Production Manager

The University of London is both the UK’s largest provider of international distance and online learning and the convenor of a federation of 17 renowned higher education institutions. The federation brings together more than 250,000 learners and 50,000 staff in a collaborative community that is delivering high-quality research and education across all disciplines.

The University of London is also home to the School of Advanced Study, a national centre for the humanities, whose mission is to support, promote and facilitate humanities research and training. The University of London Press is an integral part of the School of Advanced Study and is a predominantly open access publisher of high-quality humanities research which supports the School’s strategy.

The Role

The University of London Press team has a fantastic opportunity for a new Production Manager to join it at an exciting moment in its history.

We are a small, friendly team affiliated with the School of Advanced Study at the University of London, based in Senate House in Bloomsbury. We launched a new strategy in 2022 focused on ‘opening up humanities research’ and now publish c.25 new books each year, with an extensive backlist of titles across humanities disciplines which includes authors such as David Crystal and Baroness Brenda Hale. Open access publishing is core to our mission, with our titles being downloaded in over 200 countries and winning prestigious prizes including the inaugural American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and Arcadia-sponsored Open Access Book Prize for History in 2024. We are currently expanding our publishing programme into new areas and formats, with a particular focus on digital publishing including experimental and enhanced open access books.

The Production Manager role has a broad remit across traditional production workflows and evolving processes for publishing iterative, enhanced open access books. Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Overseeing the production of the University of London Press’s growing academic books programme, from receipt of final manuscripts through to publication of final files;
• Working closely with external production suppliers and printers to ensure high-quality outputs;
• Working closely with editorial colleagues and authors on digital production processes for open access books published on our Manifold platform, including experimental and multi-modal books
• Managing the production budget for the Press, managing suppliers to ensure cost-effective and efficient workflows;
• Checking proofs at various stages throughout the production process;
• Ensuring UoL Press books meet accessibility requirements for eBooks and open access editions;
• A range of other activities, including effective metadata and title management.

We are looking for someone with proven experience in academic book production or related roles and an eye for detail, ideally with demonstrable interest in the opportunities for experimentation which open access publishing offers. We are also looking for candidates who have exceptional organisational and communication skills, and experience in dealing with authors directly ideally, with a creative approach to problem-solving.

We offer staff hybrid working (with an expectation of 2 days per week in our London office), an occupational pension scheme, generous annual leave and training and development opportunities. This is being advertised as a full-time role, but we are open to discussions around flexible working patterns, where feasible.

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