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Product Assistant, Bloomsbury Digital Resources

We would like to recruit an enthusiastic person to join our Product Management team as a Digital Product Assistant, reporting to the Digital Product Manager for Performing Arts and Video. Our team is part of Bloomsbury Digital Resources, 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 publishing for a digital environment. Working on our industry-leading online products for drama and film studies, Drama Online and Screen Studies, as well as the division’s video content, you will be central to shaping, developing, launching and managing some of our multi-award-winning suite of digital products.

The role will provide a great opportunity for candidates who are looking to start a career in a dynamic, fast-growing and forward-looking part of academic publishing. Bloomsbury is 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 work life balance and we offer flexible working options. This full-time role is only expected to be in the office 2 days per week 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

Product Management

  • 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 would respond 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

Content Management

  • 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, oversee processing of video and audio content, video transcription, and subject indexing of content by external freelancers, maintain title lists and other metadata
  • Prepare product metadata for supply to third parties such as MARC record suppliers and discovery services

Product Development

  • Assist the Product Management team in market research with end users
  • Assist with identifying issues and bugs for new products, and User Acceptance Testing after launch

Knowledge, skills and experience 

  • Experience in publishing, web editing or digital product development, or related areas
  • 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 digital product management
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills (written and verbal)
  • Some experience of working with Content Management Systems and/or coding (e.g. XML, HTML, CSS) not essential but advantageous
  • Some experience of working with video content not essential but advantageous

Additional information

The role is a full-time permanent position with an annual salary of £24,000.

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 Friday 8th April 2022.

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:

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

That Day – online fitness classes, mindfulness, cookery classes, workshops etc.

Company culture! – Employee Voice Meetings, Staff Networks (BAME, Disability, Mental Health, LGBTQ+ and Parents, Guardians and Carers), 15 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.

Product Assistant, Bloomsbury Digital Resources

Full-time, Permanent
Publisher
Administration, Assistant, Publishing, Communications, Data, Business Development, Project Management, Product Management, Digital, Online
Reference: 
Product Assistant, Bloomsbury Digital Resources
Salary description: 
£24,000

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