Production Manager - Life Sciences Recruitment in London

We are seeking an experienced Production Manager to lead the end-to-end production and delivery of scientific journal content and associated multimedia outputs. This role is responsible for overseeing the full production lifecycle from accepted manuscript to final publication, ensuring consistently high standards of scientific accuracy, visual quality, and on-time delivery. The Production Manager will lead and support a team of production editors, manage external freelancers, and play a key role in shaping the future direction and continuous improvement of production workflows and outputs. The role spans scientific journals, client programmes, and a wide range of digital and multimedia content including articles, posters, podcasts, webinars, and other digital assets. The role works closely with Editorial, Design, Marketing, and Client Success teams, reports to the Senior Manager, Editorial, and serves as a key production contact for external clients.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and own end-to-end production workflows for journal and digital content, from accepted manuscripts through to final publication and upload.
• Own production schedules and capacity planning, ensuring deadlines are met and risks to delivery are identified and managed proactively.
• Take full ownership of production quality, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and high visual standards across all outputs.
• Lead the design, development, and maintenance of journal templates and online files, ensuring layouts and formats are modern, clear, and aligned with current publishing and design trends.
• Apply advanced Adobe InDesign expertise to complex typesetting, template creation, and the design of layouts from scratch, including posters, infographics, reports, and programme-specific assets.
• Create high-quality scientific illustrations in Adobe Illustrator, translating author figures and complex scientific concepts into clear, accurate visuals.
• Oversee the production of digital and multimedia content, including sponsored articles, reports, newsletters, posters, podcasts, webinars, and other creative assets, in collaboration with internal teams and clients.
• Act as the primary production contact for clients, owning timelines, production queries, and delivery expectations.
• Manage external freelancers, including recruitment, briefing, scheduling, quality control, and budget oversight.
• Line-manage and develop the production team, setting clear priorities, maintaining efficient workflows, and ensuring consistently high standards of output.
• Own and continuously improve production processes, documentation, and quality controls across journals and digital outputs.
• Provide regular updates to the Senior Manager, Editorial on delivery status, resourcing, budgets, and production risks.

Essential skills and experience

• Significant experience in digital production within scientific, academic, or technical publishing.
• Advanced, demonstrable expertise in Adobe InDesign, including complex typesetting and template creation.
• Advanced skills in Adobe Illustrator, with experience creating original scientific illustrations.
• Strong eye for design and visual communication, with the ability to translate complex scientific information into clear, accurate layouts and graphics.
• Proven experience managing multiple production schedules in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
• Experience line-managing teams and working with external freelancers, including responsibility for resourcing and budgets.
• Excellent communication skills, with confidence working with internal stakeholders, direct reports, and external clients.
• Experience working in biomedical or life sciences publishing environments.
• A degree in a scientific discipline, or equivalent professional experience working in biomedical science.

Desirable

• Experience working with open access journals.
• Familiarity with journal platforms or content management systems.
• Experience collaborating closely with sales or client success teams.
• Understanding of publishing ethics and compliance within a scientific journal context.