Head of Content Commissioning and Editorial

Salary: Up to £50K per annum dependent on experience, plus company benefits

Location: 18 Central Avenue, St Andrews Business Park, Norwich NR7 OHR

Contract: Permanent, full time

Shifts: 37.5 hours per week worked Mon-Fri 9am-5:30pm with a 1-hour unpaid lunch

Work model: Hybrid

Williams Lea and TSO seek a Head of Content Development to join our team!

Purpose of the Role

We're looking for a skilled and inspiring Head of Content Development to lead a team of publishing professionals and editors, as one coordinated group. You will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of a busy publishing schedule across multiple clients - managing, prioritising, and supporting projects within time, cost, and quality thresholds. This role is ideal for someone with a strong background in the publishing sector, particularly in managing the development and delivery of long-form content such as books, manuals, training materials, or educational resources. Experience with digital and print formats is essential, as is a solid understanding of editorial workflows from concept to final delivery.

Alongside ensuring successful execution of the publishing schedule, you will bring creativity, innovation, and commercial insight to help identify new product opportunities that meet user needs in a digital-first environment. You will be responsible for setting and upholding editorial standards across all outputs and managing both in-house and external editorial resources. You'll thrive in a leadership role, be passionate about operational excellence, and bring deep experience in publishing processes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and support a multidisciplinary publishing team, including editors and content development professionals
• Manage the commissioning and delivery of long-form publishing products in both print and digital formats (e.g. print books, eBooks, e-learning, manuals)
• Oversee workloads and scheduling, ensuring the effective prioritisation and delivery of projects
• Act as the senior escalation point for project and editorial challenges
• Guide the end-to-end development of publishing products - from concept, commissioning, and author management through to production and publication
• Identify and develop new content opportunities that align with client needs and audience demands
• Work closely with the rest of the publishing department and other functional teams (client services, sales and marketing) to ensure content is delivered to specification, on time and on budget
• Lead the onboarding and contract negotiation process for authors, contributors, and freelancers
• Set and maintain high editorial standards across all content, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and adherence to style and tone
• Allocate editorial work and supervise internal and freelance editors
• Act as the escalation point for complex editorial decisions
• Refine editorial processes to support long-form, digital-first product development
• Monitor timelines, budgets, and deliverables across multiple concurrent publishing projects
• Ensure effective coordination between editorial, design, marketing, and sales teams
• Continuously review and improve workflows to enhance team efficiency and product quality
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key client contacts
• Understand and respond to client strategies, priorities, and audience requirements
• Represent the business confidently in meetings and presentations, showcasing publishing expertise
• Support the development and presentation of content ideas and publishing solutions aligned with client goals

Skills & Competencies

• Significant experience in traditional publishing or content development, ideally across both print and digital formats
• Proven ability to lead and develop multidisciplinary teams within a publishing environment
• Strong understanding of editorial workflows, including commissioning, editing, proofreading, production, and publishing
• Demonstrated experience with long-form content such as books, manuals, or educational resources
• Strong project management skills and ability to manage competing priorities and deadlines
• Excellent editorial judgement and meticulous attention to detail
• Commercially aware with the ability to balance audience needs with business goals
• Comfortable working closely with clients, authors, freelancers, and cross-functional teams

Personal Attributes

• Organised, calm under pressure, and solutions-focused
• A supportive leader who builds collaborative, high-performing teams
• Confident communicator with strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills
• Proactive, curious, and enthusiastic about innovation in publishing

Rewards and Benefits

We believe in supporting our employees in both their professional and personal lives. As part of our commitment to your well-being, we offer a comprehensive benefits package, including but not limited to:

• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part time roles)
• Salary sacrifice schemes, retail vouchers - including our TechScheme which can be used on a range of gadgets such as Smart TVs, laptops and computers or household appliances.
• Life Assurance
• Private Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Health Assessments
• Cycle-to-work scheme
• Discounted gym memberships
• Referral Scheme

You will also have the opportunity to work for a global employer who is dedicated to offering each and every employee an enjoyable, challenging and rewarding career with future career development prospects!

Equality and Diversity

The Company values the differences that a diverse workforce brings to the organisation and will not discriminate because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation (each of these being a "protected characteristic" in discrimination law). It will not discriminate because of any other irrelevant factor and will build a culture that values openness, fairness and transparency.

If you have a disability and would prefer to apply in a different format or would like to make a reasonable adjustment to enable you to make an interview please contact us at careersatWL@williamslea.com (we do not accept applications to this email address).

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