Partner Operations Manager
The Manager, Partner Operations, quarterbacks the implementation and operational management of content partnerships and distribution agreements vital to the business. Working within the Education and Learning Product Development Unit, the manager strives to make the most use of partner content in the HBP catalog. The manager is familiar with all aspects of the publishing process and serves as the operational ambassador once a contract is signed, leading new partners and internal teams through onboarding activities. After a partner is onboarded, the manager continues to oversee the operational aspects of the partnership and collaborates with business teams, product managers, and other stakeholders to ensure the success of the partnership, including catalog reporting and analysis, oversight of IP permissions and royalties, trouble-shooting, and problem-solving for outside-the-box situations. Working with a growing number of partners, both domestic and international, with an increasingly complex array of content, the Manager, Partner Operations, has a solid understanding of content and metadata systems and is a key stakeholder for financial and reporting systems.
Key Responsibilities:
Partner Management
• Quarterbacks the onboarding of content partners and ensures all requirements and operational obligations are fulfilled for successful launch.
• Collaborates with business and Content Management teams to define distribution feeds and oversees implementation.
• Provides guidance on operational capabilities before contracts are signed.
• Defines tools, workflows, and resources needed to manage of ELPD’s growing content partnerships. Maintains documentation regarding processes and policies.
• Serves as operational ambassador for the duration on a partnership. Facilitates problem solving and flags when contracts need to be reviewed to accommodate new content, capabilities, or durations.
• Manages partner contract databases and matrices.
Royalties
• Manages signed HE contracts within the royalties system for HE catalog content developed internally or submitted through content partnerships.
• Partners with Finance and Financial Systems teams to ensure HE authors and content providers are paid royalties in accordance with contracts and agreements. Audits statements, troubleshoots discrepancies, and communicates with authors.
• Collaborates with technical teams to ensure the royalties system accommodates requirements, including case royalty automation for HBS authors.
IP Policies and Permissions
• Oversees the process for submitting ELPD, HBS, and select Harvard-affiliated partner content to the Library of Congress.
• Tracks permission requests and identifies when exceptions are made to help inform policy updates and maintain a decision log for consistency.
• Manages the special DRM request process that delivers content outside of normal delivery channels for approved purposes and with standard DRM language to help protect the intellectual property in the ELPD content catalog.
• Collaborates with the Translations team to support translation partnerships. Tracks out-for-translation products and audits the catalog to ensure partner submissions are in accordance with the agreement.
Reporting and Analytics
• Manages communication around ELPD catalog content and usage, both pushing out notifications, such as royalty payment information or catalog management updates, and incoming reporting requests from authors or special interest groups.
• Fulfills catalog report and analysis requests and collaborates with Asset Management on complex analysis. Tracks reporting requests for consistency in fulfillment and to inform potential fulfillment efficiencies.
Requirements:
• Proven leadership skills in partner content management, puzzle-solving, and collaboration.
• Strong product owner and project management skills. The successful individual is detail-oriented, hard-working, diligent, execution-oriented, good at prioritizing among a wide range of daily responsibilities, an excellent communicator, and an outstanding team player.
• Service-orientation balanced by business acumen, with outstanding customer- and business constituent-facing communication and presentation skills.
• Strong ability to maintain positive working relationships both internally and externally.
• Outstanding oral and written communication skills, capable of addressing both technical and non-technical audiences at a variety of organizational levels.
• Ability to think logically, critically, and constructively about complex problems, clearly communicate findings of analysis, and propose solutions that address expressed needs.
• Superb attention to detail and a rigorous focus on delivering quality output.
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize competing tasks and projects and execute timely turnarounds.
• BA / BS degree required, with experience in publishing operations or project management preferred.