Content Commissioning Manager (48892)

E&E is a commercially run business with an income of over £700 million per annum generating financial surpluses that are critical to the overall financial sustainability of the British Council

Our work in English teaching generates annual revenues of nearly £200m annually, with activities spanning a global network of 80 English teaching centres in 50 countries, teaching 400,000 students each year, as well as an emerging portfolio of on-line products and services already reaching over 120 million English learners and teachers annually.

Our work in examinations generates annual revenues of nearly £500m and spans English proficiency testing, including the world’s leading English test IELTS (run in partnership with Cambridge Assessment English and IDP) which is now taken by 3 million candidates worldwide each year, as well as the British Council’s own Aptis test, and a wide range of UK school, professional and other qualifications.

Collaborates with the Learning Design Manager, the Product Owner and other key stakeholders to scope/define and prioritise projects for the product life stage.

Acts as project lead on for the development of learning materials, with responsibility for managing schedules, resources and costs

Reviews products to ensure that they adhere to British Council Brand standards, EDI guidelines, project guidelines and stakeholder requirements.

Ensures adequate resources are in place to support content development.

Plans, monitors and reports on schedules, costs, resources and risks associated to content development.

Applies agreed systems and processes to plan and monitor project progress to ensure that content development is running to schedule and within budget.

Identifies suppliers, tenders and procures goods and procures goods and services from a full range of suppliers including packagers, publishers and media rights organisations; consultants, editorial and writing service providers; designers and illustrators; video, audio and software producers.

Actively seeks to maximise value for money when acquiring resources, goods or services for the team, unit or project.

Prepares project guidelines and briefs internal and external suppliers.

Ensure products are customer-focused, and meet market and business requirements, by leading on, or contributing to, market research, product testing and piloting.

Responds to issues and requests raised by stakeholders in a timely and appropriate manner.

Develops and maintains a sound working knowledge of major developments and issues within the ELT market and e-learning to ensure learning materials are effective and compelling, as well as to build professional credibility, confidence and market insight.

Supports internal monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to maintain effective publishing procedures.

Monitors copyright records for British Council and third-party assets.

Ensures copyright permissions are cleared before publication.

Manages the pipeline for the learning content elements of the British Council’s proprietary learning products through all stages of product development.

Manages the outsourcing of content from a range of suppliers, using publishing experience to ensure compliance to contract terms

Project manage learning content development ensuring projects are delivered within budget, on time and in accordance with defined standards, learning design, and market expectations.

Contributes to the development and delivery of training, support and knowledge-sharing activities to build skills and capability in content commissioning team.

Ensures regular and effective communication and smooth working relationships between team members and external suppliers.

Ensures a unified approach across the British Council in relation to product development by collaborating closely with internal stakeholders and teams in the UK and overseas.

Provides advice and support to colleagues to ensure products are high quality, cost effective and based on a genuine understanding of the key priorities and best practice within product development.

Plans and prioritises own work activities to ensure effective delivery of diverse responsibilities and programme deliverables.

Builds teams of external suppliers and manages in-house content developers and project managers; mentoring in-house staff as required.

Makes recommendations to the management team on routes to publishing, either through full or partial outsourcing.

Provides training and development for staff and new suppliers as required, building capacity to meet requirements.

Manages suppliers.

To consistently create an inclusive and anti-racist organisational culture, being aware of your own biases and taking action to mitigate against these. Ensuring people feel valued and are treated equitably, with support for people’s well-being and mental health particularly through periods of significant change.

Have a deep understanding of and take accountability for putting the British Council’s approach to equality, diversity and inclusion and anti-racism into practice. To make time for and visibly engage with learning and development related to EDI and anti-racism.

· First degree or equivalent qualification/ experience

Knowledge across the following areas:

· Printing and distribution

· Accessibility and EDI

· Intellectual Property/copyright

· Translations of products

· Market research and testing (e.g. classroom observations, focus groups, learner/teacher interviews, surveys) and data analysis (e.g. competitor analysis, gap analysis, SWOT analysis, LMS data mining) to ensure research methods and research outputs are robust.

British council values and behaviours are applicable across our organisation, in all roles and at all levels. They are important because they say what we stand for at the British Council and help us to deliver our strategy. We use them to guide our decision making, as well as guiding how we treat one another and the people we work with. These will be assessed in the selection process. Our values are:

Open and Committed ; Expert and Inclusive ; Optimistic and Bold .

Unit: English & Exams / Product / Content Strategy

Work style: hybrid

Pay band: 8

Annual salary range:

PLN 192,000 - 252,000 (Poland)

£38,000 - £46,000 (UK)