About our company:

Sage is an independent, leading academic and professional publisher. We are a growing company, with over 1,500 employees based in London, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Singapore, New Delhi and Melbourne. We believe that education is intrinsically valuable to a healthy society and we're dedicated to producing high quality content in our books, journals and digital products. We're passionate about contributing to our local communities; we run a diverse mix of community-based programs each year and we make sure everyone has the chance to get involved.

To apply for this role please submit your Cover Letter and CV as one document.

About our team:

The global Journals Editorial department is a thriving team of intelligent, highly productive people who are passionate about research. We are responsible for the management, development and growth of a large portfolio of valuable, high quality journals. We work closely with external editors, society partners, and internal colleagues to drive the success and long-term sustainability of the programme.

Could you be our Editorial Optimization Manager?

The Editorial Optimization Manager will lead on the optimization of several important and complex journals editorial functions simultaneously. Creating space to thrive in a dynamic and transforming journals market, you will be an editorial change leader and continuously enhance the global journals editorial function, collaborating with key stakeholders across Sage to influence, develop and deliver continuous editorial improvement and best practice.

If you have the following skills and experience, we’d love to hear from you!

• Extensive knowledge of and experience in the journals publishing industry, ideally with a deep understanding of journals editorial. (Desirable)
• Proven track record of success in leading on and delivering successful continuous improvement across multiple complex editorial functions.
• Proven ability to turn ambiguous information into informed decision making.
• A strong sense of accountability with proven problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Resourceful, inquisitive and possessing a lean continuous improvement mindset.
• Strong understanding of continuous improvement and change management principles and tools, such as Lean and ADKAR, with demonstrated ability to apply these to complex editorial functions.
• Expert listening, verbal and written communication skills with an ability to simplify the complicated.
• Excellent relationship management skills and confidence in dealing with people at all levels of the business, including C-Suite level stakeholders.
• Strong and proven influencing and negotiation skills, with the ability to build trust quickly to work effectively with stakeholders in other departments with competing priorities and resources.
• Ability to work independently and achieve a high quality, accurate output in a fast-paced, deadline-conscious environment with rapidly changing priorities.
• Highly proficient in the use of the Microsoft 365 and Atlassian suite of tools, in particular Excel, SharePoint, Planner, PowerPoint and Confluence.

The role:

• Lead, own, optimize and be accountable for several important and often complex global journals editorial functions, both ad-hoc and calendarized. This includes core editorial processes, in addition to those that interact with larger systems and functions in related teams, such as, technology, finance, contracts, production, marketing, sales and circulation.
• Drive forward the identification of editorial optimization opportunities and deliver continuous improvement to the journals editorial team using the PDCA cycle and through increased global alignment, automation, data integration, better use of available technology and systems, and elimination of unnecessary editorial activity.
• Identify and be cognizant of any current or future process or system challenges and be proactive in proposing developments, solutions, and continuous improvement opportunities to meet future editorial needs.
• Persuade and influence key stakeholders on the value of continuous editorial optimization to enable delivery of business strategy, using analysis and impact metrics to support your position.
• Represent the journals editorial function within company-wide continuous improvement projects, to scope, communicate and lead on editorial requirements to bring enhanced clarity to projects and initiatives.
• Partner with other continuous improvement and change management roles to represent the current and future complex and myriad needs of journals editorial, to transform and optimize how we work.
• Create and deliver guidance and training to realise the benefits of continuous improvements, using change management methodologies to ensure awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement.
• Lead and facilitate Process Group continuous improvement activities, working with Process Group Owners (PGOs) in their development and documentation of continuous editorial improvements.
• Keep your finger on the pulse of journal industry optimization and constantly seek user feedback and use cases from inside and outside the organization to boost and refine the utility and effectiveness of journals editorial.
• Your role may include line managing others in the organization who also share an editorial optimization or continuous improvement focus.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

At Sage we embrace diversity and inclusion. We seek to promote the benefits of diversity in all of our business activities and develop a business culture that reflects that belief. We welcome applications from all members of society irrespective of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief as creating value through diversity is what makes us strong. As a business and as an organisation with an increasingly agile workforce, we're open to flexible working arrangements where appropriate.