Journals Programme Lead

Job Description

The Programme Lead is a strategic leader responsible for role overseeing the sustainable growth of the Emerald Journals Programme, comprising nearly 350 journals while maintaining alignment with our company’s vision, mission and strategic objectives.

Reporting to the VP Publishing, the role has four direct reports (Journal Commissioning Leads), a small portfolio of journals and is also responsible for regular analysis and reporting of key journal metrics to guide development decisions.

Focusing on quality and sustainable content growth, the Programme Lead manages relationships between Journal Editors and Commissioning Editors, oversees flagship journal content growth, supports increased commissioning and acceptances, drives revenues from open access sponsored issues, and identifies journal acquisition targets.

An editor-led author experience is crucial for portfolio growth. The jobholder will lead this initiative for the Journals Programme, working with key colleagues and functions across the company to ensure a best-in-class experience that guarantees quality, sustainable growth, and returning authorship.

Location: We perform at our best when we feel trusted and are able to choose an approach to working that suits us best, which is why we are a remote-first company. However, we also believe in face to face collaboration, and our UK colleagues meet once a month for team time and quarterly for company get togethers in our Leeds office, so we ask that you be within a commutable distance that you are comfortable with in order to attend the office on those occasions.

Day to day we’ll trust you to:   

• Work with VP Publishing, Head of Content Delivery and Journal Commissioning Leads, to ensure delivery against the strategic development of the Journals programme aligned to our subject areas and Emerald Goals.
• Work with Journal Leads and their direct reports, and be responsible for developing and implementing strategies for journal portfolio growth, such as workload prioritisation and delivering the flagship journals strategy, as well as using data and insights to identify emerging trends and areas of focus in the applied and social sciences, including through the lens of the SDGs.
• Oversee the creation of portfolio and journal growth plans and will provide regular reporting and forecasts for paywall as well as open access articles against targets.
• Finalise the budgets for editorial fees and travel and conferences, providing regular forecasts and insights to measure performance against budget.
• Foster a collaborative and supportive working environment that contributes to the team’s success. You will mentor, coach and guide team members to achieve their professional goals. Working with the Leads, you will ensure effective communication and alignment in the team, while recognising individual efforts and development opportunities.
• Ensure that Leads are encouraging Commissioning Editors to have strategic conversations with journal editors to ensure performance targets are met and there is alignment and engagement with Emerald’s content growth strategy.
• Ensure opportunities for collaboration, special and sponsored issues, growth of SDG content, diverse editorial boards, manuscript transfer, new article types, etc. are identified within portfolio plans and ways of working.
• Co-own journal revenues and market growth targets, alongside product, marketing, revenue operations and sales.
• Lead by example to forge active relationships with editors and other stakeholders, including but not exclusively in Product, Research Integrity, Content Solutions and Marketing. You will also build and maintain strong relationships with industry peers and external partners as required, including representing Emerald at customer meetings, industry events and conferences.
• Adopt a continuous improvement mindset, identifying opportunities to experiment and streamline workflows to achieve alignment with internal stakeholders, external editors and others to achieve efficiencies for the benefit of a healthy content pipeline and best-in-class author experience. You will monitor deliverables and collaborate on process improvements to enhance productivity without sacrificing quality.

You’ll need to have:   

Skills:

• Effective leadership and influencing skills
• Organisational and time management skills are critical
• Data-driven, pro-active communicator
• Collaborative and inclusive approach
• Effective networking and negotiating skills
• Excellent written communication skills
• Demonstrates broad business and financial acumen to produce clear commercial results
• Strong analytical skills and ability for conceptual and strategic thinking
• Ability to anticipate and manage potential points of conflict, balancing the interests of different groups against strategic objectives
• Able to work in a matrixed, cross-functional environment
• Experience managing direct reports essential

Knowledge:

• Experience in journals commissioning and portfolio management
• Strong knowledge and experience of the scholarly publishing and journals landscape/market
• Permissions, licensing and copyright knowledge
• Depth knowledge of publishing ethics
• Depth knowledge and familiarity with Emerald and third-party systems (Emerald Insight, Power BI, RUBI, Cognos, CRM, ScholarOne, Altmetric, and Dimensions, etc.).

Behaviours & Attributes:

• Integrity, clear and visible values, demonstrating empathy to others
• Seeks to inspire, motivate and coach, enabling others to perform to their potential
• Having a future-oriented vision
• Responsible and accountable for identifying and solving problems through effective decision making
• Thinks creatively and supports opportunities for positive change
• Positively influences others, cross-functionally at all levels, creating acceptance, commitment and support for ideas
• Collaborates effectively across the business and with external stakeholders and takes responsibility to build and maintain positive relationships
• Creates and drives a culture that promotes teamwork, motivates and encourages others
• Proactively embraces change and challenges the status quo and traditional ways of working as appropriate.

What’s in it for you?

At Emerald, we value our people. Becoming a part of our team means you’ll join a trusting and flexible environment and we've been flexified so you can trust that we're a truly flexible workplace. All we ask is that you attend the office once a month to come together with work colleagues. You'll also have numerous opportunities to progress your career, as well as access to professional development and the opportunity to learn new skills.

You’ll receive a wide range of benefits, such as 38 days annual leave (inclusive of bank holidays, remote flexible working, a discretionary performance bonus, 6% pension contribution and various benefits aimed at supporting your wellbeing and work-life balance such as a working from home allowance. You can check out a full list of our benefits here.

Roles are advertised at a benchmarked market median rate. Offers will be made within a range of the median, depending on skills and experience.

Please note - Applicants must be authorized to work in the UK without restrictions or sponsorship. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

Emerald Group is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all of our applicants. If you would like to request any accommodations/adjustments from application through to interview stages, please complete the relevant section within the application or contact us at peopleteam@emerald.com and let us know.