Commissioning Editor

**ABOUT US**

We are the world’s largest university press. We have both a worldwide reach and a personal understanding of local needs, partnering on the ground to adapt publications and resources to meet the individual needs of communities, societies, and countries. We partner with researchers, educators, and technology partners to stay ahead of the changing ways people around the world are accessing and sharing knowledge. With a presence in more than 50 countries and millions of customers around the world, an idea launched at OUP can have global impact.

**ABOUT THE ROLE**

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford, which furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. The Press’s Education Division provides educational resources and solutions to teachers, parents, learners and institutions in the UK and in countries around the world.

This Commissioning Editor role will sit in the OE International team commissioning and delivering teaching and learning resources for International Secondary schools, including educational coursebooks, supplementary resources and digital services to fit identified market needs. You will oversee the smooth development of new print and digital resources and drive usage of live products through devising updates and improvements. This role will have a strong digital focus and work across International Secondary lists, including the International Baccalaureate, Cambridge, OxfordAQA, Caribbean and MyiMaths.

Key responsibilities in this role will include:

- Building compelling proposals for new products and enhancements to existing services to meet the needs of teachers and learners in International Schools, including managing subscription updates.
- Developing product concepts through market research, consultation with international sales and external collaboration with schools, educational experts and external exam board partners. Direct authors and editors on the required approach, structure, and level to meet customer needs.
- Identifying and nurturing new author talent and build strong author relationships. Negotiate terms and contract with authors with guidance from list Heads. Train and support authors to deliver high quality material in line with agreed project schedules and budgets.
- Guiding authors and content providers on content delivery and work with partners and advisors to input into the process of structural editing; organise and oversee editorial development work so that content is appropriate, accurate and accessible for the target audiences, and consistent with the project brief.
- Creating and overseeing project schedules and manage projects through to delivery. Lead on process improvements and the effective use of systems and best practise to anticipate risks, plan ahead, allocate appropriate resources and problem solve to ensure that products are delivered efficiently and on time.
- Undertaking market research among users of existing products and services, and develop plans for updates and revisions to maximise learning outcomes. Obtain and share feedback on the Impact on learning and input into product marketing to ensure services are presented accurately to customers.
- Liaising with other publishing teams and departments to input into wider divisional publishing plans, where appropriate, to ensure the needs of international customers are taken into account and to maximise the relevance of these programmes in international schools.
- Recruiting, briefing and managing the best freelance editors and content developers - and in consultation with the secondary editorial manager - estimate, brief and oversea the work of inhouse editors so that project aims are met.
- Leading on project costings, outlining possible business models and maximising financial viability and scalability. Manage budgets across designated projects and problem solve to keep spend on track.
- Communicating effectively with other departments to ensure a shared understanding of the drivers for success for all projects. Ensure inter-departmental teams have all the information they need about the target audience, the competitive environment, and unique selling points of the products and services within the list.

We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office.

**ABOUT YOU**

To be successful in this role, you will ideally have:

- Editorial or educational publishing experience, ideally in a similar field
- Some commissioning experience
- Awareness of international schools’ market needs
- Familiarity with writing project briefs and quality checking author submissions
- Financial literacy and confidence setting and managing budgets
- Project management experience
- Experience and enthusiasm for developing digital content, in line with user needs
- Ability to analyse usage data to make decisions

**BENEFITS**

We care about work/life balance h