Are you our new Digital Publishing and Data Lead?

Book Dash is a South African not-for-profit, social impact publisher of new, high-quality African picturebooks for young children. Our overarching vision is that “Every child should own a hundred books by the age of five”. 

All Book Dash books are created by volunteer creatives following an innovative, 12-hour publishing methodology called a “Book Dash”. The books are then published to our website, free to travel the world for all to read, access, download and adapt. In addition to this wide-scale digital distribution of our open-licensed content, we source funds and work with partners to print and distribute physical copies of the books to children to own.

We’re known for being bold, impactful, innovative and open. For more details on our work, see bookdash.org/what-we-do/how-we-do-it. We’re based in Cape Town, but work with partners nationally and internationally for a global footprint.

More about the role

Book Dash started as a vision project in 2014 by a group of individuals who wanted to change the landscape of access to great books for all young children. Today, we have 166 original titles in our catalogue, manage and publish 500+ translations and have printed and distributed close to 2 million physical copies to children through partners. 

This steady growth in work and impact has resulted in our seeking additional capacity in the three core areas below, so that we can continue on our mission to create new, African storybooks that anyone can freely translate and distribute. 

  • Digital publishing and distribution strategy
  • Content & metadata management
  • Data management

We’re a small, friendly and organised team with a fast-growing impact. You would join a full-time team of three, as well as have ongoing interactions with the content partners who use Book Dash books, our treasured creative volunteers, the Board and with a number of expert external suppliers.

All Book Dash employees work closely together and play an essential role in the general operations, impact and success of the organisation. We allocate project and work together, and pitch in where necessary to get the job done. However, we each have areas of expertise, insight and responsibility. This is a new role. Direction would come from the Executive Director, but taking initiative will be essential and you’d play a part in shaping your role into what the organisation needs it to be.

Your focus areas in the organisation would be:

  • Digital publishing and content distribution strategy:
    • Manage digital publishing workflows
    • Content management
    • Metadata-system management
    • Global content partnership management, content delivery and development
  • Information and data-management
    • In addition to managing content and metadata for the books, you would also assist with the management and visualization of impact-related data against our M&E Framework, which could include
      • Manage, track & visualise partner data & feedback
      • Develop and manage robust photo-management system

As with everyone involved in Book Dash, your top priority would be to support the growth and vision of the organisation in line with the achievement of our mid and long-term strategic goals. This will require you to be adaptable and it is essential to enjoy working at both a strategic level, as well as implementation level: doing some of the tasks required to achieve the strategy yourself. 

Example projects could include:

  • Developing a system for an audit of global content partners who use Book Dash books in their work, and data visualisation of the key metrics
  • Maintaining Google Data studio dashboard with key impacts metrics
  • Maintenance of metadata management systems
  • Investigation of Amazon Web Service products and management of migration
  • Development of digital workflow with expert consultants

Priorities will be identified and projects designed in collaboration with the relevant members of the Book Dash team, and training provided where needed.

Characteristics, Experience & Skillsets

When we imagine our new team member, we reckon that you are

  1. An all-rounder: You enjoy working on a wide-range of projects at a time that have different focus areas. You manage your time and energy accordingly. It’s likely that you have often found yourself involved in extracurricular activities and have many hobbies.
  2. Tech-inclined: Technology excites you. You enjoy exploring tech software, tools and systems to see how they could be applied pragmatically to support an organisation’s work. General tech troubleshooting for the organisation is something you’d be on board with, and you would enjoy working closely with developers and digital-publishing experts to realise a particular project roll-out.
  3. Data-savvy: Very comfortable gathering, manipulating, interpreting and visualising data sets. You love a good spreadsheet and Excel formulas excite you.
  4. Experienced: As this is a strategic lead position, we imagine you’ve been working for about 5 years already. You’ve likely worked with content, data and project management and digital workflows. You may have specific experience in publishing management, digital publishing, data, monitoring & evaluation, development or product management.
  5. A teamplayer: Nothing is above or below you, you’re happy to work together where needed to get the job done, as well as try things you might not have done before. You enjoy seeing how your work contributes to a larger vision.
  6. Detail-oriented & organised: You’re super passionate about detail and order which means that you love working with systems, processes and data. You feel satisfied when things are structured and organised exactly as they should be.
  7. An analytical thinker: You can identify patterns across situations that are not obviously related and identify underlying issues in complex situations. 
  8. Proactive: You identify possible solutions to barriers you encounter. You enjoy taking ownership and accountability for delivered results by using available resources effectively. You plan, manage and monitor projects with ease and joy.
  9. Inquisitive & curious: You love to learn. You like to teach yourself things and dig a layer deeper to explore and understand a complex problem in order to find a solution. You enjoy uncovering more about a topic, analysing and representing those findings.
  10. Compassionate: Doing meaningful work that’s good for the world is a priority for you.

If you feel as if this is describing you, we want to hear from you! Application details below.

Location

The Book Dash office is based in Cape Town. Team members have stipulated, but flexible working hours between work-from-home and office hours.

Applying

Applications are open from 14 October to midnight SAST on 14 November 2021

If you have a Gmail account, or are happy to create one, the simplest way to apply is to:

  • complete the application form here: forms.gle/tKEVQi4s5b8E7Zfx9.
  • You will be required to attach a letter of motivation and your CV as PDFs so have these ready beforehand
    • Your letter should highlight why you’re best-suited for this role, and detail specific experience, skills and education that would make you the perfect fit.
    • Your CV should be up to date, with references & their contact details. Please note, we will only refer to CVs for shortlisted candidates, so anything you’d like to highlight needs to be presented in your written letter of motivation.

If you do not have a Gmail account you can email the following information to team@bookdash.org with your full name as the Subject:

  • Name & Surname
  • City of residence
  • Attach a letter of motivation for this role. This should highlight why you’re best-suited for this role, and specific skills, experience and education that would make you the perfect fit.
  • Attach an up-to-date CV with references & their contact details. Please note, we will only refer to CVs for shortlisted candidates, so anything you’d like to highlight needs to be presented in your written letter of motivation.

Offer & Compensation

This position will be a long-term contract, with the intention to make a permanent offer. Start-date would be early in 2022. Exact date, salary offer and additional benefits will be discussed with the preferred candidate.

Queries

Any queries can be sent through to team@bookdash.org