News Director for Iran and the Gulf

About the Role
The company seeks an experienced journalist and newsroom leader to direct its all format coverage of Iran and the Gulf, including text, photo, and video. This is a critical leadership role covering one of the most consequential and competitive news regions in the world. You will not simply manage a geographic beat; you will help determine how the company reports and explains Iran and the Gulf to global audiences during a time when the region is at the center of major geopolitical, security, economic, and energy stories.
Based in this region and reporting to the News Director for the Middle East, the News Director for Iran and the Gulf will drive coverage that is fast, fair, fact-based, and distinctive. This role requires availability outside standard hours, including evenings, weekends, and on-call responsiveness as news demands.
Location: This position may be based in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, or Doha, Qatar.

What You Will Do

Lead Breaking News Coverage

• Drive real-time, multi-format coverage of fast-moving developments across Iran and the Gulf, ensuring the company is first and right on the stories that matter most.
• Coordinate cross-format teams spanning text, photo, video, audio, graphics, and digital from assignment through publication, ensuring cohesive and compelling storytelling.
• Take editorial command during major regional stories, including conflicts, political upheavals, diplomatic crises, security incidents, and other events with global consequences.
• Anticipate security, access, and coverage challenges and pivot decisively when breaking news demands it.
• Work closely with regional breaking news leadership to ensure Iran and Gulf coverage is fully integrated into the company's wider Middle East response.
• Appear on camera for digital video explainers and dispatches, and possibly live for AP360.

Shape Editorial Strategy

• Collaborate with the company's regional and global news leadership to define and execute coverage strategy for Iran and the Gulf.
• Identify the stories that matter most from a region with major influence over global politics, security, energy markets, business, and diplomacy.
• Develop sourcing and reporting strategies that allow the company to deliver authoritative coverage.
• Make sophisticated use of open-source reporting, verification, satellite imagery, social media, and other reporting techniques to strengthen the company's ability to independently report developments.
• Work with leadership to leverage audience data and platform signals to make smart, timely editorial decisions that drive engagement without compromising the company's standards or independence.
• Develop enterprise, investigative, and accountability coverage that goes beyond the daily news cycle to produce distinctive and richly reported journalism.
• Generate exclusives and source-based reporting, developing networks across government, diplomacy, security, business, and civil society.
• Place special focus on working closely with visual journalists to ensure the company's photo and video coverage meets the needs of global customers and digital audiences.

Build and Develop the Team

• Lead, develop, and support journalists covering Iran and the Gulf, creating a collaborative operation across the sub-region and wider region as necessary.
• Ensure text, visual, and digital teams work together from the outset of major stories rather than operating in parallel.
• Identify, recruit, and develop outstanding talent, providing coaching, training, and career development that keep exceptional journalists at the company.
• Create a culture of inclusion and psychological safety that enables journalists to perform their best and most courageous work.
• Support journalists operating in politically sensitive or volatile environments with sound planning, clear protocols, and active duty of care.
• Work closely with company colleagues across the wider Middle East when stories cross borders or require regional deployment of resources.

Maintain the Company's Editorial Standards

• Uphold the company's commitment to accuracy, fairness, objectivity, and independence while covering highly scrutinized governments and conflicts.
• Ensure rigorous verification, particularly when reporting from environments where access is restricted, official information is tightly controlled, or misinformation and disinformation are prevalent.
• Build and sustain trusted relationships with authorities, diplomats, officials, sources, and other stakeholders across the region to strengthen reporting, facilitate access, and protect staff.

Who You Are

• 10+ years of full-time journalism experience, including significant leadership of a bureau, beat team, department, or regional desk at a major news organization.
• A proven track record of breaking news and leading coverage of complex, fast-moving stories in high-stakes environments.
• Strong knowledge of the Middle East and a sophisticated understanding of the politics, security dynamics, and international relationships shaping Iran and the Gulf.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain high-level sources and generate exclusive journalism.
• Ability to quickly discern and focus on the stories that will drive interest and engagement across platforms.
• Experience supporting, guiding, and motivating multi-format newsrooms spanning text, photo, video, audio, and digital.
• Demonstrated commitment to accuracy, fairness, and editorial independence, especially under intense competitive or political pressure.
• Strong interpersonal and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple major storylines simultaneously across countries and formats.
• Advanced professional fluency in written and spoken English.
• Professional competency in Arabic and/or Farsi is strongly preferred.
• Ability and willingness to travel extensively across the region as access and security conditions permit.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.

What Will Set You Apart

• Significant on-the-ground experience reporting or leading coverage on Iran, the Gulf, or the wider Middle East.
• Deep regional sourcing and a record of producing exclusive or agenda-setting journalism.
• Experience covering conflict, geopolitics, national security, and diplomacy.
• Strong understanding of open-source intelligence, verification, and investigative reporting techniques, especially where conventional reporting access is restricted.
• Experience leading journalists operating in hostile, politically sensitive, or high-security environments.
• A track record of editorial innovation and successful change management within a major newsroom.
• Experience mentoring reporters, editors, visual journalists, and producers to tell complex stories in clear, compelling, and platform-native ways.
• A strong all-formats mindset and a record of integrating text, photo, video, and digital coverage around major stories.
• The leadership potential to take on broader responsibilities within the company's Middle East operation over time.

We will consider strong candidates who do not meet every listed qualification. Please use your cover letter to tell us about the unique perspective and experience you bring.