Product Assistant, Bloomsbury Collections & Professional Online

The opportunity

We are looking for a highly organised and effective Digital Product Assistant to help scale up and streamline the release of content across our growing portfolio of award-winning digital platforms. We are part of Bloomsbury Digital Resources (BDR), which sits within the wider Bloomsbury Academic and Professional Division.

You will be joining a dynamic, growing and friendly team, who are re-imagining Bloomsbury’s academic and professional publishing for a digital environment. As the Digital Product Assistant, you will play a key role by coordinating content delivery across teams and contributing to the future success of the division.

Bloomsbury strives to be an inclusive employer and publisher, and is the 2022 winner of the London Book Fair Inclusivity in Publishing Award. We are a key player in scholarly publishing and winner of The Bookseller’s Academic, Educational & Professional Publisher of the Year Award 2021.

Bloomsbury values the importance of life–work balance and we offer flexible working options. This role is only expected to be in the office 2 days per week (Wednesday and Thursday) and we offer a core hours policy of 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, with flexible Fridays throughout the year. See below for further details.

The role

Assist the digital product management teams responsible for two flagship products for the Academic and Professional division – Bloomsbury Collections and Bloomsbury Professional Online.

• Support the Product Management team in ensuring that content updates and enhancements for digital products are performed to an agreed schedule.
• Use Bloomsbury’s platform admin interfaces to create and edit site pages and load content, with opportunities to be involved in the visual design of webpages.
• Liaise with sales, marketing and customer services to communicate addition of new content and product enhancements. 
• Develop expertise on specific products, becoming the ‘product champion’ who will assist with responding to queries from sales, marketing and customers, troubleshooting and escalating issues as required, and contributing to strategic development of those products.
• Provide regular website usage reports and help identify opportunities for improving site content and features.
• Assist the Product Management team with content updates: manage schedules for upcoming updates, work with colleagues in related departments (Content Architecture, Editorial and Production) to track and progress tasks, maintain title lists and other metadata.
• Assist the Product Management team in market research with end user.
• Assist with identifying issues and bugs for new products, and User Acceptance Testing after launch.
• Undertake competitor analysis, reporting on updated or new products, features and functionality.

This role reports to the Senior Manager, Product Innovation, and works closely with the rest of Product Management, the Content Architecture team, our Developers, and the entire scope of the Academic and Professional Editorial team. There will also be regular liaison with Digital Production.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of duties. The need for flexibility is required and the job holder is expected to carry out any other related duties that are within the employee's skills and abilities whenever reasonably instructed. 

This job description does not form part of your contract of employment.

Knowledge, skills and experience 

Essential:

• Experience in publishing, web editing or digital product development, or related areas.
• Highly organised, with ability to coordinate tasks across different teams and external vendors.
• Strong IT skills, especially MS Word and Excel.
• Excellent implementation and time-management skills.
• A keen eye for detail and a logical, problem-solving approach.
• A proactive, “can-do” attitude and enthusiastic team player.
• Curiosity and willingness to learn.
• Passion and interest in developing a career in publishing and digital product management.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills (written and verbal).

Desirable:

• Experience of working with Content Management Systems and/or coding (e.g. XML, HTML, CSS).
• Experience working with and manipulating large data sets.
• Experience of using Google Analytics.

Additional information

The role is a full-time, permanent position with an annual salary of £25,000.

The role is based at our London office (50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP) on a hybrid working pattern of 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred).  Allocated office days for this role are: Wednesday and Thursday.

As an Assistant role, this position is eligible for Bloomsbury’s Rental Deposit Loan Scheme. To assist candidates who want to start and to establish a career in publishing, Bloomsbury offers an interest-free rental deposit to support securing somewhere to live. The rental deposit loan can be up to £3,000 and will be paid back over 2 years.

Please apply with a CV and covering letter addressed to Human Resources (Word or PDF format only) via the ‘APPLY NOW’ button detailing how you meet the requirements outlined above for this role by Monday 23rd October 2023.

Bloomsbury reserve the right to close the role early if we exceed the required number of applications

Bloomsbury Benefits

As well as a fantastic opportunity to join a global award-winning organisation, Bloomsbury offers the following competitive benefits package:

Working Pattern

• hybrid working pattern of: 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred)

Holidays

• 25 days holiday
• 3.5 days Christmas company holiday

Other Benefits:

Two paid Personal Wellness Days

Flexible Fridays – take Friday afternoon off by working an additional 3 hours and 45 minutes earlier in the week

Season Ticket Loan

Sharesave Scheme

In-house Doctor

Eyecare Voucher Scheme

Company culture! – Employee Voice Meetings, Staff Networks (Bloom, Disability, Mental Health, Pride and Parents, Guardians and Carers), 12 Mental Health First Aiders trained across the UK offices, Publishing Events and access to free Publishing Resources

Bloomsbury is a place where anyone of any background, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender identity, age, ability, or socio-economic status can thrive, feel comfortable, and be heard and accepted. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

We are willing to make any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please flag to the recruitment team if required

Applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK.

The Book Trade Charity provide financial assistance for people looking to get into the publishing industry; you can find more information and talk directly here: http://booktradeentrysupport.org

The Company

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Bloomsbury Publishing is a leading independent publishing house, established in 1986, with authors who have won the Nobel, Pulitzer and Booker Prizes, and is the originating publisher and custodian of the Harry Potter series. Bloomsbury has offices in London, New York, New Delhi, Oxford and Sydney. Within Bloomsbury’s Academic division, it publishes under Bloomsbury, as well as under a number of prestigious and historic imprint names. Read Our Story for how it all began. 

 Bloomsbury is committed to creating a working environment that stimulates creativity and collaboration, is respectful of difference, is inclusive and ethical in its practice, and promotes well-being. We are determined to nurture and develop our employees to reach their highest potential, and we know that our success is down to the passion, commitment and hard work of our talented people. We recognise the urgent need to attract and support applicants from all backgrounds and identities to become part of the global publishing industry, allowing diverse voices to reflect and shape our culture and society.

Please read more on our Missions and Values here.

Please read our environmental policy here.