Position Announcement: Director of Publications

ECS, the world’s leading society publisher in electrochemistry & solid state technology, is seeking a talented, innovative, and proactive Director of Publications to lead the strategic direction of its Publications department.

ECS (The Electrochemical Society) is a leading nonprofit publisher in the electrochemical and solid state sciences located in Pennington, NJ, with a long history of successful support of the scientific community it serves. The ideal candidate either works for a publishing house, a scholarly society, or perhaps in another role involving scholarly publications and have built a reputation for success.

Position Summary
Serves as senior staff member responsible for the overall strategic direction of the ECS publications (journals, ECS Transactions, and Interface) and all content in the ECS Digital Library. Assists with the creation and implementation of special projects and initiatives that advance the mission of the organization, which is to provide the greatest possible dissemination of the technical content. Strives to make ECS the top publisher in electrochemical and solid state science, maintaining consistency with ECS mission, goals, and objectives.

Essential Functions

Leadership and Management

1. Provides strategic analysis to ECS staff and volunteer leadership to ensure publications are satisfying organizational goals and objectives; creates and executes the distribution of technical publications and content from the ECS Digital Library (DL).
2. Conducts cost-benefit analysis to determine efficiency and value-added to the organization; makes appropriate recommendations to leadership. Responsible for the Publications Unit annual budget and responsible for the dashboard of publications key performance indicators.
3. Responsible for the activities and agendas of the Publications Subcommittee and Editorial Boards. Maintains frequent communications with authors/attendees and volunteers including the Society officers, Division officers, committee members, and symposium organizers.
4. Implements the strategic direction of ECS publications, which involves location, frequency, content delivery, schedule, and applications of new technology to advance content discoverability and distribution.
5. Provides leadership and expertise to ECS staff and volunteer leadership team on the operational and technical direction of the publications.
6. Develops, implements, and ensures adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to facilitate successful publications and to enable greatest staff productivity.
7. Directs the Publications Unit and provides coordination and motivation for the staff including: recruiting new staff members, preparing performance appraisals, establishing objectives; and makes recommendations for hiring, promotions/advancement, and terminations. Ensures that the publications staff is meeting organizational and unit performance goals and objectives.

ECS Digital Library

1. Directs the development and implementation of the publications programs, projects, products, and services in the DL.
2. Collaborates with the ECS Director of Meetings to develop best practices for generating and distributing content, and to capitalize on other opportunities that sponsored meetings may present.
3. Directs the ECS Subscriptions program.
4. Oversees the abstracting and indexing of DL content to ensure correct and prompt service to libraries and authors.
5. Ensures that products support the organizational vision and meet industry standards of excellence.
6. Directs the annual Young Authors Awards program.
7. Directs the rights and permissions program for ECS content.
8. Liaison to the ECS Marketing and Digital Engagement Department for promoting publications, authors, and other key content players.
9. Implements aspects of social media for use in promoting ECS publications (and other programs).
10. Provides other administrative and program support as requested by the Deputy Executive Director.

Skills and Experience

1. Bachelor’s degree in publishing, English, marketing and communications, or related field and four years of experience in editing, writing, editorial research, marketing and communications, or publishing production; or, eight years of progressively responsible experience in writing, editing, editorial research, marketing and communications, or publishing production; or, any equivalent combination of education and/or experience from which comparable knowledge, skills, and abilities have been attained.
2. Eight-plus years of experience in publishing with a minimum of three years experience in a leadership role.
3. Strong financial and business acumen; ability to develop and manage budgets, and provide analytics for decision-making.
4. Strong creativity and innovation skills to take a broad view, look for meaningful connections, translate new ideas into workable solutions, and encourage others to do the same.
5. Initiative and follow-through on important priorities, to overcome obstacles, take appropriate risks, and keep moving toward goals. Ability to handle multiple priorities well.
6. Strong interpersonal and influencing skills to successfully manage demanding goals and objectives
7. Exceptional, proven project management skills with experience in managing major projects.
8. Strong leadership and mentoring abilities.

To apply
Please send a letter of application, supporting CV or résumé, and salary history to:
Tonya.woodland@electrochem.org