Remote Editorial Manager Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping learners around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose - driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

The Higher Ed Editorial and Learning Team is responsible for creating a content and program investment strategy that sets the global standard for relevancy, comprehensiveness, and evidence-driven pedagogical design. This includes developing hypotheses, evaluating data, analyzing audience needs and market/driven/industry trends, testing ideas, and making strategic content design decisions grounded in insights and evidence.

The Editorial Manager (EM) recruits and develops authoring talent, defines project scope, and negotiates terms for statements of work and contracts. As a problem solver, the EM delivers solutions that prioritize customer needs, career readiness, learning quality, and aligns with the Cengage Learning Platform (CLP) capabilities. The EM leads the full content development process, collaborating with a cross-functional team to ensure the on-time delivery of high-quality, career-focused, continuously updated, and commercially successful learning experiences.

The Editorial Manager also clearly articulates their strategy to cross-functional teams, develops and presents artifacts related to the strategy, and surfaces opportunities to improve content and learning functionality within CLP capabilities.

Strategic Leadership

• Own the difficulty content strategy and roadmap, including new course entry investment proposals.
• Handle the portfolio content budget (P&L) to lead a profitable line of content offerings and develop short- and long-term strategic business plans aligned with business priorities.
• Develop strategy for high-impact courses that drive revenue retention and growth, grounded in deep market knowledge and analysis of customer needs, trends, and the competitive landscape.
• Evaluate data, financial metrics, customer feedback, industry needs, and usage analytics to guide strategic decisions, make market informed proposals, and take calculated risks.
• Regularly analyze portfolio plans to assess progress toward goals and evolve strategy.

• Establish strategy, specifications, and timelines for content development; own decision-making authority related to scope, release schedules, and budget.
• Translate priorities into organized end-to-end development plans with budgets, resources, performance metrics, and key checkpoints.
• Deliver quality, career focused, pedagogically sound learning experiences that improve student outcomes and address learning challenges.
• Propose content updates that meet currency and pedagogical needs, ensure alignment with CLP capabilities, and advocate for platform-level innovations that enhance learning impact.
• Create and maintain portfolio strategy artifacts, project startup documentation, and related planning materials.

• In collaboration with Marketing and Research, set the market research strategy for content improvement and innovation, combining qualitative and quantitative feedback, financial data, and behavioral analytics to find opportunities.
• Develop understanding of competitors, anticipate competitive actions, and advise decisions with insights from instructors, students, employers, and industry representatives.
• Identify, test, and refine new content ideas through focus groups, advisory boards, customer meetings, and targeted market trials such as prototypes, pilots, and proof of concepts.

• Identify, recruit, and cultivate strong author talent and external subject matter experts.
• Negotiate business terms and contract authors, subject matter experts, and industry partners to drive portfolio strategy forward. Establish and maintain relationships with key authors, content creators, and decision makers to gather insights, strengthen adoptions, and identify emerging talent.
• Partner closely with authors to develop content plans that deliver on strategic intent, meet quality expectations, incorporate career readiness, and improve competitive advantage.

• Provide leadership across audiences, representing content needs and editorial priorities to internal and external stakeholders.
• Guide and coordinate project teams, ensuring clear communication, effective collaboration, and on-time delivery of multiple offerings within scope and budget.
• Advocate for platform innovations that facilitate new content development or improve existing content functionality.

• Creative and curious problem solving and collaboration
• Ability to clearly articulate vision and strategy and help team members understand how their work impacts business success
• Customer focus: understanding of how customer needs and challenges translate into opportunities
• Demonstration of strong communication skills with keen ability to facilitate team meetings, presentations, focus groups, and interviews.
• BA or BS Degree
• Minimum 3 years in portfolio/product management, product development, sales, marketing, or other relevant management role
• Ability to inspire change through influence; honed interpersonal skills
• Self-discipline with a high degree of accountability
• Strong financial analysis and modeling skills and an understanding of business metrics
• Natural curiosity and willingness to learn paired with a desire for continuous improvement
• Validated written and verbal abilities enabling the preparation and presentation of information and recommendations to a diverse and senior level audience
• Expected travel ~20% of time
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 and Adobe Acrobat, AI tools, SAP
• Preferred: Experience in Educational Technology

Cengage's Higher Education business, Cengage, supports learning and student success by providing materials and digital solutions to faculty and students enrolled in two-year, four-year and vocational programs. We currently serve more than 10 million of the 18 million students in US higher ed. Setting a new standard of service for our customers, we deliver quality, easy-to-use course materials from textbooks and eBooks to courseware such as MindTap and WebAssign. In the US, we offer Cengage Unlimited and Cengage Unlimited for Institutions. We help instructors be better teachers, we help institutions solve problems, and we empower students to leverage the power and joy of learning to transform lives.

Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at accommodations.ta@cengage.com.

Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Compensation

At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.

The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.

In this position, you will be eligible to participate in the company'sdiscretionaryincentive bonus program. This position's bonus target amount, which is not guaranteed and is dependent on individual performance and overall company results among other factors, is provided below.