Join our team to build our content operations
We’re currently recruiting for a senior content designer who will lead our content operations function and play a key role in shaping our future service as we build a new content management system.
We’re looking for an experienced content design professional with an eye for service management and the ability to support early career colleagues.
The role will have responsiblity for:
- the annual prospective student content curation cycle, including liaison with colleagues across 3 colleges, 21 schools and numerous student-facing support services
- coaching and managing a small team of content designers in the early stages of their careers
- reporting on team activity and the status of working relationships with service areas where we’ve previously run enhancement projects
The team
We’ve been in operation for nearly three years now, and in that time our outgoing Content Operations Lead, Cameron Edwards, has overseen a range of improvement initiatives that have significantly changed how we serve our school-based customers and through this improved online experiences for prospective students.
Read: Growing our content operations maturity by Cameron Edwards
The content operations team works alongside another content design team who have responsibility for running enhancement projects which play a significant part in evolving the website estate this role has responsibility for.
You’ll have the chance to work alongside and learn from an experienced, user centred content designer in Lauren Tormey and build a growing community of practice both within and beyond our team.
Read blog posts by Lauren Tormey
As well as joining a group of 7 content designers, our team also comprises two user experience specialists, a performance analyst and a software developer. We’re a truly cross functional team, running agile projects to deliver iteratively – they way it’s meant to be done.
Read about a recent enhancement project for the Immigration Service
And the team is lead by me, Neil. I’ve been working in the public sector in a range of CMS service, content design, and UX roles for over 20 years.
So this is a great opportunity to learn, collaborate and contribute your expertise to make a difference. You’ll have the chance to share your experiences both internally within our marketing and web publishing communities, and externally at conferences like Content Ed.
Freya Cookson and Lauren Tormey are presenting at Content Ed 2022
This is an exciting time to join our team, and have a significant impact on the future of online provision to prospective students. That may sound a bit corny, but it’s true. We’re just embarking on a 3 year project to build a new content management system and are already well on our way to reimagining our provision to prospective students and our service to colleagues. The new digital products we deliver will be at the core of the service you will manage.
Read my post: Presenting a future state for prospective student online provision (May 2022)
Our multidisciplinary team work collaboratively on agile projects
About you
- You need to be process-minded with excellent customer service skills. Our content operations team service 3 colleges and 21 schools, along with many student support services through a busy academic cycle. Balancing the needs of website visitors with those of our colleagues while maintaining excellent editorial standards is essential.
- You need to be open to learning about our users. We don’t necessarily expect you to be experienced in human-centred design, but you need to care about whether the content you design really works. Be ready to get involved in user research and analytics to really understand student needs and show how you’ve changed online behaviours.
- You need to be committed to the discipline of content design. Again, you don’t need to know everything but you do need to be ready to challenge and be challenged. Joining a dedicated team of content specialists will bring new opportunities and require editorial discipline. This is less about content creation and more about content curation.
- You need to have a collaborative mindset. We work as a multidisciplinary team, so you need to be ready to collaborate, support and lead colleagues across the University. We have many subject matter experts in a wide range of fields – both academic and administrative – and they need to be brought along with our approach and philosophy. We need you to give colleagues confidence in our expertise and support them in the adoption of new content management processes.
We regularly invite colleagues review usability test videos of students attempting top tasks on the website. (Admittedly more often in video calls these days).
Key details
- Salary range: £35,333 to £42,155
- 40 days paid annual leave per year
- Open-ended contract
- Excellent pension and benefits (check the reward calculator to understand the full offer)
- Closing date: Wednesday 14 September 2022
- Apply with a CV and cover letter
Read full job details and apply via the University’s jobs website
Questions?
If you’d like to learn more about our work, explore this blog (especially the team introduction blog post) and get in touch with me.
