Assistant Director, Acquisitions

Job Category

Job Profile

Job Title

Department

Compensation Range

The Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge qualifications and experience for the the normal course employees will be hired transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range for a job.

Posting End Date

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

This position is expected to be filled by promotion/reassignment and is included here to inform you of its vacancy at the University.

At UBC we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research innovation and learning for all faculty staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Description Summary

The Assistant Director is a cross-campus senior position responsible for strategic planning operational effectiveness project development administrative and financial management of UBC Press. Major responsibilities include planning and directing the book publishing program in terms of quality and balance of the book list to ensure it effectively contributes to established press-wide objectives and priorities; setting goals for the editorial team; supervising editorial staff; serving as an acquisitions editor; and working collaboratively and collegially with colleagues on both UBC campuses as well as faculty and publishing peers from across Canada and around the world.

Organizational Status

Reports to the Director UBC Press and provides publishing expertise and guidance to the Universitys Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.

About UBC Press

The University of British Columbia Press better known by its imprint UBC Press is the largest scholarly press in western Canada. Since its establishment in 1971 it has published over a thousand titles. The Press now publishes sixty new books per year and is widely considered to be Canadas social sciences publisher of choice.

Work Performed

- Works with the director with input from members of the editorial department to determine and implement departmental goals in support of the Presss overall strategic plan objectives and priorities;

- Provides guidance and supervision to the editorial staff; responsibilities include hiring establishing and measuring performance conflict in the workplace and other human resources matters. Liaises with VPRI HR team for complex matters as needed;

- Establishes performance goals and measures to evaluate the success of assigned areas of responsibility;

- Leads the department in working to define clarify or update the editorial guidelines for UBC Presss scholarly list and its non-scholarly imprints;

- Develops or updates as well as implements policies and procedures for the acquisition handling and transmittal of manuscripts;

- Encourages members of the editorial department to generate ideas for book projects and identify appropriate authors;

- Oversees the quality timeliness and financial performance of the departments various publishing projects;

- Participates in Press-wide efforts to analyze performance of the Presss editorial list;

- Acts as the departmental liaison and provides information and updates to production marketing finance and administration and represents the editorial department in discussions with managers of other Press departments;

- Serves as an acquisitions editor in specific subject areas acquiring no fewer than fifteen books per year;

- Identifies emerging trends topics and authors in the scholarly community;

- Develops and maintains productive working relationships with authors the academic community and the publishing industry;

- Acts as the UBC Press delegate at professional meetings and conferences as appropriate;

- Serves as a member of UBC Presss leadership team and as such helps to identify and assess emerging trends and new models for scholarly publishing including constituent tasks benefits and risks;

- Assists the director and other departments in raising UBC Presss profile on both UBC campuses and with the universitys senior administration;

- Responsible for maintaining an inclusive working environment that is free from discrimination and harassment;

- The above statements describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals assigned to this classification. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and duties required of personnel so classified.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

Responsible in the main but not exclusively for the focus growth and reputation of the editorial department and by extension UBC Presss editorial reputation. Lack of organization poor management style inattention to detail unprofessionalism ineffective or delayed communication and inability to perform in a collaborative leadership style could result in diminishing UBC Presss excellent editorial reputation and therefore impede the Presss ability to attract key authors and manuscripts. The incumbent has the responsibility for overseeing a cohesive productive and communicative editorial department and for liaising effectively and in a timely manner with colleagues authors funding bodies and other participants central to the Press publishing success. Since a substantial portion of the Press income is derived from sales revenue failure to perform the work outlined may lead to a decrease in the number and quality of books produced and thus jeopardize the Presss ability to meet its financial goals and commitments. Additionally since above all the Press is dependent on its reputation failure to support the Presss overall strategic plan objectives and priorities could lead to the Press loss of standing in the academic community and within its own parent institution.

Supervision Received

Reports to the Director.

Supervision Given

Provides guidance and supervision to the editorial staff. May also from time to time supervise editorial interns and student support staff.

Minimum Qualifications

- Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Minimum of five years of related experience or the equivalent combination of education and experience;

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives including perspectives in conflict with ones own;

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing ones own awareness knowledge and skills related to equity diversity and inclusion.

Preferred Qualifications

- Post-graduate degree(s) in the social sciences preferred. Managerial and supervisory experience; in lieu of this completion of a UBC management training course within the probationary period;

- Extensive proven experience in all aspects of editorial acquisition especially manuscript and proposal evaluation peer review and author relations;

- Demonstrably sound understanding of the markets for scholarly trade and post-secondary books;

- Knowledge and experience in some of the following areas preferred: manuscript editing production book design sales preparation of promotional copy and press releases publicity budgeting contract preparation rights and order fulfilment;

- Knowledge of the grant support systems for Canadian scholarly books preferred;

- Experience with fundraising and budget-tracking for book projects;

- Extremely strong oral and written communication time management and negotiation skills;

- Ability to anticipate problems and issues and plan ahead;

- Understanding of database and other information systems along with experience with Microsoft Suite of products (Word Excel Outlook & PowerPoint) Adobe Professional. Proficiency with social media (i.e. Facebook Instagram X Twitter Bluesky) is an asset;

- Familiarity with a university setting preferable UBCs and an understanding of its mandates and its intellectual as well as operational focus; and

- Commitment and ability to develop and implement policies through a consultative process in an environment of conflicting needs and views.