Officer, Production at Bridge International

Academics Group

The objective of the Academics group is to drive student achievement. To do so, we must know -- what is happening minute-by-minute for the typical child. The student’s daily experience, and thus the path to achievement, emerges from their relationship with the teachers and the content that is delivered in the classroom. Our team is collaboratively organised around these levers. We develop rigorous content pitched at the right level for students to be delivered by a teacher who is prepared to succeed in the classroom. Our Instructional Design department builds the content; our Leadership & Development department trains teachers and school leaders using scientifically-proven techniques; our Learning Innovation department looks at cutting-edge research to generate breakthrough learning gains. Underpinning all of this is the work of the independent Measurement and Evaluation group, which provides Academics with an empirical orientation toward improving that daily experience and, in turn, driving achievement.

Production

The Print Production Department is a shared services team within Bridge's organizational structure. Our team is currently split between Cambridge Massachusetts, Nairobi Kenya, and Vijayawada India. Production is responsible for managing the rollout of all of Bridge's print product. It is our mission to deliver Bridge product on time and within budget. We are a team of project managers, designers and print procurement officers. Our Department director has 40+ years of experience in publishing, production, and printing.

The bulk of our materials are textbooks and exams although we produce many other course materials. Our Instructional Design team, located in Cambridge Massachusetts, and Hyderabad India, develops these materials. We guide and assist the Instructional Design team by scheduling out their projects and identifying their production needs from design layout, to graphic art, manuscript formatting, composition and proper print formatting. Much of our work is collaborative and requires patience, an eye for detail, and an affinity for analytical thinking and problem solving.

We outsource our design needs to external vendors and facilitate that communication. We also work in collaboration with other Bridge departments in each of our markets, including operations, logistics, supply chain procurement, finance and upper management. One of our responsibilities is to coordinate a smooth transition or hand off from our team to the next, to make sure our product arrives in our schools on time.

About the Role

The Production Officer is a position that will be based in Nairobi, Kenya. The Production Officer will spend time assisting the Production Director, Print Manager and colleagues on all aspects of printing, binding, kitting and shipping, including helping to set up request for bids, pricing scales, approval of printer proofs, quality control of printed and bound product, kitting organization within the printer, liaison with shipping and customs and various Bridge offices. In addition this position will assist in the management of illustrators and compositors in Kenya and India. The Production Officer will also potentially work, in consultation, with the Production Director and Print Manager or colleagues on their own projects. This position provides assistance with the preparation of all aspects of print production, art creation and composition.

What You Will Do

• Work with Production Director and Print Manager to identify printers in Kenya who can service local as well as international requirements. Specifically shipping to Uganda, Liberia and Nigeria.
• Assist Production Director and Print Manager as a liaison with Kenya based printers in the establishment of printer scales in order to set up master printer agreements to avoid constantly having to bid out programs and to establish consistent pricing across all printers.
• Establish relationships with printers and maintain relationships, monitor print schedules and problem solve print-related issues within all assigned countries for all materials printed in Kenya or printed and shipped from India or China.
• Day to day management of printers in Kenya and Uganda.
• Assist Production Director and Print Manager in the acquisition of learning materials and direct purchase books in relation to the Product lists for each country.
• Assist Production Director and Print Manager as a liaison with Manipulative suppliers in Kenya as well as all assigned countries in order to set up pricing models and/or master agreements to avoid constantly having to bid manipulative products and to establish consistent pricing across all vendors.
• Communication - Responsible for effective communication with internal and external parties.
• Assure all budgets and schedules are being met for product produced in all assigned countries
• Ensure received inventory counts are accurate and reflect delivered product
• Work closely with Operations groups in all assigned countries and specifically in Kenya and Uganda to assess inventory requirements to ensure a smooth print bidding process
• Minute and grass root level coordination with different departments
• Assist in the set up of print related Request For Quote (RFQs) and send out to printers in in all assigned countries and specifically Kenya and Uganda.
• Assist in the Analysis of printer bids in all assigned countries and specifically Kenya and Uganda. Help negotiate to a final acceptable number.
• On small print orders make print recommendations to the Production Director and Print Manager.
• Be called upon to provide status updates on any active projects
• Act as liaison with production team in various locations and printers and shippers in all assigned countries and specifically to Kenya and Uganda.
• Serve as local translator for teams in the US and India with printers as required
• Track and process invoices for all assigned countries and specifically Kenya and Uganda based printers.
• Track budgets
• Data entry
• In addition to printing responsibilities, with supervision from the Production Director, Production Manager and Art Buyer in Kenya, help to locate in country illustrators to work on Bridge product. Assist in the negotiation of final fees based on pricing scale models already created for Kenya and India based illustrators.
• Work with Art Buyer in Kenya to help ensure the quality of illustrations meet Bridge specified guidelines.
• Work with Production Director and Print Manager to assist in the negotiation of final fees for compositors based on pricing scale models already created for the Kenya and India based compositors.
• Act as liaison with production team in US, Germany and India and art buyer in Kenya on the management of artists based in Kenya and India
• Act as liaison with production team in US and compositors in Kenya to ensure quality, schedule and pricing models are met.

What You Should Have

• 2-4 years of experience in either the purchasing of printing from a publishing standpoint or having worked at a
• Printer for 2-4 years in a customer care capacity
• Must have experience with either preparing or receiving quotations for pricing.
• Experience in arranging shipments to other countries. African countries are preferable.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office products – specifically Excel and Word
• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite/Cloud – InDesign, illustrator, Photoshop
• Experience with FileMaker Pro preferred, but not required
• Bachelor’s Degree in Print technology preferred

You’re also

• A detailed doer – You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
• A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, Bridge works in often fragile, sometimes volatile low-resource communities and with complex government systems. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand.
• A relentless advocate – The children we serve and teachers we empower never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their benefit, experience, and value.
• A malleable learner – You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
• A data-driven decision-maker – When making decisions, you don’t rely your intuition alone. You collect data, you analyze it and make decisions with clear justifications.
• A curious investigator – You ask why a lot. You don’t just take what you see and accept it. You wonder why it is that way, and are aware that the world we see is created by human choices and actions – and it could be different. You wonder, and see the world as wonderful even when you want to change a part of it that is unjust.