Peer Review & Vendor Operations Supervisor

Lever, Inc.; India; Hybrid; INR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid in Gurugram

Full-time

Global peer review ops

International stakeholders

Leadership development

Excel and Power BI

Workflow optimization

Flexible working

Inclusive culture

Accommodations during recruitment

Job summary

Lever, Inc. seeks a Senior Peer Review & Vendor Operations Supervisor based in India to lead end-to-end review workflows and oversee external vendors. You will manage a 5–7 person team, allocate work, and push performance against KPIs and SLAs across multiple regions.

Responsibilities include building dashboards in Excel and Power BI, driving process improvements, and maintaining governance frameworks while collaborating with editors, authors, reviewers, and global stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in academic publishing, peer review operations, or similar setting.
• Experience managing and developing teams with performance coaching and workload planning.
• Proven experience managing external vendors, service delivery, SLAs, and escalations.
• Strong operational management with focus on workflow, productivity, quality, and turnaround times.
• Experience in metrics-driven environments with multiple stakeholders.
• Advanced Excel and Power BI skills for dashboards, reporting, and data interpretation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities translating data into actionable recommendations.
• Knowledge of peer review workflows and manuscript management systems.
• Experience with KPIs, SLAs, quality metrics, and governance frameworks.
• Project management and process improvement skills with Lean methods.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to collaborate with geographically distributed teams.
• Strong organizational skills and prioritization abilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end peer review operations from manuscript submission through production handoff, ensuring workflow quality.
• Manage, mentor, and develop a 5–7 person team with workload allocation, performance coaching, and capability development.
• Plan daily and weekly operations to meet productivity, quality, turnaround-time, and service-level targets.
• Monitor team performance via KPIs, identify development opportunities, and implement improvement plans.
• Foster accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and operational excellence.
• Identify and mitigate operational, workflow, quality, and people-related risks.
• Serve as the primary operational contact for external vendor partners, maintaining SLA/KPI-aligned relationships.
• Track vendor performance using scorecards, dashboards, and governance frameworks; conduct reviews.
• Manage vendor escalations and corrective/preventive actions.
• Develop and maintain dashboards, reports, and trackers using Excel and Power BI.
• Monitor throughput, backlog, productivity, quality, and resource utilization.

Skills

Excel

Power BI

Vendor management

KPI dashboards

Lean thinking

Project management

Data analytics

Stakeholder management

Workflow optimization

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

Manuscript management systems

Power BI

Job description

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Peer Review & Vendor Operations Supervisor based in India.

This role leads end-to-end peer review operations while overseeing vendor performance, operational analytics, and continuous improvement.
You will manage a team of 5–7 professionals, setting priorities, developing talent, and driving consistent delivery against operational targets.
The position combines people leadership with data-driven operations, vendor governance, workflow optimization, and risk management.
You will use tools such as Excel and Power BI to monitor productivity, quality, turnaround times, capacity, and operational performance.
The role involves close collaboration with editors, authors, reviewers, publishers, and global teams across multiple functions and regions.
You will help strengthen scalable processes, improve service delivery, and maintain high standards across internal and external operations.

Accountabilities

• Lead end-to-end peer review operations from manuscript submission through handoff to production, ensuring consistent workflow execution and service quality.

• Manage, mentor, and develop a team of 5–7 professionals through effective workload allocation, performance management, coaching, and capability development.

• Plan daily and weekly operations to achieve productivity, quality, turnaround-time, and service-level targets.

• Monitor team performance through defined KPIs, identify development opportunities, and implement appropriate improvement plans.

• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and operational excellence.

• Identify, manage, and escalating operational, workflow, quality, and people-related risks.

• Serve as the primary operational contact for external vendor partners, maintaining relationships aligned with SLAs, KPIs, quality standards, and business objectives.

• Track vendor performance through scorecards, dashboards, and governance frameworks, conducting regular performance reviews and service improvement initiatives.

• Manage vendor escalations, compliance concerns, delivery risks, and corrective or preventive actions.

• Develop and maintain operational dashboards, reports, and trackers using Microsoft Excel and Power BI.

• Monitor throughput, turnaround time, backlog, productivity, quality, resource utilization, and other key operational indicators.

• Analyze trends to identify bottlenecks, capacity constraints, and process inefficiencies, translating findings into actionable recommendations.

• Support workforce planning, forecasting, and capacity management through data-driven insights.

• Ensure consistent execution of peer review workflows across internal and vendor-supported operations.

• Lead initiatives involving workflow optimization, process standardization, scalability, Lean thinking, and continuous improvement.

• Improve SOPs, governance frameworks, operational controls, and processes based on recurring issues and performance trends.

• Build strong relationships with editors, authors, reviewers, publishers, and internal stakeholders globally.

• Collaborate with Editorial, Production, Technology, Quality, and Operations teams to ensure seamless workflow execution.

• Support vendor onboarding, training, knowledge transfer, and transition activities.

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date process documentation, SOPs, training materials, governance frameworks, performance reports, and audit-ready records.

• Provide proactive operational updates to stakeholders and strengthen confidence through clear, timely communication.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Publishing, Life Sciences, Operations Management, or a related discipline.

• 5+ years of experience in academic publishing, peer review operations, scholarly communications, or a comparable operational environment.

• Demonstrated experience managing and developing teams, including performance management, coaching, workload planning, and capability development.

• Proven experience managing external vendors, service delivery, performance governance, SLAs, and operational escalations.

• Strong operational management experience with responsibility for workflow performance, resource planning, productivity, quality, and turnaround times.

• Experience working in fast-paced, metrics-driven environments involving multiple internal and external stakeholder groups.

• Advanced Microsoft Excel and Power BI skills, including dashboard development, reporting, data analysis, and interpretation of operational metrics.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, with the ability to translate operational data into practical recommendations.

• Good understanding of peer review workflows, manuscript management systems, and academic publishing operations.

• Experience managing KPIs, SLAs, quality metrics, dashboards, and operational governance frameworks.

• Strong project management and process improvement skills, with an understanding of continuous improvement or Lean methodologies.

• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, influencing, and relationship-building skills.

• Ability to collaborate effectively with geographically distributed teams and stakeholders across different regions.

• Strong organizational skills and the ability to prioritize multiple operational requirements while maintaining quality and service standards.

Benefits

• Hybrid working environment in Gurugram, India.

• Full-time employment.

• Opportunity to lead global peer review and publishing operations.

• Exposure to international stakeholders and cross-functional teams.

• People-management and leadership development opportunities.

• Hands-on experience with vendor governance, operational analytics, and process optimization.

• Opportunity to work with data-driven tools including Excel and Power BI.

• Opportunities to contribute to workflow transformation, scalability, and continuous improvement.

• Flexible working arrangements where appropriate.

• Inclusive and collaborative workplace culture that values diversity, authenticity, and belonging.

• Reasonable accommodations available throughout the recruitment and interview process.

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