Academic Affairs Manager, Africa at Springer Nature Group

Responsibilities:

• Manage and track relations with a subset of target organizations
• As directed by VP Academic Affairs, systematically build contacts and regularly liaise with a defined subset of target organizations in Africa, including funders, institutions and other organizations with overlapping interests/responsibilities such a policy-making bodies
• Build a systematic understanding of key stakeholders within the target organizations, their responsibilities and the command structure among them
• Represent to these organizations the breadth of areas of common interest with SN (including those relevant to SN services etc), our thought leadership activities in such areas and our constructive, open-minded and progressive approach to collaboration in such areas
• Contribute regular updates of all interactions with contacts to the VP and other Academic Affairs stakeholders as required and the Academic Affairs CRM
• Manage and collate data on funders, governmental and institutional stakeholders and our relationships with them
• Manage, maintain and iteratively improve a database that provides a prioritized summary of global funders, governmental research institutes, higher education institutions and other key organizational stakeholders
• Develop and manage tactics and strategies for systematically establishing and sharing connections between funders and relevant parts of the SN organization, including Journals, Books, research solutions and sales; identify and facilitate initiatives that leverage SN expertise and capabilities

Coordinate funder/institution policy tracking

• Based on SN staff knowledge and contact with research ecosystem stakeholders, help develop and manage a repository of policies in relevant areas (eg research assessment) that can be accessed by a range of relevant Springer Nature functions
• Help cross reference this resource with Springer Nature public policy stakeholders to understand how government policy is impacting or will impact future funder policy

Disseminate learning internally

• Manage mechanisms to disseminate key findings from funder interactions to stakeholders across SN, potentially including but not limited to a funder relations stakeholder Hive group, a monthly funder trends newsletter and ad hoc webinars/ blogposts.
• Complete strategic analyses of funder policy trends as required and make recommendations based on these for funder relation priorities and broader company strategies

Coordinate relationships and approaches across Springer Nature

• Help VP AA to ensure that funder outreach efforts across Springer Nature are coordinated. Work closely with other parts of Springer Nature that have contact with research ecosystem organisations, including Institutional Sales, Institutional Partnerships, Journals, Books and senior     management, to ensure optimal coordination of funder interactions
• Help develop and maintain the system(s) deployed to manage key contacts and interactions in order to coordinate messaging and avoid duplication of effort

Experience/Skills and Qualification

Experience:

• Experience working in in academic communication, research funding or research publishing
• Demonstratable track record of working with key institutional or funder contacts
• In-depth understanding of research culture and the academic frameworks in Africa
• Extensive knowledge of and experience with the research landscape
• Experience and/or understanding and willingness to learn about the strategic imperatives in scholarly publishing
• Implementing projects and hitting deadlines

Skills/Knowledge:

• Excellent relationship-building skills and knowledge of different internal functions and priorities
• Keen interest in understanding, and monitoring, key developments in funder landscape and scholarly communications
• Proven strategic abilities and ability to adapt tactical implementation to changing circumstances/priorities
• Attention to detail
• Thorough understanding of the needs of key customers
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong presentation skills
• Highly self-motivated, resourceful and achievement oriented
• Good collaboration skills and ability to work with cross functional teams to achieve company goals
• Good level of skills in data and statistical analysis
• Attention to detail in anticipating and ensuring that key aspects of performance and of new initiatives proceed as they should.

Qualifications:

• A first degree (or equivalent experience)