Senior Education Editor (Sciences); £30,000 to £40,000; Permanent

Senior Education Editor (Sciences) required for education publisher ZigZag Education in their busy office in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol.

Very exciting role at a successful secondary-education publisher where you will be responsible for the publication of new teaching resources from conception to distribution. A large part of the role is prioritising, coordinating and working with authors. You will also be involved in marketing strategy and importantly writing marketing copy. The role involves:

• Working closely with the Commissioning Editor to agree targets, which involves forward-planning for subject areas and strategic planning on how this can be achieved.
• Managing individual projects, including looking at samples and new proposals, developing briefs for authors, inspiring authors to write and complete their projects, tight budgeting and cost control, assessing drafts for quality and match to syllabus, and managing the peer review and feedback/update loop with author until final draft agreed.
• Overseeing the publication process, including proofreading, editing, formatting/typesetting and publisher checks.
• Writing advertising copy, compilation and design of marketing leaflets, analysing previous marketing results and planning marketing strategies with the Commissioning Editor.
• Post-publication: appropriately responding to customer queries/feedback, making improvements with authors, and developing second editions of original resources.

The senior role includes:

• Extending existing ranges by building on other resources with creative input
• Generating new ideas to help contribute to the successful development of each subject in new directions
• Applying your years of experience in teaching, publishing or project management, including proven organisational and time-management skills
• Developing and effectively managing a team of Assistant Educational Editors and Internal Writers to help you to achieve your overriding objectives
• Ability to project manage all subject areas including those not previously studied
• Delivering internal training modules, and using your experience to develop the internal training
• Meeting financial targets and setting your own objectives each year

We have developed an in-house training scheme specifically for this role: high-intensity training for the first few weeks, a high level of mentoring and feedback for the first few months as you build up to managing a full portfolio of projects, and subsequent training modules to give you a comprehensive understanding of each part of the role.

Starting pay is dependent on experience. For example, proven track record of successfully meeting targets whilst managing a large workload and multiple projects, working with new authors, and experience in secondary education publishing and/or teaching. The strongest candidates will have evidence of ingenuity and advanced thinking, relating their work to the financial impact, taking higher levels of responsibility, and ensuring that important projects don’t fail.

As an education publisher we require a person with a very strong academic background. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated this through excellent GCSEs, A Levels and a degree. You are required to complete a six-month probationary period.