Product Director, Quality & Integrity

Job Title:    Product Director, Quality & Integrity

Location : London    

About Springer Nature

Springer Nature is one of the leading publishers of research in the world. We publish the largest number of journals and books and are a pioneer in open research. Through our leading brands, trusted for more than 180 years, we provide technology-enabled products, platforms and services that help researchers to uncover new ideas and share their discoveries, health professionals to stay at the forefront of medical science, and educators to advance learning. We are proud to be part of progress, working together with the communities we serve to share knowledge and bring greater understanding to the world. For more information, please visit about.springernature.com and follow @SpringerNature.

At Springer Nature, we recognise that great talent develops through many different paths. We encourage applications from individuals with strong transferable skills, provided they are supported by relevant experience that shows how those skills have been successfully applied in practice. Our hiring approach balances skills, experience, and potential to ensure each role is fulfilled with both short term effectiveness and long term growth in mind.  

Overview 

The Product Director, Quality & Integrity will define and deliver the product strategy for the opening stages of the publishing journey: helping authors prepare and submit high-quality manuscripts, screening those manuscripts effectively, and protecting the integrity and trustworthiness of the research Springer Nature publishes. 

The role brings submission experience and manuscript screening into one accountable product portfolio. Its central objective is to create a joined-up journey in which authors receive clear, timely and actionable guidance before and during submission, can resolve issues as early as possible, and submit manuscripts that move efficiently through quality and integrity checks to editorial assessment. 

The role owns the vision, strategy, roadmap, outcomes and investment priorities across three connected areas: author submission experience; screening and quality checks; and research integrity prevention and resolution. This includes surfacing screening feedback earlier, translating complex requirements into usable author guidance, and enabling editors, Research Integrity teams and publishing staff to act confidently on risks that require expert judgement. 

Reporting to the VP Product, Publishing Platform, the Product Director will lead a growing team of Product Managers and Senior Product Managers and work across Product, Technology, UX, Data Science, Research Integrity, Editorial, Publishing and Operations. As the most senior product leader for this domain, they will regularly engage executive leadership and represent its strategy, performance, risks, dependencies and investment needs. 

Core Responsibilities 

Strategy, Vision and Outcomes 

• Own the long-term product vision, strategy, KPIs and investment roadmap for submission experience, screening and research integrity, aligned with Springer Nature's publishing, trust, growth and operational objectives with a strategic mindset.
• Define the target end-to-end experience from manuscript preparation and submission through screening to editorial assessment, with clear ownership of the outcomes achieved for authors, editors, Research Integrity teams and the business. 
• Create a coherent strategy that joins author guidance, workflow design, screening signals, integrity checks and expert resolution into an integrated and scalable platform rather than a collection of discrete tools. 
• Drive measurable improvements in submission quality, author experience, successful completion, avoidable amendments and paper rejections, time and effort to reach editorial assessment, screening effectiveness, and the quality and usability of integrity signals. 
• Balance a low-friction author experience with the need for robust quality and integrity controls, ensuring intervention is proportionate, transparent and focused on helping legitimate authors resolve issues early. 
• Stay ahead of author needs, publishing trends, emerging fraud vectors, AI-driven threats, integrity policies and regulatory developments, translating them into product strategy and differentiated capability. 

Author Submission Experience 

• Own the product experience for authors across preparation and submission, making complex journal, policy, quality and integrity requirements clear, actionable and easy to navigate.
• Develop capabilities that provide relevant guidance before and during submission, including feedback from screening where appropriate, so authors can understand and address issues before the manuscript reaches an editor. 
• Reduce unnecessary author effort, avoidable errors and repeated amendments by improving guidance, interaction design, workflow orchestration and the timing of interventions. 

Screening and Research Integrity 

• Lead the development and evolution of a scalable screening capability that orchestrates quality, policy and research integrity checks and presents clear, contextual results to the right user at the right point in the journey. 
• Own the platforms, workflows and data that enable Springer Nature to prevent, detect and address research integrity risks, while proactively identifying emerging fraud and manipulation patterns at scale. 
• Establish product principles for explainability, human oversight, responsible AI, evidence quality, privacy and fair treatment within screening and integrity workflows. 

Product and Portfolio Leadership 

• Lead the full product lifecycle across the portfolio, including discovery, incubation, delivery, scaling, optimisation, consolidation and retirement of capabilities where appropriate. 
• Use Business Insights to make prioritization, sequencing and investment trade-offs across author experience, screening and integrity initiatives, allocating resources to maximise customer, mission and business impact.  
• Develop a clear platform and capability model that supports reuse across journals and workflows while avoiding fragmented experiences or duplicated investment. 
• Drive strong product thinking, customer discovery, experimentation and evidence-based decision making, with clear hypotheses, measures of success and learning loops. 
• Manage dependencies and interfaces with adjacent product portfolios, particularly editorial assessment, peer review, transfers, journal configuration, identity, data and workflow platforms. 

Organisational and Team Leadership 

• Lead, develop and grow a team of Product Managers and Senior Product Managers across submission experience, screening and research integrity. 
• Design an effective team structure with clear accountability across the connected portfolio while maintaining one coherent strategy and outcome framework. 
• Build a high-performance product organisation with strong capability in strategy, customer discovery, service and interaction design, analytics, responsible AI and execution. 
• Coach product managers to operate with increasing autonomy and strategic ownership while maintaining a consistently high bar for quality, evidence and impact. 
• Develop succession plans and organisational capability that support the scale, complexity and strategic importance of the portfolio. 

Executive Communication and Influence 

• Develop and maintain trusted relationships with senior leaders across Springer Nature, including ExCo and other governance bodies. 
• Translate complex product, technology, AI, operational and research integrity topics into clear, concise and compelling narratives tailored to executive audiences. 
• Lead communication of portfolio strategy, performance, risks, opportunities, investment cases and trade-offs, enabling informed decision-making by senior leadership. 
• Influence organisational direction and secure alignment across senior stakeholders through evidence-based recommendations, strong storytelling and clear articulation of customer, business and operational outcomes. 

Cross-functional, Executive and Industry Leadership 

• Partner closely with Technology, UX, Data Science, Research Integrity specialists, Editorial teams, Publishing leaders, Operations, Legal, Privacy and Policy to deliver joined-up solutions. 
• Lead complex cross-functional initiatives spanning multiple product areas, teams and business units, resolving competing needs and securing alignment on shared outcomes. 
• Act as a visible internal champion for excellent author experience, research integrity and responsible innovation, ensuring these goals reinforce rather than compete with one another. 
• Where appropriate, represent Springer Nature externally in industry forums, partnerships and discussions relating to submission, screening, scholarly publishing, AI and trust in research. 

Core Experience, Skills and Qualifications 

Essential 

• Significant product leadership experience, including ownership of strategy, outcomes and roadmap delivery for complex, interconnected product portfolios. 
• Demonstrated experience designing or transforming customer-facing digital journeys. 
• Experience leading and developing teams of Product Managers, including coaching senior product talent and building organisational capability. 
• Ability to define and execute long-term product strategies in complex, fast-changing and highly interdependent environments. 
• Exceptional communication and influencing skills, with proven ability to engage and influence executive stakeholders, build compelling strategic narratives, and translate complex customer, operational, technology and risk considerations into clear business decisions. 
• Experience leading initiatives that span customer experience, workflow, data, automation, operational processes and policy or control requirements. 
• Strong analytical capability, with a track record of using customer insights, funnel and operational data, risk measures and business metrics to drive decisions. 
• Proven ability to operate effectively in matrix organisations, build alignment across diverse stakeholders and navigate ambiguity and competing priorities. 

Desirable

• Experience applying automation or AI to customer guidance, classification, risk detection or workflow orchestration with appropriate human oversight.  
• Experience in trust and safety, risk management, fraud prevention, compliance or adjacent domains. 
• Awareness of emerging integrity challenges within scholarly communication, including AI-related risks, publication fraud, paper mills, reviewer manipulation and content authenticity. 
• Experience delivering workflow platforms, screening or decision-support products used globally and at scale

At Springer Nature, our mission is to be part of progress – and that begins with inclusion: of people, perspectives, and ideas. We believe that diverse perspectives drive progress, and we are committed to creating an environment where people and ideas can flourish. If you have any access needs related to disability, neurodivergence or a chronic condition, please contact us so we can make all necessary accommodation.

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