Content Production Lead II

HMH is a learning technology company committed to delivering connected solutions that engage learners, empower educators and improve student outcomes. As a leading provider of K–12 core curriculum, supplemental and intervention solutions, and professional learning services, HMH partners with educators and school districts to uncover solutions that unlock students’ potential and extend teachers’ capabilities.

HMH serves more than 50 million students and 4 million educators in 150 countries. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com

Who We Are

HMH is a learning technology company committed to delivering connected solutions that engage learners, empower educators, and improve student outcomes. As a leading provider of K–12 core curriculum, supplemental and intervention solutions and professional learning services, HMH partners with educators and school districts to uncover solutions that unlock students' potential and extend teachers' capabilities. HMH serves more than 50 million students and 4 million educators in 150 countries.

What you’ll do:

The Content Production Lead II supports the development of digital and print production templates and supporting resources such as annotated samples, naming conventions, process best practices. The Content Production Lead II has in-depth knowledge of the HMH Integrated Publishing System (IPS) and Habitat. The Content Production Lead II provides support, troubleshooting and quality control during production. They have advanced proficiency with content authoring, page/screen composition software and technologies. The Content Production Lead II works with internal development staff to resolve discrepancies related to page/product completion. The Content Production Lead II embraces Agile workflow and methodology, supporting HMH development workflows. The Content Production Lead II contributes to the development of content and materials for Core & Supplemental Solutions, Intervention, Assessment, and Heinemann programs.

Key Responsibilities  (specific weighting and prioritization will depend upon business need):

Technical Production (50%)                                                                                   

• Manage the creation of templates/patterns and produce materials and content to established guidelines and specifications. Review and provide meaningful feedback on print and digital page template construction, best practices, and production processes.
• Ensure that all template/pattern construction, supporting documentation, and production processes adhere to established best practices. Work with project template/pattern libraries and sample pages/screens; modify these as required to deliver to ongoing needs of program/product. Remediate exceptions as necessary to achieve desired standard outputs.
• Compose pages using a variety of production software tools and technologies.
• Provide primary technical analysis of prototypes and MVPs.
• Lead vendors in the use of new templates, processes, or software.
• Apply accessibility formatting and/or remediation to production files in alignment with HMH best practices, industry standards, and WCAG compliance.
• Meet agreed scheduled dates to accomplish project goals using pre-defined production flow process and templates.
• Support project creation and content updates within HMH content systems. Troubleshoot processing errors and resolve or escalate as needed.

Excellence in Execution (30%)

• Articulate clear, meaningful program/product status, highlighting progress made, risks and issues, milestone accomplishments, including improvements in innovation, simplicity, and quality.
• Participate fully in the planning, definition, and scoping of new programs/ products. Contribute to program/product planning, scheduling, budgeting and delivery; taking responsibility and accountability for individual functional, as well as overall team, deliveries.
• Risk and Issues Management - identify issues/events that may impact resources, schedule, budget, scope and/or delivery. Escalate risks and issues to appropriate parties in a timely manner and provide recommendations on problem solving and solutioning of same.
• Ensure adherence to established strategy and best practice development, process, file server management, and quality deliverables.
• Provide functional/technical expertise and troubleshoot on projects throughout production lifecycle. Support to internal teams/ peers and external partners to solve technical challenges as they arise throughout development lifecycle.

Processes & Standards (20%)

• Lead, drive, participate in and contribute to the development of processes and standards.
• Drive quality through adherence to, and supporting best practice processes and procedures, including the maintenance of documentation on shared file systems.

What you’ll need:

• BS/BA in Operations, Business, or a related field or equivalent experience
• 4+ years experience in page composition and digital production with at least 3 years of experience with authoring/composition systems and related technology and production workflow experience in print/digital technologies.

• Experience in:

• K-12 textbook or technology product creation.

• Experience with content authoring, content management systems, integrated publishing systems, file store and page/screen composition technology. Proficiency with the following tools for content authoring and composition software, including InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, and InCopy.
• Awareness of HTML, CSS, Sass, WCAG requirements
• Position requires solid planning/organizational skills, effective written and verbal communication skills, well-developed technical/computer skills and effective problem solving skills.
• Must demonstrate attention to detail, organization, and strong follow-up skills. Must drive on-time, high-quality results.
• Scripting and production automation, including using AI to accelerate production timelines.

Preferred but not necessary: Proficiency with the following tools for content authoring and composition software, including InMath, HTML5, CSS, OneCMS, Habitat, and IPS.

How We Work (Competencies)   5 HMH Competencies Specific to Role

• Drives Results
• Collaborates
• Manages Complexity
• Cultivates Innovation
• Learns Nimbly

The Information Technology organization is transforming to realize our mission: Become a leader in HMH’s digital transformation, and as a strategic partner, innovate and deliver highest value, competitive advantage solutions across all corporate and business functions. Our ambition is to be a digital leader through innovation and develop and deliver leading edge technology such as robotic process automation and artificial intelligence to solve some of HMH’s greatest operational business challenges. Our professionals will have business relevant skills to connect our HMH partners to technologies that propel the businesses to deliver the greatest value for HMH and our customers.

We are building a team of IT professionals with an insatiable appetite to learn, a relentless focus on customer service, a technological curiosity toward future possibilities, and a creativity in solving business challenges with leading technologies. Our team will find ways to work together, create a sense of community where it’s safe to take risks and learn together, develop our careers, and all have an opportunity to work on new technologies. We will work together, learn together and have fun together. As a team, we will lead HMH’s digital transformation.