Commissioning Editor, International Primary Literacy

Education changes lives forever. It broadens horizons, breaks down barriers, and fires imaginations. As the world's largest university press, we have both a worldwide reach and a personal understanding of local needs. We work with researchers, educators, and technology partners to stay ahead of the evolving ways in which learners 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

This is an exciting opportunity to develop market-leading reading resources to support teaching and learning in schools around the world.

We are looking for an outstanding Commissioning Editor with a proven track record in creating engaging learning materials and leading successful projects from concept to launch.

You will be responsible for devising and commissioning resources for International Primary Schools, including educational reading books and digital services.

You will oversee the smooth development of new resources and maximize usage of live services through updates and improvements.

Key Responsibilities

• Build compelling proposals for new products and enhancements to existing services to meet the needs of teachers and learners in International Schools.
• Develop product concepts through market research, consultation with sales and external collaboration with schools and educational experts.
• Identify and nurture new author talent and build strong author relationships; train and support authors to deliver high quality material in line with agreed project schedules and budgets.
• Guide authors on content delivery and work with partners and advisors to input into the process of content editing to ensure suitability for the target audience.
• Create and oversee project schedules and manage projects through to delivery; anticipating risks and problem solving to ensure products are delivered on time and to budget.
• Undertake market research among users of existing products and services and develop plans for updates to drive customer engagement and positively impact learning outcomes.
• Recruit, brief and manage the best freelance editors and content developers - and estimate, brief and oversee the work of inhouse editors to ensure project aims are met.
• Lead on project costings, maximising financial viability and scalability. Manage budgets across your projects to keep spend on track.
• Communicate effectively with other departments to ensure a shared understanding of the drivers for success for your projects
• Be a champion of learner needs, ensuring the business fully understands your target audience, the competitive environment, and the unique selling points of the products and services that you manage.

We operate a hybrid working policy and are open to discussing flexibility within this. We expect this role to require 1-2 days per week in our Oxford office.

About You

The successful candidate must demonstrate the following:

• A creative and innovative mindset
• Editorial or educational experience, ideally in a similar field
• Familiarity with writing project briefs and quality checking author submissions
• Financial literacy and confidence setting and managing budgets
• Proven project management experience
• Excellent communication and influencing skills

Benefits

We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days' holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect of working hours and the use of technology to support regular remote working, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies.

We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts.

Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.

Queries

Please contact with any queries relating to this role.

This vacancy may close before the advertised closing date. If you are interested, please submit your application as soon as possible.

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.