Lead the Department
- Co-manage writers through one-on-ones, quarterly reviews, coaching, clear expectations and practical development plans.
- Manage departmental capacity and priorities so work is assigned thoughtfully, risks are visible and commitments remain realistic.
- Improve editorial standards, briefs, quality rubrics, SOPs, training and project workflows.
- Identify recurring blockers and turn effective individual practices into repeatable team systems.
- Support recruitment, onboarding and development as the Content team grows.
- Help evolve ATRIUM's Search Marketing service across SEO, AEO and GEO by turning new insights into scalable methods.
- Collaborate across Search, Social, Advertising, CRO and Platforms so content contributes to a connected marketing system.
You Might Recognize Yourself Here
The right person may come from several backgrounds. Your current title matters less than the leadership, judgment and craft you can demonstrate.
Experienced Content Manager
You have managed writers and workflows, but you still want meaningful hands-on involvement.
Senior Content Strategist
You are ready to turn strong strategy and mentoring instincts into formal people leadership.
Senior or Lead Writer
You already edit, coach and improve how the team works, even if your title has not caught up.
Agency Content Lead
You understand multiple clients, deadlines, retainers, handoffs and the balance between quality and scale.
Editorial Operations Leader
You are strong at standards, quality control, capacity, documentation and dependable production systems.
SEO or Digital Marketer
You bring strong content expertise and understand how search, audiences and business outcomes connect.
What Success Looks Like
- Writers receive useful coaching, know what good work looks like and become more capable over time.
- Content is accurate, useful, well written, aligned to strategy and ready for clients with less avoidable rework.
- Capacity and deadlines are visible, workloads are sustainable and problems are addressed before they become emergencies.
- The department's SOPs and quality tools are current, practical and consistently used.
- Changes in search and AI become disciplined service improvements instead of disconnected experiments.
- You continue to produce excellent writing while creating a broader positive impact through the team.
What You Bring
- Five or more years of professional experience in content writing, content strategy, editorial, SEO or digital marketing.
- Strong writing samples across narrative and technical subject matter, with clear evidence of research and sound judgment.
- Leadership experience gained through management, team leadership, mentoring, editorial direction or ownership of shared processes.
- The ability to give precise feedback, make quality decisions and hold a respectful standard.
- Strong planning and follow-through across multiple clients, assignments, contributors and deadlines.
- Confident communication with clients and colleagues, including interviews, presentations and difficult conversations.
- A practical understanding of how content supports organic search, audience trust, conversion and business goals.
- A systems mindset: you look for patterns, causes and repeatable solutions rather than relying on heroic effort.
- Confident professional use of LLMs such as ChatGPT or Claude for content research, synthesis, outlining, process documentation and problem-solving.
- The judgment to challenge, verify and improve LLM output rather than accepting it at face value.
- Experience turning effective personal AI workflows into clear processes that other team members can learn and follow.
Helpful but Not Essential
- Experience in a digital marketing agency or another multi-client service business.
- Formal people-management experience, including reviews and performance management.
- Experience with content operations, capacity planning, project management systems or SOP development.
- Working knowledge of SEO, AEO and GEO.
- Education in writing, journalism, communications, marketing or a related discipline.
Why ATRIUM
ATRIUM is an Edmonton-based digital marketing agency serving organizations across North America. We are building a different kind of agency: one organized around clear routines, documented systems, continual improvement and sustainable performance.
This role offers real influence. You will not simply inherit a queue of content to approve. You will help shape how the department operates, how writers develop and how our Search Marketing service responds to a rapidly changing search environment.
In Office by Design
This is a full-time, in-office role in Edmonton, not a remote or hybrid position. Our in-office model supports frequent collaboration, coaching and shared problem-solving. It also helps us maintain set office hours and a healthy separation between work and personal life. We want people to do meaningful work, keep developing their profession, and still be able to leave work at work.
Workload and Work Life Separation
We plan workloads rather than treating perpetual over-capacity as normal. Our operating model aims for approximately 70% planned task capacity with up to 30% flexibility for feedback, collaboration, priority changes and the normal variation that comes with thoughtful client work. Leadership responsibilities are included in your planned role capacity.
Benefits and Development
- 15 days of paid vacation each year.
- Paid casual illness and quarterly wellness days
- Health, dental, paramedical and long-term disability insurance.
- Health Spending Account after one year of employment.
- Access to a professional development and learning fund through an application process.
- Ongoing leadership development with ATRIUM's Principal and senior team.
How to Apply
Please submit the following through the application link provided with this posting:
- Your resume.
- A cover letter explaining why this 50/50 craft and leadership role fits the next stage of your career.
- Links or files showing a mix of narrative and technical writing samples.
- Optional: a brief example of a team process, quality standard or mentoring approach you helped improve.
Shortlisted candidates may be asked to complete a practical writing and leadership exercise that includes using an LLM to research and outline a topic, identifying claims that require verification, correcting weak model output and documenting a workflow another writer could follow.
Build the system behind great work: If you are ready to lead people, improve how a department works and remain connected to the craft that brought you here, we would like to hear from you.
