Michael Oreskes, who led NPR’s news division and was formerly a high-ranking editor at The New York Times, resigned on Wednesday after being accused of sexually harassing women.

Jarl Mohn, NPR’s president and chief executive, said in a memo to employees that he had asked Mr. Oreskes to resign “because of inappropriate behavior.”

On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported the accounts of two women who said Mr. Oreskes had sexually harassed them in the 1990s, when he was the Washington bureau chief at The Times. The women said Mr. Oreskes made unwanted sexual advances as they were discussing career opportunities and advice with him.

After The Post published its report, a current NPR employee, Rebecca Hersher, said she had filed a complaint about Mr. Oreskes with NPR’s human resources department in October 2015. NPR hired Mr. Oreskes in March 2015.