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Director, Content Structure, Elsevier, Maryland Heights, MO

Posted October 19, 2014

Elsevier is the world’s leading provider of scientific, technical and medical (STM) information, tools and resources. A global company based in Amsterdam, Elsevier partners with scientists, researchers, healthcare providers, educators and decision-makers in academic institutions, governments and corporations to help them find, evaluate and use information. Our breadth of content is unparalleled, spanning virtually every STM field in the world and includes such distinguished brands as Gray’s Anatomy, The Lancet and Cell. Using innovative technology, we deliver our content through tools that help our customers be more productive and successful in their work. ScienceDirect delivers the worlds’ leading journals electronically to over 11 million readers in 200 countries. And physicians in 95 percent of teaching hospitals rely on MD Consult to get critical information that can save lives. Elsevier employs over 7,000 people in more than 70 offices worldwide. We are an employer of choice, attracting and developing talented and creative people who thrive in a challenging and fast-paced environment. We offer an excellent compensation and benefits package as well as a real opportunity for career growth in a growing organization. Elsevier is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Purpose of the Job:

Director of Content Structure is a new role established to formulate and introduce content enrichment and structuring work streams division-wide. This person will collaborate with various stakeholders in strategy, management, technology, and product development across Education Division to determine comprehensive national standards criteria and lead new effort on taxonomy development in support of semantic content enrichment, content object definition, and content reuse to fulfill product needs for adaptive, analytics-based, and other transformative learning approaches in higher education. Masters-prepared in health-related field preferred with taxonomy expertise in eLearning, testing, and competency-based evaluation.

Main Activities and Responsibilities:

Vision and Strategy

  • Initiate and execute plan for semantic content enrichment processes across nursing and health professions education division, in conjunction with other content initiatives.
  • Collaborate with key stakeholders and leaders within education e-solutions and content divisions to determine content vision and restructuring needs for major new content initiatives.
  • Formulate strategic requirements for content aligned with key national standards for health care education and practice, and as it relates to health-science focused taxonomies and controlled vocabularies to facilitate content enrichment. Manage ongoing content enrichment pipelines to meet emerging and transformative changes in health care education, e.g content object-based adaptive learning, analytics-based measurement, etc.
  • Define processes to ensure creation and application of education-based metadata across content, including learning relationships, content maps & graphs, data dictionaries, etc. Foster open dialogue and exchange of information with colleagues in other departments, including operations, production, e-solutions, content, sales, support, and marketing for informed decision making. Synthesize information in alignment with project or task goals and vision

Problem Analysis and Solving

  • Ask effective questions and collect facts from multiple sources internally and externally, including subject matter, taxonomy, organizational, and other experts in health care education.
  • Evaluate data and monitor current and future product needs to address content structuring needs.
  • Independently research, propose, and test content structuring options, leveraging industry-standard vocabularies and semantic best practices to ensure reusability of content across Elsevier content ecosystems.
  • Measure and communicate content structuring issues and propose solutions to management and stakeholders.

Leadership

  • Establish strong relationships with key leadership in health care education division to assist with determining direction and vision for current and future product innovations.
  • Work with product directors and content-focused roles to ensure content structuring aligns with overall education strategy.
  • Educate internal content development teams on importance of taxonomies and structured content. Define and train content enrichment best practices across electronic and print products. Understand business needs and possess effective organizational and initiative-taking skills.
  • Effectively collaborate with others on e-solutions management team.

Execution

  • Devise and execute strategic content structuring plan to meet evolving product roadmap needs for e-solutions products.
  • Engage education e-solutions and content team members to achieve a common content vision for integrated solutions.

Key Competencies:

Champions Change

  • Champions new projects or programs.
  • Has the courage to advocate change that will improve the business.
  • Quickly recognises situations where change is needed.
  • Is skilled in applying change and transition frameworks to all change initiatives.
  • Encourages and energizes others to challenge the statusquo and to actively look for new ways of doing things.
  • Encourages others to see change as part of the business and as a means to create new opportunities. 

Drives for Results

  • Does everything possible to achieve goals.
  • Regularly measures and evaluates progress.
  • Accepts responsibility for the results-based outcomes of group.
  • Holds others accountable and encourages others to take accountability for achieving results.
  • Shares credit and recognition with others for achieving goals.

Technical and Professional Expertise

  • Is sought out as a subject matter expert in own subject area.
  • Acts as a technical coach and mentor to others.
  • Uses a highly adaptable approach  and is able to express complex technical expertise in a simple, understandable manner to those outside own function.
  • Stays at the cutting edge of own discipline, is well connected externally, understands and implements best practice.

Builds Relationships

  • Fosters an attitude of collaboration across the organisation.
  • Builds and supports mutually beneficial relationships with other organisations.
  • Communicates belief in and positive expectations toward others.
  • Recognises and celebrates strengths of individuals.

Solves Problems and Analyzes Issues

  • Brings a strategic perspective to problem solving.
  • Skilled in breaking down large complex issues into simpler elements that can be effectively addressed.
  • Consulted by others within organisation before decisions are made.
  • Shows interest and is energised by complex issues and problems that require solutions.

Takes Initiative

  • Proactively addresses business demands.
  • Fosters a team attitude of going above and beyond minimum requirements.
  • Coaches team members on how to take action in the face of ambiguity.
  • Avoids procrastination that may be damaging to the team or business.
  • Rewards individuals for going above and beyond expectations.

Collaboration and Teamwork

  • Models teamwork by working effectively with other leaders within the organisation.
  • Has earned a high level of trust from other teams and is seen as a collaborative working partner.
  • Clearly articulates the need for interdependence between teams and business divisions.
  • Plays a leading role in integrating and orchestrating operations across teams and divisions.
  • Establishes rapport quickly and builds close relationship with team members and across business units to achieve business results.

Qualifications

Functional and Technical Competencies:

Experience in health care education, content classification for testing, and/or competency-based evaluation, preferably in nursing.  Familiarity with health care taxonomies and national health care standards. Comfort level and experience with technology, including digital publishing, learning management solutions (LMSs), and learning design.  Experience working with a variety of stakeholders at the leadership level.

Education, Knowledge, Skills and Experiences:

Bachelor’s Degree in health-related field or informatics required.  Master’s Degree in health-related field or education preferred with 5+ years of experience working on or supporting technology projects as a taxonomist or similar semantic role. Demonstrated people-oriented or management skills. Adaptability and keen awareness of emerging educational content needs. Experience in library science or similar a plus.

Apply at: https://reedelsevier.taleo.net/careersection/jobdetail.ftl?job=HEA001J5&lang=en

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