Senior Production Manager

Lead a team of Production Managers within the Publishing, Editing, and Content Writing industry!

Title: Senior Production Manager
Department: Emerging Services (EA/CPub/APub/TL)
Position Reports To: Director of Editorial Production
FLSA Status: Exempt

Overview

Elite Editing is a full-service editing and writing firm dedicated to producing high-quality content for a wide variety of clients. Along with our sister company, Elite Authors, we offer content, publishing, and creative support for companies of all sizes.

We are looking for a Senior Production Manager to lead the project delivery and production team for all Emerging Services at Elite (Thought Leadership, Elite Authors, and Elite Editing Publishing). The primary responsibilities are threefold: maintaining and growing key client relationships, managing/supporting the production team, and managing projects and production processes from start to finish. 

This is a full-time remote role that requires availability Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm [EST/PST] or a portion thereof (if based in a different time zone). Compensation is commensurate with experience and includes competitive base pay, company paid holidays, floating holidays, PTO, remote work technology stipend, and health reimbursement arrangement (HRA), in addition to a great culture and work environment!

5 Key Responsibilities

Account Management: 

• Responsible for developing and maintaining client relationships, to include: identifying and meeting client needs, building out project approval workflows, leading key meetings, initiating action items to our internal delivery teams, and being accountable for the execution of team goals, ensuring clients derive maximum value from our services.
• Position us for growth, and loop in the Director of Editorial Production for sales opportunities.
• Work closely with production teams to determine root causes for customer success or failure, and drive requirements for product or process enhancement and development as needed.
• Support strategies to improve client satisfaction scores.

Production Team Management/LMA (Lead, Manage, Hold Accountable)

• Leadership and management of the production team to include: professional development, performance management, trust/relationship building, goal setting, and resource management.
• Run L10 meetings and ensure the teamwide effective use of EOS.
• Manage team capacity and productivity through metrics and data to ensure cost effective use of resources.
• Expand team capacity flexibility through cross-training and scalable (part-time) support. 
• Hold the team accountable to follow standardized business practices for updating project statuses and tracking metrics.
• Drive enhanced profitability by minimizing scope creep, reducing delivery lead times, improving operational efficiencies, and proactively identifying and addressing factors that impact profitability.  

Strategic Oversight of Production Process, Product Delivery, and Quality Assurance:

• Optimize client relationships, ensuring we complete as much work as possible for each client.  
• Develop and implement delivery and production timelines, set team goals, develop strategies to support these goals, and hold the team accountable to meet client and internal deadlines. 
• Audit team’s progress toward shared and individual projects.
• Hold team accountable for keeping process documents updated/maintained.
• Own quality assurance of the production process by holding the team accountable for accuracy in process implementation and record keeping.

Process Efficiency, Use of Tech and Optimization:

• Ownership over the product delivery process for all Emerging Services.
• Identify and implement process improvements with the Process Improvement team to enhance efficiency and productivity. 
• Utilize project management software to streamline production processes. 
• Be proficient in production tools and technologies, and train team members to utilize them accurately.
• Has both capacity and excitement for working on a wide variety of client segments and types, nimbly hopping from one tea or task to another.

Collaboration and Communication:

• Collaborate with the Editorial Manager and Director of Editorial Production, Director of Business Development to ensure cross-functional processes are efficient and effective.
• Work with the Director of Editorial Production and Executive Editor to evaluate what resources are needed for the team to complete the work.
• Facilitate clear and effective communication among all stakeholders involved in staffing and production. 

Forecasting, Scoping, and Billing Ownership:

• Have ownership over forecasting monthly work, and the accuracy of freelance invoicing and client billing. 
• Define KPIs for teams around accurate billing and project tracking.
• Support Director of Editorial Production and Executive Editor in scoping new work and onboarding new clients. 
• Pull billing reports and deliver to accounting monthly.
• Report on past, current, and next months’ work volume projections. 
• Hold the team accountable for accuracy of project tracking and freelance rate tracking.

A successful candidate will:

• Have a human-centered approach.  You are comfortable and confident in holding teams accountable for our core values and competencies in work.
• Be a strong communicator, with clear effective communication skills, written and verbal.
• Be able to prioritize. You have an innate ability to prioritize and adapt to recognize when something goes off process and communicate quickly.
• Have project management experience. You are knowledgeable around key concepts including phases, plans, deliverables, scope, working with freelancers, and tasks and are adept at supporting a team’s ability to work well.
• Be organized and confident. You are flexible, composed, and able to prioritize multiple tasks and deadlines simultaneously while confidently interacting with clients, teammates, senior leaders, and vendors.
• Be a driven and solutions-oriented leader. You are united with teammates and follow through on commitments.
• Be analytical and creative. You leverage data to drive decision-making, and you are always thinking of new ways of problem solving. 
• Have a bias for action. You are passionate about business and have dissatisfaction with the status quo—you’re always thinking of ways to improve/grow assigned clients.
• Can see the big picture and liaise with all stakeholders involved. You use business acumen, demonstrate sound analytics-based decision making in a fast-paced environment, and take a consultative approach to managing complex stakeholder relationships.

Qualifications:

• 5+ years in project or production management
• 3+ years in team management/leadership
• 3+ years in customer success, and/or account relationship management
• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field of study or equivalent work experience
• Mastery of English language (grammar, usage, and spelling) and superior attention to detail
• Be tech savvy and able to learn new programs and software quickly