The Program Manager is the member of the Content Team directly accountable to a high-level category of business. This individual maintains open and transparent lines of communication with Category Product Management, National Account Management, Merchandising, Marketing, Suppliers and other primary content stakeholders throughout other areas of Essendant’s business. He or she is responsible for planning upcoming content acquisition and development efforts, aimed digital syndication or other outputs as necessary. This team member is solely responsible for the categorization and taxonomies for the assigned product category, and serves on a multi-member Evangelism team that – among other duties – reconciles overlap and discrepancies as appropriate across taxonomies and product categories.
Major Responsibilities
Meet regularly and maintain open dialog with other areas of the business (e.g. Category Product Management, National Account Management, Merchandising, and Marketing) and Suppliers for a specific high-level product category; Work with these business stakeholders to plan upcoming content development projects to support print publication, digital syndication and other content demands
Provide leadership in his or her product category with respect to the style of writing and attribution, and the fields that must be completed for a project
Occasionally step in to the roles of Analyst, Writer or Editor to supplement the team’s efforts by originating, trafficking and reviewing product content for a given project
Manage the taxonomies and category hierarchies for the designated high-level product category across all Essendant’s businesses. Work directly with other parts of the business and other members of the Product Evangelism team to resolve discrepancies and overlap in product taxonomies and categorization
Monitor competitors taxonomies and content, content models, metadata schemas, and definition for content global and category specific types. Develop taxonomies in conjunction with navigation systems, search mechanisms, search engine optimization, and interactive rich media applications
Continually audit data for compliance, investigate inconsistencies and discrepancies
Develop content acquisition processes with the Content Acquisition team to ensure that product content acquisition and maintenance procedures are maximally efficient and minimally disruptive to Suppliers
Manage quality control for production work produced by Essendant, assuring professionalism and relevancy in the product category
Provide subject matter expertise, consulting to internal and external areas as needed, developing training programs, including evaluations, application upgrades, documentation, online training modules for junior staff and other stakeholders. Develop instruction presentations for Suppliers and internal stakeholders
Anticipate and escalate any risks or issues that could impair successful project delivery, working with project teams to translate complex and often convoluted business processes into clear maps for continued business process excellence.
Liaise with the IT group to resolve technical, data flow and data structure issues related to the Supplier Portal or PIM system. Conduct ongoing needs assessments and maintain a priority list of enhancements to the supplier Portal and PIM systems that will help increase productivity of the Content Development Team.
Serve as a member of the Product Evangelism team which convenes under the direction of the Manager for Rich Content Development on a quarterly basis to review opportunities for process improvement; the consistency of processes and workflows across all product categories where possible; and identifying and removing or escalating roadblocks.
Understands and demonstrates Essendant’s Core Values.
Performs other duties as assigned.
Key Performance Indicators
Positive, constructive relationships established with Category Product Managers, Account Managers, Merchandisers and Suppliers
Content quality as reflected by the quantitative volume of reported errors related to digital syndication or print publication.
Volume of new items output through print, digital syndication and other channels
Average lifecycle completion time for product content (by taxonomy).
Skills/Knowledge Required
Careful attention to detail, including the ability to understand requirements for syndication and ensure that product data conforms to these standards.
Comfortable working with large, complex data sets.
Strong aptitude to learn new software and complex technical concepts.
Organized, multi-tasking expert, calm under pressure.
Written and oral communication skills that reflect logical thinking and are accurate, concise, persuasive and customer-service oriented.
Ability to lead and motivate teams in complex, integrated and matrix organizations.
Advanced competency in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Access.
Advanced competency in CMS, ECM and DAM systems. Experience in EnterWorks software preferred.
Understanding of Ecommerce data needs for optimal search and navigational experience.
Education and Experience
Bachelor’s degree required.
Minimum 5 years of applicable experience.
Experience interacting with large datasets preferred.
Customer-facing experience in sales, customer service, technical support or related area required.
Advertising agency or in-house marketing experience preferred.
