Head of Publishing Strategy & Performance

JOIN THE COMMUNITY. Making science better, together. Be part of a community working together to make science better. A society publisher with the perfect blend of not-for-profit purpose and commercial perspective. Here, we help each other be the best we can be: a team big enough to impact and small enough to care.

At IOP Publishing, our mission is to make science accessible, discoverable, and impactful. As our new Head of Publishing Strategy and Performance, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our publishing programme and ensuring we continue to serve the global scientific community with excellence. This is a strategic, relationship-driven, high visibility role—perfect for someone who enjoys working at the intersection of publishing, data, market insight, and organisational strategy.

About the Role: In this influential leadership position, you will partner closely with our Chief Publishing Officer, the Senior Publishing Management Team, and colleagues across Publishing, Sales, Finance, and Technology. Your work will help us understand market shifts, respond to industry trends, and make confident, data-informed decisions.

What will you be doing?

• Lead the development of future-facing publishing strategies that drive growth, respond to market change, and unlock new opportunities.
• Partner with leaders across the company to shape commercial and regional plans that deliver on IOPP’s goals and objectives.
• Track and interpret performance against strategic objectives, identifying areas for course correction.
• Lead and develop our Insights Team, ensuring high-quality business, customer, and market intelligence supports decision making across IOPP.
• Build and maintain strong networks across the scholarly publishing sector to keep IOPP at the forefront of industry developments.

This role is central to helping IOPP stay agile, informed, and aligned in a rapidly evolving publishing landscape.

About You: You will bring a blend of strategic thinking, commercial understanding, and exceptional communication skills. We are looking for someone who is energised by complex problem solving and confident influencing at senior levels.

• Deep knowledge of STM journal publishing, industry trends, and the needs of researchers, funders, librarians, and learned societies.
• Experience shaping or implementing publishing strategy, commercial plans, or market analysis.
• Strong numerical and analytical skills, with the ability to interpret data and guide high-quality decision making.
• A collaborative working style, skilled at building trusted relationships across teams.
• The confidence to lead conversations, influence without direct authority, and communicate complex ideas with clarity.
• The ability to see the bigger picture while staying connected to operational realities.
• A degree is essential, and postgraduate experience in the physical sciences (MSc or PhD) is helpful but not required.

We pride ourselves on being a flexible and inclusive employer, if you have a preference to work flexibly, please do apply.

Who We Are: IOP Publishing is a society-owned scientific publisher, providing impact, recognition and value for the scientific community. As the publishing arm of the Institute of Physics, 100% of our profit goes towards public and scientific good.

Why work with us at IOP Publishing:

• Purpose: We are a world leader in the development of electronic publishing for the scientific community - working in the interests of science and scientists, we aim to maximise the impact of the research we publish.
• Culture: We offer a truly international culture with offices in Europe, Asia and the US and our reach is global. Our culture is the perfect blend of dedicated and intelligent professionalism, informal, friendly collaboration and authenticity with a social conscience.
• Financial Benefits: a competitive salary starting from £60,000 (Band D), an excellent pension scheme (up to 12% company contribution), a discretionary annual bonus scheme and a range of other useful and cost-saving benefits available through our benefits platform.
• Health and Wellbeing: 33+ days holiday (including bank holidays), plus an extra day’s leave to use for a moment that matters to you, a 35-hour working week, life assurance, cycle to work scheme, dental insurance, health care cash plan, and a great positive working environment in our brand new office in central Bristol - modern airy and designed with all of our colleagues in mind – for work and social time.
• Flexibility: a flexible hybrid working environment to suit everyone’s needs- we don't need you in the office every day so we can consider applicants from further afield who can travel to Bristol on a monthly basis depending on when face to face time is needed.

And last but not least, did we mention that we are unique? IOP Publishing is central to the Institute of Physics, a not-for-profit society and we gift-aid all our profits to support science through the activities of the Institute.

To apply, please submit your CV through our careers site. IOP Publishing is an equal opportunity employer. Our goal is to ensure that diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) are built into our identity in a way that is natural and sustainable, visible through the work we produce, our company branding, our professional networks and the communities we serve and support, which includes our employees, talent communities and candidates. We particularly welcome applicants from under-represented backgrounds.

We make recruitment and workplace adjustments wherever we can, so please let us know if there’s anything that we can do to support you.

Please note that we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for candidates. If, however you already have the right to work in the UK or hold an eligible work permit or visa, we encourage you to apply for this position.