Process Automation Engineer

About Springer Nature Group

Springer Nature opens the doors to discovery for researchers, educators, clinicians and other professionals. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals, platforms and technology solutions reach millions of people. For over 180 years our brands and imprints have been a trusted source of knowledge to these communities and today, more than ever, we see it as our responsibility to ensure that fundamental knowledge can be found, verified, understood and used by our communities – enabling them to improve outcomes, make progress, and benefit the generations that follow. Visit group.springernature.com and follow @SpringerNature / @SpringerNatureGroup

About the Brand

Springer Nature’s Group Publishing Operations team (GPO) performs and oversees manuscript screening operations across Springer Nature's journals portfolio. GPO also manages the various peer-review systems used by authors, editors and reviewers as part of submit-to-accept processes.

Our 'article-level' activities are largely supported by 300+ BPO staff across multiple locations. Our 'journal-level' activities are largely supported by ~40 Springer Nature staff across multiple locations, who also contribute to projects in one of three main areas: technology, transformation and quality.

About the role

In collaboration with the Manager, Automation & Analysis (as well as the rest of the Automation & Analysis team and the wider GPO team), the Process Automation Engineer will design and implement technical automation solutions to optimise both routine and complex business processes.

The Process Automation Engineer will also manage their own portfolio of journals and partner with Publishing teams to run their journals in a ‘Production-ready’ way, while facilitating submit-to-accept workflows and compliance with policies.

Roles Responsibilities

Process Automation

• Design and implement technical automation solutions to optimise business processes.
• Ensure stability and continuity in technical delivery

Journal care

• Gather system requirements from publishers, editors and service providers.
• Set up, maintain and administrate peer review systems.
• Conduct presentations and training sessions for internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensure quality of article-level activities and act as an escalation point for individual journals.
• Develop and maintain relationships with stakeholders (Publishing, Editorial, Production, Technology & Operations staff, as well as external editors, reviewers, authors and service providers).
• Maintain journal-specific records and documentation.
• Be an advocate for continuous improvement, quality and efficiency. Foster a culture of openness, transparency and collaboration within the team and with our stakeholders.

Experience, skills and qualifications

• Experience with programming languages such as Python, including libraries like Selenium and Pandas.
• Working with cross-functional teams and communicating technical findings to non-technical stakeholders.
• Writing and maintaining scripts to automate repetitive tasks on both web and desktop platforms.
• Previous experience in a publishing and/or support role.
• Contributing to (sometimes interconnected) business projects.
• A technically minded approach to solutions.
• Excellent numeracy skills with proven attention to detail.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to identify trends, patterns, and actionable insights from complex data.
• SQL and programming languages such as Python.
• Excellent organisation skills to manage multiple concurrent projects and competing priorities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to communicate with individuals at all levels and on a global scale.
• Good problem solving/logic/analytical skills with the ability to capture and document requirements and processes.
• Proactive and able to lead projects alone as well as part of a large group.
• Degree or equivalent work experience.
• Additional training or certification in programming languages desirable.

Eligibility

In accordance with our internal career movement guidance, 12 months in current role is a requirement before applying to a new role