Morgan Healey Retained Assignment
Location: London/Hybrid
Salary: £120,000 pa

The Royal Society is the oldest existing scientific academy in the world, a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering, and medicine.

The Society’s fundamental purpose is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.

Due to retirement, the Royal Society is now looking for exceptional candidates for the role of Publishing Director.

Managing a team of 30, the Publishing Director has overall responsibility for the quality, efficiency and financial performance of Royal Society Publishing. They will lead the Publishing Section, develop its strategy and objectives, and will be accountable for the development of the Society’s publishing activities within the policy and budgets approved by the Publishing Board (which in turn reports to the Council of the Royal Society). The Publishing Director is ultimately responsible for the quality of the science published in the journals, and its compliance with publishing ethics. They will also be the primary interface with the Fellowship and Officers for all matters related to the Society’s journals.

As a member of the Society’s senior management team, the Publishing Director also contributes to the development of corporate strategy and thinking. This necessarily requires a broad understanding of the Society’s corporate mission, the opportunities, risks and challenges it faces, and how best to use its influence to pursue it as well as being a collaborative and visible part of the leadership team.

Skills & Experience

• Degree educated and senior leadership experience within STM Publishing.
• Excellent understanding of the research process, research funding, reproducibility, evaluation and publication practices.
• Sound financial management skills (budgeting, planning etc)
• Understanding of the key areas of publishing technology (to a non-technical level)
• In-depth understanding of the open access landscape and funder mandates
• Scientific background desirable but not essential
• Experience of working at a learned society/national academy
• Experience of handling research ethics/misconduct issues