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Advancing Knowledge and Learning

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Project Editor is responsible for management and delivery of designated projects within the Science and Medicine books team in the Content Development group. Work may include managing the publishing of content in one or more print and/or digital formats, developing key copyrights or major works, or overseeing digital projects. The Project Editor works under their own initiative within agreed departmental parameters, so that projects are delivered and books and content are published on schedule, to quality standards, and to budget.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES/KEY RESULT AREAS

1. Manage all projects in accordance with defined procedures, to ensure quality and timeliness, including setting-up of projects; monitoring and driving progress; reporting; identifying issues/risks and taking action to resolve them, or with colleagues determining the path to resolution; liaising with authors and stakeholders about standard issues; and maintaining accurate product and workflow data, ensuring all relevant systems are up to date.

2. Project manage online content and book titles through content creation and to delivery to Production. Assure ongoing delivery of contracted requirements; liaise with authors and others to determine progress, ensure they are clear on and committed to specifications, content, style, structure, and schedules; and secure timely submission of high-quality work and ancillary materials in appropriate form. Assess and review content against contracted requirements and manage content through peer-review process if required. Ensure all product and content data and metadata are accurate in all relevant systems and complete handover of content to Production per agreed specifications. Manage projects with partially outsourced pre-production workflows as liaison with external editorial teams or suppliers.

3. Co-ordinate with Design, Marketing, and Sales to provide all standard materials, specs, copy, and briefs, tailored to effectively produce and bring content to market. Produce reports for Sales and Marketing as required.

4. On request, and as necessitated by the project workflow, review, correct, and deliver digital content for regular online publication. Request corrections and updates to content by Production or suppliers via the relevant systems. Review, enrich, correct, and deliver metadata according to project needs.

5. Work with Content Operations to ensure projects are published according to approved plans; escalate concerns to manager if projects deviate from agreed costings or if there are errors introduced in the production process. Obtain accurate costings for each project at relevant stages to ascertain profitability. Monitor costs and manage changes by adjusting models, with Acquisition Editor’s approval, and reporting exceptions as appropriate. Monitor progress of content through the Production workflow. Ensure that queries from the Production teams are handled promptly and properly.

6. Support new-product development across print and digital formats. This will involve working in conjunction with the Heads of Acquisitions, Acquisitions Editors, and the Heads of Content Development, and may include supporting the development of new publishing streams or products.

7. Support or undertake market and customer research to manage the ongoing assessment and validation of coverage, structure, and usability for online products/modules, key copyrights, and major works, so they continue to meet the requirements of the market. Analyze market information and reviewers’ questionnaires and reports to support recommendations for developing products and content and prepare and present the findings or recommendations for each project in a clear and coherent way. In conversation with the Acquisitions Editor, propose and secure decisions on title-development plans and online-content strategy, including bringing on new authors or editors to projects. Attend board meetings as required.

8. As requested by, and/or in conjunction with, the Acquisition Editor or Editorial Manager, represent the Content Development Team to colleagues within the Press and to external stakeholders, including customers and user communities, ensuring that any requests, concerns, and service issues are addressed promptly and professionally and used to inform product development. This could include representing OUP at author meetings, conferences, product launches, etc., as appropriate. Establish and maintain good relationships so that OUP is regarded as the publisher of choice.

9. Develop and maintain good knowledge of relevant subject area(s), and a good working knowledge of editorial operations and procedures. Share knowledge within the department, providing assistance and guidance to other team members, referring to Senior Project Editors or Editorial Manager when necessary. Help with the training of new team members as required, and make suggestions for necessary updates to training documentation. Contribute to departmental or divisional workflow- and process-improvement projects or initiatives.

10. Contribute to the annual budgeting exercises, helping establish the titles and/or online content that will publish in the next financial year. Track projects against budget and/or publishing goals throughout the year.

ABOUT YOU

• Proven track record of managing projects and delivering to schedule
• Experience of, and engagement with, cross-format publishing, ideally in an academic environment
• Ability to work autonomously, prioritize a demanding workload, set and meet deadlines, and adjust priorities as necessary
• Excellent organizational, project-management, and time-management skills
• Ability to adapt to change and work across different subject areas and projects as required
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to work and communicate productively with senior academics and other specialized authors
• Work demonstrates high levels of accuracy and attention to detail
• Good IT literacy and adaptability
• University degree or equivalent experience

BENEFITS

We care about work/life balance at OUP. We offer 15 days’ vacation time that rises with service, 8 sick days, plus floating holidays, personal days, company holidays, and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect of working hours and the use of technology to support regular remote working, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies.

We care for you and your dependents by offering health, dental, and vision insurance plans to our full-time employees. Each plan has multiple levels of coverage to fit your needs and has a high level of contribution made by OUP. In addition, we offer Employee Assistant Programs for all full-time employees, regardless of whether you elect in health insurance. We also offer life insurance and disability insurance.

We help make your money go further by providing a non-elective contribution on your behalf to your retirement plan of 7% of your salary and a matching contribution to the retirement plan of 50% on the first 6% of employee contributions on based earnings.

Location: This role is hybrid in New York City, NY or remote in the United States

Salary: $37,240 - $55,860 dependent on skills and experience

GJC: I4 (for internal purposes only)

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.