Job Description

ABOUT THE ROLE

The role is responsible for working with business stakeholders and external data standards to surface, assess, align, and raise requirements for publishing and content reference data and metadata, including elements, attributes, and structures required for content, publishing, and product functionality, display, discovery, tracking, and reuse across all product formats. It places particular emphasis on consolidating and providing reference and semantic metadata values across data sets aligned with industry standards (particularly ONIX, BITS, JATS, QTI). The role supports the alignment of the data model with associated data application solutions (including system architecture alignment with the data model and testing system developments against the data model); and provides governance and management of reference data and semantic metadata values aligned across OUP's publishing and content data domains.



The role involves contributing to the Publishing and Content Data strategy and roadmap, leading use case discovery with SMEs, and assessing requirements for data formats, structures, and metadata. Responsibilities include monitoring and regular reviewing reference and semantic data, surfacing enrichment capabilities, raising requirements for data applications, and ensuring alignment with cross-divisional domain models. The role also covers research and development to map, standardize, and propose improvements to data models, testing new metadata solutions, and enabling efficient system data flows. Additionally, the position acts as an SME, maintains governance documentation, and ensures consistent data definitions and guidelines across domains and divisions.



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

ABOUT YOU

To be successful in this role, you will ideally have/be:



Essential:


Demonstrated experience of providing use case/business requirements in data or publishing and content data related projects Demonstrated experience translating business needs to technology and data teams Understanding of data description and modelling techniques (e.g. XML in industry standards such as BITS, JATS, QTI, ONIX), supporting systems, data creation workflow and implementation

Desirable:


Experience of digital publishing processes, ideally across academic and/or educational publishing Assessment, management, and implementation of reference data - attributes, authorities, taxonomies, ontologies, or other classification systems Demonstrable knowledge of current trends and technologies in 'semantic web' development, including natural language processes, AI tools Experience of project ownership and/or project SME and communications roles Demonstrable knowledge of current general trends and technologies in publishing and content data model and domain model development, standards, and solutions

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 cynthia.yue@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.



Division:Technology and Operations
Department:Publishing and Content Operations
Closing Date:2 February 2026
Salary:30,000 - 35,000 dependent on skills and experience
Location:OUP UK - Oxford
Postcode:OX2 6DP
Full Time / Part Time:Full Time
Ref:4903