Head of Product, Author Peer Review Workspace

Job Title: Head of Product – Author Peer Review Workspace

Location: London

About the Springer Nature Group

Springer Nature opens the doors to discovery for researchers, educators, clinicians, and other professionals. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals, platforms, and technology solutions reach millions of people. For over 175 years our brands and imprints have been a trusted source of knowledge to these communities and today, more than ever, we see it as our responsibility to ensure that fundamental knowledge can be found, verified, understood, and used by our communities – enabling them to improve outcomes, make progress, and benefit the generations that follow.

About the Role

The Head of Product, Author Peer Review Workspace, will shape and deliver the strategy for the author-facing experience throughout peer review and beyond acceptance on Snapp.

The role is responsible for the products and capabilities that support authors during peer review, including communications, manuscript tracking and interactions relating to manuscript revisions, as well as journal transfers, payment and rights.

Reporting to the VP Product, the Head of Product develops and delivers the product strategy and roadmap for this defined area within the wider Snapp product direction. The role is accountable for agreed outcomes and product performance, translating customer and business priorities into a coherent plan for the teams it leads.

Working closely with the Product Director responsible for Reviewer and Editorial Experience, the role helps create a joined-up peer review journey across authors, reviewers and editors.

Role responsibilities

• Develops and delivers the product strategy, outcomes, KPIs and longer-term roadmap for the author peer review and post-acceptance experience, aligned with wider Snapp strategy, priorities, vison and purpose
• Leads the development and evolution of products that support authors throughout peer review, revision, transfer and post-acceptance, ensuring author, business and operational needs inform product decisions.
• Works closely with the Product Director responsible for Reviewer and Editor Workspace to create a coherent peer review journey across authors, reviewers and editors, managing dependencies across the experience and balancing stakeholders.
• Makes prioritisation and trade-off decisions within the area’s agreed capacity, manages cross-team dependencies and recommends where additional investment or capacity may be required.
• Oversees the lifecycle of products and capabilities within the area, including their evolution, consolidation and retirement.
• Provides product leadership across the area, coaching Product Managers on strategy, discovery, prioritisation and decision-making while preserving their ownership of individual products and roadmaps.
• Manages key stakeholder relationships and works closely with Technology, UX, Data and other relevant functions to enable effective product development and delivery.
• Works with adjacent product areas to manage dependencies and ensure coherent customer journeys and capabilities across Snapp.
• Represents the area with senior stakeholders, clearly communicating strategy with storytelling, performance, priorities, risks and trade-offs, and contributes to executive discussions where required.
• Manages and develops a team of Product Managers / Senior Product Managers, building their capability and autonomy.
• Works with the Product Director, VP Product and other product leaders to contribute evidence and recommendations to wider product strategy, planning and prioritisation.
• Acts as a product and digital advocate internally and, where relevant, contributes subject-matter expertise to industry discussions.

Experience, skills and qualifications

• Strong product management experience, including developing and delivering product strategies and roadmaps for a defined product area or customer journey.
• Experience working across multiple products, teams, managing complexity with interconnected customer problems.
• Ability to translate wider strategic direction into a clear product vision, roadmap and measurable goals.
• Sound product judgement and practical decision-making ability, including making prioritisation and sequencing decisions in ambiguous situations with adaptability
• Experience working closely with engineering, design, data and business functions to solve complex customer and business problems.
• Strong experience applying customer-focused product development approaches, including user research and data-informed product development.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability.
• Experience collaborating effectively in a matrix organisation, particularly where capabilities span multiple teams.
• Ability to influence peers and stakeholders outside the direct reporting line.
• Strong communication, organisational and time-management skills.
• A clear and effective communicator, credible with senior stakeholders and able to explain product strategy, priorities, decisions and trade-offs. Experience contributing to executive-level discussions is beneficial.
• Experience delivering digital products for complex or diverse customer groups; experience with global products or platforms is beneficial.
• Experience managing or coaching Product Managers, enabling them to operate with increasing autonomy and responsibility.

At Springer Nature, our mission is to be part of progress – and that begins with inclusion: of people, perspectives, and ideas. We believe that diverse perspectives drive progress, and we are committed to creating an environment where people and ideas can flourish. If you have any access needs related to disability, neurodivergence or a chronic condition, please contact us so we can make all necessary accommodation.

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