What are the responsibilities and job description for the Associate Director, Production position at American Association for Cancer Research?
Overview
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), with more than 60,000 members residing in 141 countries, is the first and largest organization in the world dedicated to advances in all areas of high-quality, innovative cancer research. Its mission is to prevent and cure all cancers. The programs and activities of the AACR foster the exchange of new knowledge among scientists and physicians in cancer research as well as in related sciences. The AACR publishes ten peer-reviewed scientific journals and an award-winning magazine for cancer patients and their loved ones; convenes topical scientific conferences and an annual meeting that draws more than 22,500 participants; offers educational workshops that train young investigators in a variety of scientific and clinical areas; funds research fellowships, career development awards, and research grants for both senior and junior investigators; raises public awareness of the progress in the biology, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer; engages actively in advocacy for increased federal research funding and other national policies that accelerate progress against cancer; and interacts with regulatory agencies to support regulatory science and policy.
The Associate Director, Production plays a key leadership role in overseeing the end-to-end production workflow of the AACR’s ten peer-reviewed scientific journals. This leadership position ensures timely, accurate, and high-quality publication of journal content across multiple platforms by directing the production workflow, copyediting, and composition vendors, as well as freelance contractors. The role involves establishing and managing production schedules, coordinating with editorial and technical teams, and implementing best practices in digital publishing. The Associate Director works as a member of the Publications Management Team and reports directly to the Director, Journal Production and Platform.
Responsibilities
- Manage the full production lifecycle of the AACR’s scientific journals, including copyediting, typesetting, proofreading, and online publication.
- Develop and maintain efficient workflows and SOPs to ensure consistent quality and timeliness of journal publication.
- Supervise production staff, freelance contractors, and vendors; provide training, mentorship, and performance evaluations.
- Collaborate with publishing platform and operations colleagues, as well as with vendor teams, to optimize production processes and tools and to troubleshoot technical issues.
- Maintain and ensure adherence to journal style guides, workflows, and downstream indexing/abstracting requirements.
- Liaise with external vendors to closely manage contracts, timelines, and deliverables.
- Assist in budget planning and monitor production costs; generate reports on production metrics and KPIs.
- Work closely with editorial, marketing, and digital teams to align production goals with broader organizational objectives.
- Explore way to enrich processes/workflows in response to emerging standards, new technologies and evolving service needs.
- Additional duties as assigned.
Qualifications
- Minimum 5 years of experience managing all aspects of scholarly journal production
- Demonstrated success delivering quality, timely services within budget
- Strong understanding of scholarly publishing workflows and technologies
- Familiarity with open access publishing, indexing databases, and digital archiving standards
- Experience with publishing XML standards, including the JATS Journal Publishing Tag Set
- Proven leadership and project management skills
- Excellent attention to detail and organizational abilities
- Outstanding management and leadership skills with the ability to maneuver and adapt practices in response to an ever-changing environment
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
- Highly developed interpersonal and diplomatic skills; ability to exercise sound judgment in decision making
- Excellent analytical skills with ability to assess complex situations and communicate them effectively
- Strong project management skills and ability to manage multiple priorities
- Ability to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders
- Proficiency with MS Office Suite including MS Teams, Outlook, etc.
Education:
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required; graduate degree preferred.
EOE