Temporary Production Assistant

Role Description

The Production Assistant supports the editorial and production workflow for journals and magazines by assisting with coordination, tracking, and quality control activities. This role works closely with internal staff, external editorial resources, vendors, authors, and volunteers to help ensure that content moves efficiently through the production process and meets established quality and timeliness standards.

This position focuses on operational and administrative support rather than ownership of publications. The Production Assistant contributes to maintaining workflows, accurate records, and clear communication across all stages of production, under the guidance of a Manager Journals Production. This is a temporary position, anticipated to last through March 2027. While this role will work remotely, the ideal candidate will be within commuting distance to the IEEE's Piscataway office.

• Assist in coordinating the flow of articles and issues through various stages of the production process.
• Perform quality checks on content (e.g., formatting, completeness, adherence to style requirements) and flag inconsistencies for review by senior staff.
• Support communication with authors, editorial offices, vendors, and volunteers regarding production status, missing items, and routine production inquiries.
• Help facilitate the delivery and organization of final publication assets (e.g., PDFs, XML metadata, multimedia files).
• Maintain documentation to ensure accurate records of production activity.
• Provide administrative and logistical support for process improvements and special projects.
• Support adherence to editorial guidelines and house style by applying checklists and standardized procedures.
• Prepare reports and updates for internal stakeholders on production status and workflow metrics.
• Participate in team meetings and contribute to process improvement discussions.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in English, communications, journalism, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 1–3 years of experience in publishing, editorial support, production coordination, or a related field preferred.
• Experience working with content workflows, vendors, or editorial systems.

Requirements

• Strong communication and grammatical skills are required.
• Experience in reading and parsing mathematical statements and expressions is preferred.
• Must be capable of exercising sound judgment when interfacing with authors, editors, society officers, and other members of IEEE staff.
• Excellent organizational and time-management skills, the capability to manage a variety of tasks for multiple publications, and the ability to meet tight/multiple deadlines are required.
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to work with volunteers, vendors, and external editorial resources to enforce appropriate quality levels in editorial products; this may include working with authors and other volunteers who have ESL challenges.
• Willingness to learn publishing standards, editorial style requirements, and new digital tools.

Reporting Structure

• Reports to a Manager, Journals Production.
• No supervisory responsibilities.