Senior Director (m/f/d) Content Distribution & Discovery (Publishing)
- Mobile Working from Germany or UK
- Stuttgart
- Manager First Level
- Project Management, Product Management
- Fulltime
- Published: 2026-09-16
Job ID: 2101
Thieme is seeking an experienced and forward-thinking leader to shape the future of our scientific and medical content distribution ecosystem. As Senior Director Content Distribution & Discovery, you will drive the strategy, development, and evolution of Thieme’s content distribution platform, ensuring our journals and books remain discoverable, accessible, and relevant in a rapidly changing scholarly communication environment shaped by AI, Open Access, and new research workflows.
In this strategic leadership role, you will operate at the intersection of publishing, technology, customer experience, and business development, working closely with global stakeholders across Publishing, Product, Technology, Marketing, Sales, and Operations.
Thieme is a leading supplier of information and services contributing to the improvement of healthcare and health. Employing more than 1,000 staff, the family-owned company develops products and services in digital and other media for the medical and chemistry sectors. Operating internationally with offices in 11 cities worldwide, the Thieme Group works closely with a strong network of experts and partners. The products and services are based on the high-quality content of Thieme's 200 journals and 4,400 books. With solutions for professionals, Thieme supports relevant information processes in research, education, and patient care. Medical students, physicians, nurses, allied health specialists, hospitals, health insurance companies and others interested in health and healthcare are at the focus of Thieme's activities. The mission of the Thieme Group is to provide these markets with precisely the information, services, and products they need in their specific work situation and career.
Department: Science
Start: as soon as possible
Vertragsdauer: fixed-term for 2 years
Arbeitszeit: full time
Your role & your impact
Strategic Ownership
- Define the long-term vision and strategy for content discoverability, distribution, as well as customer access and audience engagement across the scientific and educational journal, book publishing portfolio.
- Lead and own the strategic development for Thieme's online journal and book content discoverability and dissemination ecosystem, spanning metadata, taxonomy and future platform positioning, aligned with journal product strategies.
- Overall accountable for business outcomes on content discoverability, usage maximization and quality engagement, customer satisfaction, operational efficiency in an AI-driven environment.
Performance and Team Leadership
- Lead, develop, and inspire the Content Distribution & Discovery team – a team of specialists, fostering a culture of performance, accountability, innovation, and operational excellence.
- Own budget, investment decisions, resource allocation, vendor strategy, and systematic capability development.
- Define governance, metadata policies, quality standards, and operational frameworks.
- Drive content discovery and distribution transformation and modernization programs collaboratively.
- Define KPIs and drive continuous improvement across discoverability, engagement, metadata quality, and audience growth.
Stakeholder & Partner Management
- Establish and maintain strategic relationships across discovery services, indexing providers, accessibility and content delivery initiatives and other industry partners.
- Collaborate across Publishing, Product, Technology, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success to deliver business outcomes.
- Represent Thieme's interests in relevant industry associations and committees.
Your profile
- Minimum of 5 years’ proven leadership experience in digital products, platform management, or related fields, ideally within scholarly publishing, STM, or comparable content-driven environments.
- Strong understanding of scholarly communication, content dissemination, research workflows, digital customer journeys, and the evolving impact of AI and search technologies on content discovery and engagement.
- Proven ability to develop and execute business strategies in complex, evolving markets by combining business needs, customer perspectives, technical expertise, and specialized publishing knowledge into a clear strategic direction.
- Experience with metadata, taxonomy, discoverability, indexing, content platforms, or related digital publishing infrastructures, combined with a data-driven, analytical, and commercially minded approach to decision-making.
- Ability to quickly understand different business models, workflows, systems, dependencies, and interactions, while confidently challenging the status quo and driving continuous improvement.
- Strong leadership track record, including driving results, building effective teams, advancing problem solving, managing conflict, balancing ambiguity, and developing team members for future career growth.
- Excellent prioritization and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with a wide range of personalities and seniority levels in an international and culturally diverse environment.
- Fluent English skills, both written and spoken, and flexibility to travel when needed.
Desirable
- German language skills would be a bonus
- Experience with platform migrations and vendor management.
- Knowledge of academic (STM) publishing in general and Open Access publishing in particular
Additional information
- Non-tariff remuneration
- Carina Hodruß
- Talent Acquisition Manager
