Senior Product Manager

eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

We are seeking a Product Manager to work in eLife s Display Team, covering the eLife Journal Platform and the brand new Enhanced Preprint Platform.

eLife is a non-profit organisation inspired by research funders and led by scientists. Our mission is to help scientists accelerate discovery by operating a platform for research communication that encourages and recognises the most responsible behaviours in science.

We re on an exciting journey to transform how research is shared and discovered. The growing popularity of preprints has enabled researchers to make their papers freely and immediately available to anyone with an internet connection, and eLife are seizing that opportunity by creating technology that allows preprints to be considered as trustworthy as journal articles. Our new products combine these preprints with additional data and peer reviews while integrating them into traditional discovery methods through the journal website.

What you ll be doing

You ll join a small, enthusiastic cross-functional team passionate about continuous improvement and building tools to enable positive change. Everyone gets involved in all aspects of the platform, regularly discussing the next software feature to experiment with based on user feedback and business objectives. You ll represent the needs of the business and our users in those conversations and choose the metrics we use to measure their engagement. You will gather the information you need to prioritise the new value we should deliver each and every day while planning the near-term goals and longer-term strategy for our display products. You ll work closely with our Lead UX Designer to gather input from internal and external stakeholders, balancing new innovations with the expectations and desires of researchers that use our platforms.

The distributed team works remotely in a very sociable way. Most software development occurs through pairing and online huddles with others occasionally joining to provide input and join the conversation. We also have a regular online social session where we learn about each other and share team folklore to improve our shared understanding of what we re building. The team constantly adapts to meet the needs of its members: we meet briefly at the beginning of every day and the end of every week, always looking to make improvements to our process and practices. We also have several ways to reserve time for self-directed and team-based learning.

This role will put you in the driving seat of an introductory stage product solving real problems for scientific researchers, while also managing a complementary product, an established journal for bioscience and medicine. You ll own and shape the product strategy, determining the overall direction of the platforms in response to the needs of our users. You ll have the chance to undertake continuous product discovery through user-driven research. Gathering insights from this qualitative data, complimented by the quantitative data we can access via a variety of tools, you ll identify new opportunities to take the product forward.

About you

You are highly motivated to improve the lives of researchers, particularly those who are underserved and underrepresented by the current academic publishing system. You love the idea of collaborating closely with a diverse range of people to solve complex problems and appreciate that different backgrounds and experiences contribute to great ideas. You are comfortable with rapidly altering course, adapting to changes around you daily and enabling others to do the same. For you, asking the right questions is more important than providing rigid answers. In addition, you re likely to succeed in this role if you have:

• Experience in product management or ownership of any kind of digital product
• Experience working in an agile environment – the team use a flavour of Scrum with continuous delivery and a lean software development approach
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Our offer

eLife are a well-supported, not-for-profit, mission-driven organisation. It s important to us that you thrive as a person, not just at your job. We invest in the wellbeing of our staff and promote a culture where feedback and ideas are welcome from across the company, so you ll get the chance to really make a difference.

The post is a permanent position, 37.5 hours per week, and offers a competitive basic annual salary in the range of £50,000 – £70,000 (depending on experience). Applicants must be able to demonstrate the right to live and work in the UK to be considered for the vacancy. We also offer:

• A flexible approach to working hours and remote working
• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays, increasing on service up to 30 days
• 4 days per year dedicated to your personal development
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Company pension scheme

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our workplace and we actively encourage applications from groups that are underrepresented throughout the industry.

– We want to make sure you have time to find out about us, and we want to find out about you too. We don’t want to take up too much time of your time so our process is quite light.

1. A telephone or video call interview for around 30 minutes with our Tech Lead Manager or Head of Technology and Innovation
2. A session of roughly 2 hours, with breaks, that covers your craft (software development or product management) with 2 people in the first hour, then an informal chat with a slightly larger group (3 or 4 people) after that.
3. Any follow up questions are then by email or quick telephone calls before an offer is made. As we’re a small organisation we can usually turn around offers and contracts very quickly too.

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