Advanced Specialist, Editorial Developer

Category 

Details 

Primary Focus 

The Editorial Developer is responsible for working with authors on a day-to-day basis, guiding them through the content plan. Responsibilities of the role may range from evaluating and developing authored content to performing substantive developmental and line editing, with accountability for the overall quality, accuracy, and market value of the content. This role ensures that the authored content is refined and structured to align with Pearson’s pedagogical objectives, learning science and learner needs, and market strategy, and meets the acceptance criteria defined by the specific product plan and build requirements. It serves as the bridge between author creativity and structured educational value, while also supporting delivery timelines, cross-functional collaboration, and budget-adherence. 

Content Type 

All components, encompassing chapter, module, or lesson text; images; videos and animations; interactive learning tools; assessments; and supplemental resources 

Key Strengths 

Author management and communication, domain and discipline familiarity, editorial and critical thinking judgment, content and pedagogical shaping to maintain a cohesive instructional through-text across all components, proficiency with AI tools, application of accessibility requirements, delivery of complete, build-ready content, and proactive problem solving and issue resolution. 

Responsibilities 

• Participate in product planning and scoping discussions to represent content development needs and authoring considerations. 

• Partner with CPMs to source, evaluate, and onboard royalty authors aligned to the project scope. 

• Manage author communications, schedules, and deliverables. 

• Guide authors in creating pedagogically effective content submissions. 

• Analyze patterns in author submissions to refine onboarding, authoring guidelines, and editorial support. 

• First line responsibility for author issues, with escalation to CSDD manager ahead of CPM (when escalation is required). 

• Ensure content alignment with content strategy and learning design. 

• Coordinate reviews, sample development, and feedback loops. 

• Apply market and customer feedback to guide content revisions and support continuous improvement. 

• Consult with learning design, Pod project management and producer teams, and application product management as needed. 

• Hands-on evaluation of author content submission, including and content development ranging from light prep for build to more substantial editing. 

• Light POC creation using collaborative whiteboard tools (Figma, Miro). 

• Maintain standard workflow adherence, track progress, flag risks, and communicate variances to key stakeholders. 

• Analyze patterns in author content submissions to refine onboarding, authoring guidelines, and editorial support. 

• Adhere to the content Quality Standards Framework (QSF) throughout the editorial process and consult with the CoE Content Standards & Accessibility team as needed. 

• Leverage content templates, authoring tools, and AI-assisted editorial workflows to improve efficiency and consistency. 

Tools Used 

Product plan documents and editorial brief templates, authoring guidelines and tool usage job aids, product plan specific checklists and in-take forms, style guides, Smartsheet schedules, budgets, collaborative white board tools, and AI for content generation workflow efficiencies. Current authoring tools include Word and PDF documents and storyboards and assessment and learning tool templates. The ideal future state is platform-enabled collaborative authoring tools, fully integrated within the broader content ecosystem and enhanced by embedded AI. 

Workflow Role 

Pre-development to through build, ranging from securing and shaping authored content to partnering as needed with producers to resolve issues in build. 

Pedagogical Involvement 

Ranges from moderate to heavy (substantive developmental and line editing) to support learning goals through all elements of the content plan. 

Key Collaborators 

Content Strategy & Delivery Manager, Authors, CPMs, APMs, Learning Designers, other Editorial Developers, Developmental Editors or Content Developer, Project Management, Producers, Vendor Partners 

Success Measures 

Clear, cohesive, pedagogically sound, and buildable courseware content aligned to product plan goals, author experience & satisfaction, adherence to scope, timeliness, and budget, and stakeholder collaboration feedback.