Production Coordinator

About the role

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) seeks a detail-oriented, highly motivated, and well-organized professional with a background in digital publishing, technology, or a similar field for the position of Production Coordinator. Reporting to the Production Manager, this role supports a production team including three Composition Specialists, the Publishing Platform Manager, and another Production Coordinator specializing in print production. The team is responsible for producing and disseminating SIAM journals, books, and proceedings in digital and print formats.

Ideal candidates have 2–3 years of academic publishing or related experience, or a strong interest in learning new publishing technologies and workflows. The Production Coordinator will support the full production lifecycle—from manuscript acceptance to publication—with a focus on digital publications and accessibility. The position may be hybrid (several days per week in SIAM’s Philadelphia office) or fully remote for qualified candidates, with preference given to those in the Philadelphia area who can work on-site regularly. Remote candidates must travel to Philadelphia several times a year and maintain core working hours compatible with Eastern Standard Time.

Responsibilities

• Manage the production workflow for conference proceedings, including correspondence with conference chairs and vendors, collaboration on schedules and deadlines with SIAM’s conferences team, and quality control for the final online version.
• Manage workflows for conference proceedings special projects, such as setting up submission sites, selecting vendors for newly acquired proceedings, and customizing workflows to meet special requests from conference chairs.
• Oversee the workflow for accessible ebooks, ensuring inclusion of alternative text for images and regular communication with third-party vendors and in-house staff on file preparation.
• Oversee workflows for other digital publications, including quality review checks on journal XML and PDFs, with special attention to alternative text and accessibility issues.
• Gather quotes and approve invoices for third-party accessibility vendors as needed.
• Assist the Publishing Platform Manager with platform updates for SIAM’s online bookstore using the web admin tool and PageBuilder.
• Cross-train with Composition Specialists and Production Editors on processing LaTeX files for journals and books and troubleshooting formatting errors.
• Submit applications for indexing journals, books, and proceedings.
• Assist with setting up and maintaining feeds for abstract and indexing platforms as needed.
• Monitor general production email inboxes, answering author queries and requests as needed.
• Send occasional email reminders to authors for overdue proofs, manuscript files, or to troubleshoot journal manuscripts outside the standard workflow.
• Attend team meetings, webinars, working groups, or other professional development events when requested by management.
• Maintain an archive of book and journal files.
• Work on other special assignments or projects as needed.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in scholarly publishing or a related field.
• Knowledge of, or strong interest in, online publishing technologies, including XML, TeX, and/or MathJax.
• Knowledge of, or interest in, journal submission systems, preferably eJournalPress or similar.
• Knowledge of, or interest in, digital accessibility, including alternative text and WCAG requirements.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Strong sense of initiative and ownership of assigned tasks.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Performance expectation

In the performance of their respective tasks and duties, all employees are expected to:

• Have a general understanding and appreciation of applied mathematics, computational science, and data science; be an advocate for SIAM and its mission.
• Perform quality work within deadlines with or without direct supervision.
• Interact professionally with other employees, constituents, and vendors.
• Work effectively as a team contributor on all assignments.
• Work independently while understanding the necessity for communicating and coordinating work efforts with other employees and organizations.