Head of Content Innovation (m/w/d)

Job title: Head of Content Innovation (m/w/d)

Locations: Heidelberg, London or Pune

Terms: Full-time, fixed term: April 1st – December 31st, 2025

Application deadline: ongoing; we encourage early submissions.

About 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 180 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. Visit group.springernature.com and follow @SpringerNature / @SpringerNatureGroup

The Content Innovation Team Mission

We transform the scholarly publishing experience by integrating human expertise with advanced technologies.

We deliver scalable and personalised content solutions which drive growth and impact across the research lifecycle.

We make research content generation, evaluation, and consumption an innovation positive experience for researchers, reviewers, and editors.
 

About the role:

Drive the creation of new content types, research experiences and publishing workflows that will enable greater and more rapid growth and development of Springer Nature’s Research Publishing. You quickly build prototypes for the Research group working closely together with relevant Research Publishing business units to scale new solutions upon handover. Your strong expertise, knowledge and background in Research Publishing, strategy and reporting are critical to success in this role.

This role can be in our Heidelberg, London or Pune offices on a hybrid working model.

Key Responsibilities:

Discover – work closely with customers, partners, and colleagues to identify new opportunities for greater revenue growth, better serving the needs of research(ers) 

Undertake research, monitor new trends, technologies and techniques to understand and consider all possibilities 

Engage with research communities, track early career researcher needs 

Track competitors, work with market research, editorial, and technology colleagues  

Develop – be a leader in the content innovation process and team 

Apply a rapid, agile process of content design which includes testing, refining and application 

Design new content meeting both human and machine-readable application needs 

Contribute to developing tools supporting editorial workflows 

Plan – work closely with publishing and editorial, technology, and the commercial teams to plan new opportunities 

Work with commercial and strategic marketing colleagues to establish business models 

Develop implementation strategies considering technological and human factors 

Implement – transition implementation responsibilities to relevant business unit 

Work with relevant business units to transition implementation and scaling 

Provide advisory support and training during handover 

Develop formal documentation for transitions 

Leadership – contribute actively to the Springer Nature leadership team to develop, agree and communicate a strategic narrative that we will use to guide and inspire the entire group. 

Contribute to strategic narrative and content innovation purpose 

Foster a culture supporting cross-functional collaboration 

Drive diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Content Innovation team 

Required skills and experience:

• Technical expertise

Strong knowledge of design thinking and consumer perspective 

Experience working with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 

•  Professional background 

Proven expertise in Research and Research Publishing strategy 

Successful track record delivering innovative content 

Significant experience in digital content and community interaction 

Experience building successful investment cases 

Knowledge of scientific research world (desirable) 

•  Stakeholder and management skills 

Ability to manage multiple stakeholders 

Experience implementing strategies in complex organizations 

Track record working across geographies and cultures 

Experience presenting to senior management 

Excellent internal and external relationship-building skills 

• Individual attributes 

Self-starter with results-focused approach 

Comfortable with less structured functions 

Excellent analytical and communication skills 

Flexibility to work varied workload under pressure 

Ability to travel regularly 

• Personal Characteristics 

Innovative mind-set 

Creativity to implement transformative content solutions 

Performance-driven approach 

Intellectual confidence to challenge status quo 

Please apply sending your CV. We encourage early applications.

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At Springer Nature, we value the diversity of our teams and work to build an inclusive culture, where people are treated fairly and can bring their differences to work and thrive. We empower our colleagues and value their diverse perspectives as we strive to attract, nurture and develop the very best talent.

Springer Nature was awarded Diversity Team of the Year at the 2022 British Diversity Awards. Find out more about our DEI work here https://group.springernature.com/gp/group/taking-responsibility/diversi…

If you have any access needs related to disability, neurodivergence or a chronic condition, please contact us so we can make all necessary accommodation.

For more information about career opportunities in Springer Nature please visit https://careers.springernature.com/