Senior Product Manager: Product

Job Description

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Senior Product Manager to oversee our product management activities across our Journals, Books and Cases portfolios. This role involves strategic planning, team leadership, and close collaboration with various departments to ensure the successful delivery and commercial success of our products.

Reporting into the VP of Product, the successful candidate will work closely with a dedicated team of product managers to ensure our product offer meets market relevance and customer demand. The Senior Product Manager will drive innovation, oversee overall product development from conception to launch, and maintain alignment with our company’s vision, mission and strategic objectives.

The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring our products are built and developed to meet the needs of the market, with the customer’s needs and feedback and R&D at the heart of product offer.

We are looking for product manager with a background in scholarly publishing who has experience of working first hand in research journal publishing and commissioning.


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:   

• Overseeing our general product management activities across the portfolios, including:

o Setting and regular review of our 3 year product portfolio strategies, in conjunction with the Product Managers, to meet the overall product strategy set by the VP, Producto Yearly product specification and pricing reviewo Regional sales support and sales enablement activitieso Product representation in customer success meetings and onboardingo Oversee the annual update of product training materials, ensuring colleagues are trained in our product offero Work closely with marketing on annual marketing materials to ensure confident and effective articulation of our value proposition and customer messagingo Guide the R&D activities across all portfolios, including budget management, ensuring regular customer engagement, capturing feedback which will guide our product development roadmap

• Team Management: manage, lead and motivate a team of 3, ensuring delivery of KPIs and appropriate ROI on activities. Overall management of the team delivering the individual product strategies with clear objectives, delivering to OKRs via business partners and measuring the ROI on activity. Coach and develop individuals to enable them to deliver on equivalent outcomes.
• Commercial focus and a deep upstanding of our key customer personas and the markets we operate in; Be the voice of the customer and unrelenting in meeting their requirements, ensuring their feedback is involved throughout
• Champion our products across the business, articulating the value prop and benefits, supporting training, customer or stakeholder meetings and sales delivery
• Support publishing to identify opportunities to innovate content, to meet customer needs
• Coaching and inspiring cross functional teams and direct reports towards unified goals and outcomes
• Commercially aligned in all that we do, through liaising closely with Sales, Revenue Operations, Product & Author Marketing and Publishing to communicate the roadmap and gather their input and insight.
• With the product managers, own the product P&Ls for commercial success
• Support the acquisition and launch of new journals to support our strategic content growth objectives, in conjunction with content acquisition, by:

o Driving a clear vision and value proposition for any new collections of hybrid / paywalled journals, including guiding their launch to market via collection products
o Using data to drive decision making for any journal launches – guiding and advising what launches should be open and what should be paywalled / hybrid
o Ensuring delivery of committed launch roadmaps to timeframe, budget and scope, in conjunction with the content acquisition launch team
o Leading on new product business cases and forecasts, owned in conjunction with publishing, and supported by sales, revenue operations and marketing
o Co-owning product revenues and market growth targets, alongside publishing, marketing, revenue operations and sales

You’ll need to have:   

Knowledge:

• Experience in journals commissioning
• Strong knowledge and experience of the scholarly publishing and Journals landscape/market
• Product development experience
• Broad overall end-to-end operations knowledge: processes, tools, suppliers and systems
• Good understanding of sales cycles, processes and customers.
• Good understanding of overall business drivers and product development drivers
• Good understanding and experience of the full project life-cycle, management and structured development processes

Skills:

• Effective leadership and influencing skills
• Organizational 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 & 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
• Preferably have experience managing direct reports

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.