Location
London

Hours
Full Time

Salary
Negotiable

About the Role
The Financial Times (FT) is a globally recognised news organisation known for its authority, integrity, and accuracy. Our Product & Tech teams deliver cutting-edge products to over one million digital subscribers daily, driving growth through a diverse and dynamic group of specialists. Join us to build a newsworthy career in a supportive, entrepreneurial culture with opportunities at every turn.

As the Technical Operations Team Lead for Digital Print Services, you will lead a team responsible for managing, supporting, and continuously improving the FT's end-to-end print publishing process. You will foster a collaborative and inclusive culture, support professional growth, and help the team navigate technical and organisational challenges. This role balances people management with active involvement in service management, incident response, problem resolution, change planning, and operational improvements.

You will work closely with stakeholders across Editorial, Advertising, Operations, Technology, and external partners to ensure the successful delivery of daily print production deadlines while driving improvements in efficiency, resilience, and service quality. The role demands operational discipline, effective decision-making under deadline pressure, and a commitment to continuous improvement and innovation, including leveraging automation, data, and AI-driven capabilities.

Key responsibilities include service leadership and strategy, people management and team development, service delivery and collaboration, communication and stakeholder management, and operational leadership including incident management and escalation. You will ensure operational readiness, support arrangements, and contingency planning for critical print production activities.

The Digital Print Services team operates across publishing platforms, operational tooling, cloud services, integrations, and vendor-managed systems. Technologies include editorial publishing systems, print production workflows, service management and monitoring tools, workflow automation platforms, AWS cloud services, CI/CD pipelines, GitHub, and AI-assisted automation technologies.

At the FT, we are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, fostering a workplace where all voices are heard, respected, and valued. We offer a 50% hybrid working model and flexible working arrangements where feasible, alongside a comprehensive benefits package.

Experience
- Proven leadership of teams delivering time-critical operational processes with immovable deadlines.
- Managing business-critical services requiring reliability, service continuity, and operational excellence.
- Leading operational, service delivery, technical support, production, or publishing teams.
- Managing operational priorities and competing business demands in fast-paced environments.
- Coordinating work across multiple teams, stakeholders, suppliers, and business functions.
- Working with external vendors and service providers to support operational delivery.
- Driving service improvements, operational excellence, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Leading teams through incidents, operational challenges, and periods of change.
- Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills in complex environments.
- Experience building inclusive, engaged, and high-performing teams.
- Experience in editorial, production, operations, technology, or cross-functional environments is advantageous.
- Experience with print production, publishing operations, media workflows, or deadline-driven business-critical services is highly advantageous.

About you
- Strong collaboration and communication skills.
- Empathy, emotional intelligence, and a people-first mindset.
- Pragmatism and good judgement balancing operational, technical, and business needs.
- Strong sense of ownership, accountability, and attention to detail.
- Curiosity and commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
- Genuine interest in mentoring, coaching, and knowledge sharing.
- Calmness under pressure and effective leadership during challenging situations.
- Resilience and adaptability in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments.
- Collaborative mindset with ability to solve complex problems.
- Appreciation for continuous improvement, operational excellence, and effective ways of working.
- Interest in journalism, publishing, editorial workflows, or newsroom technology is a plus.

Qualifications
Not explicitly specified; however, relevant experience in operational leadership, service delivery, or print production environments is essential.