We are the world’s largest university press. That means we serve the academic community as no other publisher can. We work in partnership with institutions and learned societies to bring a world of knowledge to the fingertips of students and researchers worldwide.

The goal is impact. Together with our academic communities, we curate and seamlessly connect together the ideas that push their fields forward, so they can learn from them, add to them, and continue a virtuous cycle of scholarship.

And because we are a part of the academic community and guided in everything we do by our mission, we re-invest in our people, our publishing, and the world-leading research institution of which we are part.

About the Role

We’re thrilled to offer an exciting opportunity to join Oxford University Press as Acquisition Editor for Education & Social Sciences within the Academic Division’s Research Books Editorial team. This impactful role reports to the Executive Editor, Social Sciences, working within the Social and Behavioral Sciences editorial group, while representing OUP’s award-winning list in the UK, US, and abroad.

This is a particularly dynamic moment to come into this role, as our field-leading program is poised for growth, with room to explore new areas and innovative publishing formats.

As Acquisition Editor, you’ll collaborate closely with talented colleagues across Research and Reference Editorial and the wider Press, including Product, Rights & Translations, Production, Sales, Marketing, and Publicity. You’ll also engage regularly with a vibrant network of external partners: authors and editors, editorial boards, reviewers, OUP Delegates and University stakeholders, policy makers, think tanks, research funders, professional bodies, scholarly societies, and the broader academic community.

With a strong focus on proactive content acquisition aligned with market needs and our evolving publishing portfolio, this role plays a key part in advancing OUP’s mission and enhancing our scholarly and public impact. You’ll also have the opportunity to help shape the future of academic publishing as we respond to changing research, reading, and writing practices across disciplines.

We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office. 

About You

• Knowledge and/or experience with academic and scholarly publishing, with a record of development of strong copyrights and productive relationships with scholars, societies, and academic stakeholders.
• Demonstrated track record of managing commissioning process and title delivery/project management.
• Experience of building, maintaining and utilizing networks within the publishing industry and relevant academic/professional communities.
• Experience with and knowledge of OA publishing desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to adapt to new systems and processes.
• Experience training and/or mentoring others desired.
• Ability to work with peers and cross-functionally in a productive manner (including within the matrix management structure of the Press) towards a common purpose.
• Excellent written communication as well as strong presentation, interpersonal and verbal skills.

Benefits

We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days’ holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect to working patterns, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies. 

We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts. 

This role comes with the added benefit of a discretionary annual payment.

Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.

Queries

Please contact grace.mcfadyen@oup.com with any queries relating to this role. 

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.