Operations Coordinator II, Production Resources

WestEd is a nonpartisan, nonprofit agency that conducts and applies research, develops evidence-based solutions, and provides services and resources in the realms of education, human development, and related fields, with the end goal of improving outcomes and ensuring equity for individuals from infancy through adulthood. WestEd has more than a dozen offices nationwide, from Massachusetts, Georgia, and Washington, DC, to Arizona and California, with headquarters in San Francisco.

Program Services:

Program Services supports existing and emerging programmatic divisions and their projects; manages performance, quality, and impact; promotes cross-programmatic learning and collaboration; and envisions and implements strategic plans around the future of WestEd.

WestEd has a strong commitment to ensuring that all of our proposals, projects, publications and other products are of the highest quality, in both content and production. The Program Services team, in collaboration with other teams and with infrastructure departments (e.g. Communications) across the agency, is responsible for implementing robust quality assurance (QA) processes to follow through on that commitment.

The Operations Coordinator would be a part of the Program Services team and play a key role in supporting and strengthening QA across WestEd. This position reports to the Director of Strategy.

Summary:

WestEd is accepting applications for the newly created position of Operations Coordinator II for Production Resources. The position is responsible for helping ensure that critical agency publications, online content, and other materials receive high-quality production support, specifically, proofreading/copyediting; formatting based on internal or client templates; and ensuring document accessibility (e.g., under standards identified in Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act).

The Operations Coordinator II role encompasses three areas of responsibility.

• Coordination of production support. The coordinator will manage division and department requests for production support when division-embedded staff capacity is limited; and match available production staff with agency projects in need of their particular skill(s) and skill level(s).
• Building agency capacity to support production tasks. Based on the skill sets and skill levels of division-embedded production staff and how they map to the overall production needs of the agency’s divisions and departments, the coordinator will plan and coordinate professional learning opportunities for production staff. The coordinator will also project any production-related hiring needs; and identify, vet, and, as needed, use outside production resources (e.g., temp agencies, independent consultants).
• Performing production tasks. The coordinator will also carry out production tasks in support of individual projects, such as proofreading or document formatting.

The Operations Coordinator II will interact with staff at all levels of the organization. Their success will depend on establishing positive working relationships with division and department leadership, as well as with production staff and their supervisors.

Responsibilities:

Coordination of Production Support

• Identify and assign available division-embedded production staff to complete critical assignments in other divisions whose production needs exceed their own production capacity and in departments.
• Regularly review forecasts for upcoming production demand across the agency, identifying whether there is likely to be enough embedded production capacity and availability to meet anticipated cross-agency needs.
• Establish relationships with key points of contact in individual divisions who have insight into the capacity and availability of their embedded production staff and their division’s upcoming production needs. Confer on whether their staff members will be able to meet their own division’s needs or whether outside help will be required. Similarly, confer about the extent to which their embedded production staff members are likely to be underutilized in the coming weeks or months and, therefore, available to meet production requests from other areas of WestEd.
• Identify and support the use of agency-wide tools for both forecasting and requesting production support needs.
• Establish a system for identifying, for each aspect of production (e.g., formatting) the skill levels of all embedded production staff members; ensure that the skill level of any individual assigned to a specific production task is appropriate for the relative importance of the material being produced (e.g., the agency’s or divisions’ most important documents — those that have high stakes and/or are high visibility in nature, commonly referred to as level 1 products — require proofreading/copyediting by those with the highest skill level).
• Keep in close touch with Communications Department Editorial Director to exchange information about upcoming Level 1 products and ensure that they have access to the highest level proofreading support.

Building Agency Capacity to Support Production Tasks.

• Engage in a professional learning community (PLC) comprising division-embedded production staff focused on proofreading/copyediting and another PLC comprising staff focused on formatting and accessibility; engage representatives from Program Services and Communications as needed.
• Coordinate with Communications, Human Resources, and division contacts to arrange for and/or provide professional learning and training supports as needed, for individual production staff members and/or for PLCs.
• Establish and manage a vetted pool of temporary production staffing resources (e.g., through temporary staff hires, temp agencies, and independent contractors) that can be deployed as needed.
• Coordinate with hiring managers when they propose to hire new production staff and ensure that the screening process includes Program Services and Communications.
• Collect and convey feedback on production staff performance to managers/supervisors/individual production staff members.

Perform Production Tasks

• Proofread and lightly copyedit documents.
• Format Word documents and PowerPoint presentations using internal or client templates.

SPECIAL NOTICE REGARDING THE WORK LOCATION OF THIS POSITION - Currently, all staff at WestEd are working from home until further notice. Once we return to offices, this position will be based in one of WestEd’s offices. Candidates can submit a request to work from home.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• Proven proofreading ability shown through passing score on WestEd proofreading assessment.
• Prior experience with providing basic copyediting support.
• At least two years of experience in coordinating complex projects (experience with project management software, such as Smartsheet, preferred)
• At least two years of staff supervision experience
• Proven ability to work in a fast-paced environment
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to independently implement plans and procedures, assess problem areas, and provide recommendations for solutions
• Resourcefulness and careful attention to detail, while also keeping the big picture in mind, are a must
• Ability to emphasize a collaborative approach using high-quality customer service skills
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Ability to quickly learn new computer programs/software, including WestEd’s databases, such as PAC (Salesforce), Adaptive, and Smartsheet.

Experience with 508 document accessibility remediation in Word, PowerPoint, Acrobat, and/or InDesign to meet WCAG 2.1 compliance requirements is highly desirable. So, too, is the ability to create sophisticated diagrams, charts, graphs, tables, and presentations.

Some education sector experience is preferred (e.g., working with state education agencies and federal or state-funded programs).

Note: Successful candidates must be authorized to work in USA (visa sponsorship not available).