Senior Manager of Publishing Operations & Automation

Skyrocket, Inc.; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 166,000 - 197,000; Full time

Job summary

Skyrocket, Inc. is seeking a senior Publishing Operations Manager to own the end-to-end publishing lifecycle for curriculum products across print, digital, and application platforms.

You will assess current processes, lead a major design and implementation of a scalable publishing operation, and establish workflows, ownership, approvals, quality gates, and timelines. You will drive automation opportunities, evaluate publishing technologies, oversee editorial and production teams, and partner

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in publishing or related field is required.
• Minimum 7+ years in publishing or content operations.
• 3+ years of leadership or people-management experience.
• Experience with both print and digital content production preferred.

Responsibilities

• Owns end-to-end publishing lifecycle for curriculum products across print, digital, and app platforms.
• Leads redesign and implementation of a scalable publishing operation.
• Develops workflows, ownership, approvals, QA, timelines, and accountability standards.
• Identifies automation opportunities and applies technology to improve efficiency.

Skills

Publishing ops

Workflow design

Automation

AI in publishing

Project management

Leadership

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in publishing or related field

Tools

Content management systems

Workflow management tools

QA tools

Job description

Job Description

Starting Pay Range $3,653.85 - $4,326.92 - Bi-Weekly Depending on experience

About Skyrocket With an emphasis serving schools with diverse and low-socioeconomic student populations and non-traditional learning environments, Skyrocket™ leadership has over a century’s worth of combined experience leading schools and operational support teams. Skyrocket’s™ niche expertise is in the intersection between academic and administrative performance.

Essential Functions

• Owns and oversees the end-to-end publishing lifecycle for Skyrocket curriculum products across print, digital, and application- based platforms.
• Conducts a comprehensive assessment of existing publishing processes and leads the redesign and implementation of a streamlined, scalable publishing operation.
• Develops clearly defined workflows, ownership structures, approval processes, quality gates, timelines, and accountability standards for every stage of publishing.
• Identifies repetitive, manual, or error-prone processes and determines opportunities for automation, AI-assisted workflows, systems integration, and technology-based quality controls.
• Evaluates and recommends publishing technologies and systems, including workflow/project-management platforms, content management systems, digital asset management, structured content solutions, automated QA tools, and other publishing technologies.
• Oversees editorial and production processes including copyediting, formatting, design handoffs, continuity review, quality assurance, final audits, print proofs, digital conversion, accessibility, audio/text-to-speech review, and product release.
• Establishes strong version-control and change-management practices to ensure teams are working from accurate and current source materials across print and digital formats.
• Creates measurable QA standards and checkpoints designed to identify errors earlier in the production process and significantly reduce errors reaching final products.
• Develops dashboards, reporting, and operational metrics to monitor publishing status, cycle time, errors, rework, bottlenecks, workload, and on-time delivery.
• Oversees publishing schedules and ensures projects move efficiently through production while meeting organizational and school/client release deadlines.
• Leads and develops publishing staff and coordinates the work of editors, designers, curriculum staff, contractors, vendors, technology teams, and other contributors involved in the publishing lifecycle.
• Establishes clear expectations for external vendors and contractors, including deliverables, quality standards, timelines, communication protocols, and accountability.
• Partners closely with Curriculum leadership to establish efficient handoffs between content development and production, allowing curriculum experts to focus on instructional quality while Publishing owns the integrity and execution of the production process.
• Works with Print operations and external vendors to ensure print-ready files are accurate, appropriately reviewed, and delivered according to production schedules.
• Creates and maintains publishing SOPs, documentation, templates, standards, and training materials.
• Develops a culture of continuous improvement in which recurring errors are analyzed for root causes and processes are modified to prevent recurrence rather than relying solely on additional manual review.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required

• Deep understanding of end-to-end publishing operations, preferably within K–12 curriculum, educational publishing, EdTech, or another complex content-production environment.
• Strong understanding of both print and digital publishing workflows.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate and redesign complex operational processes.
• Strong knowledge of editorial production, copyediting, design workflows, proofing, prepress/print production, digital publishing, and quality assurance.
• Demonstrated ability to identify opportunities for automation and apply technology to improve efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.
• Working knowledge of modern publishing and content technologies, workflow/project-management systems, structured content, metadata, digital publishing platforms, and automated QA tools.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted content and publishing workflows and the ability to evaluate where AI can appropriately improve production without compromising content quality.
• Ability to analyze operational data and use metrics to identify bottlenecks, recurring errors, capacity issues, and opportunities for improvement.
• Strong project and program-management skills with the ability to manage numerous products simultaneously in a deadline- driven environment.
• Excellent leadership and team-development skills.
• Ability to lead organizational change and gain adoption of new processes and technologies.
• Exceptional attention to detail while maintaining a systems-level view of the publishing operation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to communicate effectively across curriculum, creative, technical, operational, and executive teams.
• Ability to balance quality, speed, cost, and scalability when making operational decisions.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required; degree in publishing, communications, education, instructional design, business, technology, or a related field preferred.
• 7+ years of experience in publishing, content operations, curriculum production, educational technology, or a related field.
• 3+ years of leadership or people-management experience with responsibility for complex production workflows.
• Demonstrated experience managing both print and digital content production strongly preferred.
• K–12 curriculum or educational publishing experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience improving, redesigning, or scaling a publishing or content-production operation required.
• Experience implementing new workflow, publishing, project-management, or content-management technology strongly preferred.
• Experience with automation, AI-assisted workflows, systems integration, or technology-enabled process improvement strongly preferred.
• Experience managing external vendors, freelancers, contractors, or production partners preferred.

*The specific statements shown in each section of this description are not intended to be all inclusive. They describe the general nature and level of work being performed and/or represent typical elements and criteria considered necessary to successfully perform the job. The Company retains the discretion to add to or change the duties of the position at any time. Recognizing that school obstacles and initiatives, student populations, and staff dynamics vary significantly from school to school, the Skyrocket business model is highly relational, meaning we build supports based on the specific needs of each of our clients. As educators, we believe in propping up fellow educators and allowing them to be the greatest versions of themselves so they can inspire their students to aim higher and achieve more.