Senior Manager, Community, Advocacy and Partnerships

Circa:

We are looking for an experienced Leader in publishing to join us as a Senior Manager, Community, Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships. In this role you will be a Growth Accelerator in identifying new opportunities and partnerships with our key external stakeholders. You will continue building and developing strong relationships with government and policy bodies, ONOS, Inflibnet, private and public universities across the region to strengthen our existing position in the market.

In this role you will be the one who will develop and deliver unified community engagement and partnership strategy across India and South Asia, helping to expand the reach, visibility and impact of the Royal Society of Chemistry's activities.

As the strategic lead for community outreach, advocacy and institutional partnerships, you will bring together engagement activities into a coordinated, year-round programme focused on delivering measurable outcomes and long-term impact. You will work closely with colleagues across Editorial, Memberships, Sales and Marketing to align engagement initiatives with organisational priorities and increase awareness and use of RSC content and services, while maximising opportunities through national initiatives such as ONOS.

This is a very exciting opportunity for an experienced leader with a strong understanding of scientific publishing, research and higher education landscape across India and South Asia, including open science, open access, research funding and science policy.

Key Responsibilities:

• Set and own the India and South Asia community, advocacy and strategic partnerships strategy, defining regional priorities, maintaining a forward roadmap and aligning activity, resource and investment to RSC’s global purpose and long-term goals.

• Strengthen RSC’s position in ONOS, INFLIBNET, open access and APC revenue opportunities by building priority partnerships, supporting platform and journal adoption, and working with Head of Sales on pilots, lighthouse wins and monetised partnerships.

• Oversee the planning and delivery of major events and engagement activity, including setting agendas with partners and briefing or involving RSC Senior Leadership for priority activity such as sustainability and CRSI-related events.

• Create a collaborative team environment that encourages open communication, knowledge sharing and joined-up delivery across internal and external partners.

• Translate global and regional priorities for open science, open access, sustainable chemistry, inclusion, research culture and scientific impact into clear plans, flagship activity and workstreams with defined owners, timelines and governance.

• Own senior engagement with research communities through structured stakeholder mapping, targeted programmes and relationship management across PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, early career researchers, authors, reviewers, academics, institutions and senior scientific leaders.

• Set the regional policy and sector insight agenda by monitoring developments across science, research, higher education, publishing and the funder ecosystem, assessing implications for RSC and producing clear recommendations, briefings and internal updates.

• Build and steward strategic relationships with government, funders, academic institutions, research networks, innovation clusters, startups, incubators, sector bodies and other priority partners through clear engagement plans and partnership objectives.

• Set the strategic engagement approach for librarians, consortia, academic influencers and state and central universities, strengthening awareness, adoption and effective use of RSC platforms, products, journals and books across priority institutions.

• Communicate priorities, expectations and decisions clearly, ensuring direct reports and stakeholders understand responsibilities, objectives and how their work contributes to the wider strategy.

• Work with relevant internal stakeholders to deliver major outreach, advocacy, partnership and market development programmes, including sustainability, DEI, women in chemistry, open science and open access activity.

• Ensure programmes are well governed and properly resourced through clear budgets, risk controls, supplier oversight, decision governance, delivery reviews, operational delivery standards and post-programme evaluation.

• Act as the regional point of influence for community, advocacy and partnership insight, helping Editorial, Sales, Membership, Marketing and relevant Global Impact Group teams align priorities and delivery.

Requirements:

• Degree or Master’s level education in science, or equivalent practical experience, with significant senior-level experience in community engagement, advocacy, policy, partnerships or scientific outreach.

• Strong understanding of the Indian and South Asian research, higher education, science policy, funder, publishing, open access, open science or chemistry community landscape.

• Proven ability to set direction, shape strategy and lead complex regional engagement, advocacy or partnership plans.

• Experience building senior relationships with academic leaders, policymakers, funders, government bodies, librarians, research institutions and sector partners.

• Strong policy judgement, communication, advocacy and influencing skills, including clear recommendations for senior audiences.

• Experience leading major programmes, including budgets, governance, procurement, supplier oversight, risk management, evaluation, impact reporting and ROI.

• Commercial awareness, including business case development, value for money, revenue growth opportunities, cost recovery, sponsorship or co-funding where relevant.

At the Royal Society of Chemistry, we support flexibility and offer hybrid working, which means our teams come together when they need to collaborate.

Although this role is contractually based at our Delhi office, and therefore you will have the opportunity to work mostly from any other location in India, as agreed with your line manager. Applicants should be aware that there is an expectation that employees will attend our Delhi office once a month. Please be aware that in this role you are expected to travel across India for events or meetings with our external partners.

This role will close on 27th September at 23.59 (local time). The interviews will be held via Teams on the 1st and 2nd October. If you are interested in this role, please apply before the end of the closing date. When applying, you will need to provide an up-to-date CV and a supporting statement (no more than 500 words) indicating how your skills/ expertise match the competencies outlined in the Job Description.

Visit our Work For Us website to learn more about us, our benefits, equal opportunities statement and inclusive culture pledge.

At the RSC, we recognise the benefits of a diverse workforce and welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds to apply. We particularly encourage applications from disabled and ethnic minority candidates.

As a part of the Disability Confident Scheme, we endeavour, where possible, to offer an interview to candidates meeting the essential criteria of the role, who has a substantial physical/mental impairment which impacts their ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.

We are committed to making our recruitment processes accessible to all and as part of this, we are flexible in the ways we give and receive information. If you would like to apply using a different format, please contact the Recruitment Team at jobs@rsc.org or on +44 (0) 1223 432229 and we will do our best to put any reasonable adjustments in place.

If you have any questions, please contact us at jobs@rsc.org