Content Specialist Manager

This role involves managing a team that supports the governance of outsourced editorial office functions for open access journals. Key responsibilities include designing and delivering ambitious process improvements across all submission to dissemination tasks, aiming to transform services to customers. The team sustains oversight of editorial quality and ethical compliance, manages specialized queries, contributes to policy development, and supports critical manuscript decision-making processes, particularly for ethically complex submissions or those requiring specialized assessment.

Must Have

• Manage, motivate, and develop Specialists
• Responsible for recruitment, performance management and training of Specialists
• Produce foundations for Specialists to improve relationship with supplier management, JEO Vendor Partners and other Academic Content teams
• Drive and champion change within teams and allocate resources appropriately
• Develop and deliver peer review strategy regarding speed, compliance and customer service quality
• Use data and data modelling techniques to identify ways peer review processes can operate more effectively
• Deliver outstanding service to stakeholders
• Work closely with other Editorial Operations Managers and Director of Editorial Operations to lead colleagues through expansion and change
• Gather and analyse data to work with cross functional teams to identify trends and develop solutions
• Act as point of escalation for the Editorial operations team
• Participate in the evaluation of new functionality, industry initiatives, and emerging best practice
• Manage and contribute to intra- and cross-departmental projects
• In-depth knowledge of best practice administration and management of academic content submitted to online submission platforms
• Ability to use Power BI and be proficient with Microsoft Office packages
• Excellent Communication Skills with an ability to tailor style whilst presenting data and ideas
• Significant project management experience, including monitoring performance and building effective teams
• Ability to run, create and analyse reports with complex data sets
• Demonstrable analytic skills of complex data sets to model and visualise data
• Strong communication and influencing skills, both verbal and written
• Team player and self-starter with a positive outlook
• Ability to handle and communicate information sensitively and professionally
• Actively cultivate an up-to-date knowledge of industry standards and developments
• Be self-reliant and motivated to look beyond the immediate task
• Calm and logical response under pressure
• Responsible for managing own workload
• Ability to prioritise appropriately and work to deadlines
• Attention to detail
• Customer focus
• Accountability for managing own learning

Good to Have

• Advanced Excel skills
• Clear understanding of process improvement principles
• Commercial awareness

Perks & Benefits

• A comprehensive benefits package
• 24 days annual leave
• Volunteering days annually
• Day off for your birthday
• Pension contributions
• Medical insurance for self and dependents
• Life cover and personal accident cover for self
• Seasonal social and charitable events
• Training and development
• Work-life balance, wellbeing, and flexible working
• Opportunity to develop abilities and innovate

Company Description

Informa is a leading academic publishing, business intelligence, knowledge and events business, creating unique content and connectivity for customers all over the world. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 100.

Taylor & Francis Group operates globally and produces high quality, peer reviewed books and journals. We produce unique, trusted content by expert authors, spreading knowledge and promoting discovery globally. We aim to broaden thinking and advance understanding, providing academics and professionals with a platform to share ideas and realize their individual potential.

Our purpose is to foster human progress through knowledge. We strongly believe that this requires us to encourage and examine different ideas and voices, so that any work that meets our exacting levels of quality deserves to be included in our publications. This requires open minds, the opportunity for robust debate, and the courage to defend perspectives that stand up to scrutiny, even if they conflict with our personal beliefs or values. Because that’s the only way to find the best obtainable version of the truth and, ultimately, foster human progress. If you agree, then we’d love to hear from you.

What we offer in return:

• A comprehensive benefits package
• 24 days annual leave
• Volunteering days annually
• Day off for your birthday
• Pension contributions
• Medical insurance for self and dependents; life cover and personal accident cover for self
• Seasonal social and charitable events
• Training and development

Job Description

This role involves Management of a team supporting the governance of out-sourced editorial office function for open access journals, including design, development, and delivery of ambitious process improvements across all submission to dissemination tasks, aiming to transform services to customers (authors, Editors, Reviewers) that encounter our submission to dissemination process.

This team sustains oversight of all submissions for editorial quality and ethical compliance, managing specialised and complex queries.

Contributes to the development and implementation of Editorial & Ethical policies, serving as a subject matter expert for policy interpretation across our journal portfolio, and supports critical manuscript decision-making processes (reject/revision/accept), particularly for ethically complex submissions, open data policy compliance, or those requiring specialized assessment.

Key Permanent Accountabilities:

• Manage, motivate, and develop Specialists; the Editorial operations Manager is Responsible for the recruitment, performance management and training of the Specialists reporting into them.
• Produce the foundations for the Specialists to improve their relationship with supplier management, their JEO Vendor Partners and other Academic Content teams and services by providing effective and prompt feedback.
• Drive and champion change within the teams and allocate resources appropriately; ensuring effective team working and prioritisation to accommodate competing demands.
• Develop and deliver the peer review strategy regarding speed, compliance and customer service e quality, in-line with the KPIs.
• Use data and data modelling techniques to identify ways our peer review processes can operate more effectively. identifying areas of both high and low performance, following up on service delivery opportunities and risks, connecting with relevant stakeholders and persuading them of the value of change.
• Deliver outstanding service to our stakeholders; explore both internal and external best practice to identify new and innovative approaches.
• Work closely with the other Editorial Operations Managers and Director of Editorial Operations to lead colleagues through a period of significant expansion and change whilst also ensuring BAU services remain of high quality.
• Gather and analyse data to work with cross functional teams to identify trends and develop and investigate potential solutions including improvements to systems and process to drive process improvements.
• Act as point of escalation for the Editorial operations team. Blockers and risks are escalated appropriately to the Director of Editorial Operations only after tenacity and creativity have been applied.
• Participate in the evaluation of new functionality, industry initiatives, and emerging submission and peer review best practice.
• Manage and contribute to intra- and cross-departmental projects, including reporting to senior management on outcomes.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have:

• In depth knowledge of best practice administration and management of academic content submitted to online submission platforms (preferably in Journals, Academic Publishing)
• An ability to use Power BI and be proficient with Microsoft Office packages. Having Advanced Excel skills is an advantage.
• Having excellent Communication Skills with an ability to tailor your style whilst presenting data and ideas. It will be essential to communicate well with stakeholders and translate the data into meaningful insight.
• Significant project management experience, including monitoring performance and building effective teams within an open access journals publishing environment.
• A Clear understanding of process improvement principles would be a distinct advantage, as delivery of increased capacity with minimal impact on head count is a standing objective
• An ability to run, create and analyse reports with complex data sets.
• Demonstrable analytic skills of complex data sets to model and visualise data.
• An understanding of process improvement principles would be a distinct advantage, as delivery of increased capacity with minimal impact on head count is a standing objective.

Skills and Behaviours Required

• Strong communication and influencing skills, both verbal and written.
• Team player and self-starter with a positive outlook who easily builds positive relationships.
• An ability to handle and communicate information sensitively and professionally
• Actively cultivate an up-to-date knowledge of industry standards and developments to inform best practice procedures. Commercial awareness is a distinct advantage.
• Be self-reliant and motivated to look beyond the immediate task, see the bigger picture and identify opportunities to grow and do things better, providing added value to stakeholders and peers alike.
• Calm and logical response under pressure
• Being responsible for managing own workload
• Ability to prioritise appropriately and work to deadlines
• Attention to detail
• Customer focus
• Accountability for managing own learning, taking responsibility to identify and develop skills gaps and active knowledge sharing, regarding peer review systems and data manipulation.

Additional Information

Candidates must have the right to live and work in the India.

We believe that great things happen when people connect face-to-face. That's why we work in-person with each other, or with customers and partners, three days a week or more. When you’re not spending time together in one of our offices or other workplaces – like at a conference – you get the flexibility and support to work from home or remotely.

The successful candidate will be able to utilize our balanced working model. We ask that candidates live within a commutable distance to our Bengaluru office to ensure that as a balanced worker they can make it to our office locations to collaborate as required. There is an expectation for a minimum of 3 days per week in-person time.

Applications are shortlisted on a rolling basis, and we will be interviewing alongside advertising. We therefore encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity.

• Work/life balance: At Taylor & Francis we care about our colleagues, promoting work-life balance, wellbeing, and flexible working. You will be joining a thriving business, working alongside an exceptional group of people. We believe that the skills and experience you bring to Taylor & Francis are invaluable. We want you to have the opportunity to develop your abilities, and to innovate and develop in areas which you are passionate about.
• Training And Professional Development: We’re passionate about ensuring you have all the tools and resources at your fingertips to reach your short and long-term career goals. We’ll support you in your journey by working together on your own bespoke Taylor & Francis Development Plan, ensuring you have the resources, tools, support and coaching that will get you where you want to be.

• Interview process: Once you have submitted your application, we may get in touch with you for an initial screening conversation or ask you to complete a short video interview to enable us to better understand your skills, experience, and motivation. Following this, you will be invited to attend a competency-based interview, either virtually or in person. Typically, we’d then finish the interview process with a final, 2nd stage interview before extending an offer to the successful applicant.
• We want all our candidates to shine in our recruitment process. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to ensure you are able to show us your best self. This could include having the application form in a different format, more time for questions, or anything else – please ask us, we are happy to be flexible! Please contact recruitment@tandf.co.uk

Being ‘you’ at Taylor and Francis:

Here at Taylor & Francis, we know that many times the 'perfect candidate' doesn't exist, and that people can feel discouraged about applying for a job if they don't fit all the requirements. We encourage you to apply if you're excited about working for us and have some of the skills or experience we're looking for. We believe in the notion that many skills and experiences are transferrable, and you could be just what we need! Taylor & Francis is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We strongly believe in the value of diversity of people and thought. We strive to foster a supportive and inclusive environment where our colleagues can learn, develop, and succeed, all while feeling comfortable with being their true self. We embrace all walks of life regardless of race, colour, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, veteran status, citizenship, or any other protected characteristic under local law.

We genuinely care about our colleagues, promoting work-life balance, wellbeing, and flexible working. We believe that the skills and experience you bring to Taylor & Francis are invaluable. We want you to have the opportunity to develop your abilities, and to innovate and develop in areas which you are passionate about. To find out more about our business and the great career opportunities please go to our Careers Site: http://www.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/careers

Or better yet check out our LinkedIn ‘Life’ Page, highlighting our accomplishments, employees, and company culture.

[https://www.linkedin.com/company/taylor-&-francis-group/life/79e0c27c-afdf-4bbb-84e6-5f8ed5e10bb8/]