Product Metadata Strategist

UNITED METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE•Nashville, TN

4d•$59,243 - $74,053•Onsite

About The Position

The Product Metadata Strategist leads product metadata strategy, standards, taxonomy, and governance across UMPH imprints and third-party products sold through Cokesbury. The role designs the product data model and establishes requirements that support accurate product representation, discoverability, distribution, and fulfillment across physical, digital, audio, and subscription offerings. Working across departments without direct supervisory authority, the position oversees metadata quality, approves records for distribution, and coordinates corrections of incomplete or inconsistent data. Contributing departments remain responsible for entering and maintaining their assigned data. The Strategist partners with the intellectual property lead to incorporate rights information into product records and advises on systems and industry standards. The work supports UMPH’s mission by helping customers find and obtain materials that deepen Christian faith and practice. The position establishes and enforces metadata standards and data-entry requirements; defines data models, field ownership, validation rules, and change procedures; and assigns data stewardship responsibilities with department leaders. It maintains guidance and workflows, trains contributing staff, monitors industry standards and discovery technologies, and recommends implementation priorities. It develops metadata strategies to improve discoverability and establishes product-page metadata and asset-linkage requirements across UMPH web properties, coordinating corrections with the responsible content owners. The Strategist serves as lead metadata contact for major retail and distribution accounts, establishes requirements and deadlines for UMPH product records, validates records, approves them for distribution, and defines outbound ONIX and other feed specifications. The role also governs intake and normalization of third-party product metadata sold through Cokesbury, coordinates supplier and internal corrections, and partners with the intellectual property lead to translate approved rights information into data requirements and validation rules. Additional work includes reporting metadata performance, advising on new product models and systems, representing UMPH in assigned industry standards activities, and managing ISBN and other identifier assignment. The position reports to the Director of Operations Integration & Business Systems. Outside metadata or conversion vendors may report directly to this position. The job is located at CORP in Nashville, Tennessee; no travel is listed. It is a full-time position with a stated salary range of $59,243 to $74,053. A bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and directly related experience is required, along with at least five years of relevant experience.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, English, library or information science, or a related field; an equivalent combination of education and directly related experience will be considered.
Five or more years of experience in book publishing, publishing operations, or digital asset management, including direct responsibility for product metadata.
Demonstrated working knowledge of ONIX, BISAC, and related industry metadata standards in a production environment.
High level of knowledge of ONIX, including ONIX 3.0, BISAC Subject Headings, and publishing product identifiers such as ISBN and GTIN.
Working knowledge of how industry metadata standards are developed and revised, and ability to translate standards changes into internal practice.
Advanced spreadsheet proficiency, including pivot tables and lookup functions such as VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP, and comfort working with large data sets.
Familiarity with content management systems, relational databases, and structured data formats such as XML and CSV, including ability to read and troubleshoot a data file.
Understanding of how retailer search, browse structures, and category placement affect discoverability and how metadata can improve commercial performance.
Understanding of web structured data such as schema.org and JSON-LD and how search engines and AI-driven discovery tools use product data.
Ability to evaluate and normalize metadata supplied by outside publishers and vendors, judge completeness, and resolve conflicts against UMPH standards.
Exceptional attention to detail and discipline applying standards consistently at volume.
Strong analytical and problem-solving ability, including tracing distribution or discoverability failures to their source.
Clear cross-functional communication, including explaining technical requirements to non-technical colleagues and documenting standards in plain language.
Ability to lead cross-functional standards adoption, resolve competing requirements, and secure corrective action without direct supervisory authority.
Ability to manage competing deadlines across seasonal publishing cycles and set priorities independently.
Ability to engage thoughtfully and responsibly with AI tools, critically evaluate AI-generated results, and follow ethical, transparent, and secure AI practices.

Nice To Haves

Experience with an ONIX 3.0 implementation, migration, or compliance project.
Active participation in industry standards work, such as a BISG committee or working group.
Experience administering or configuring a title management, ERP, or product information management system.
Experience designing a product data model or leading selection of a metadata, rights, or product information system.
Experience in religious, curriculum, academic, or church-market publishing.
Coursework, certification, or continuing professional development in metadata, taxonomy, or library and information science.
Working knowledge of Thema, mappings between subject classification schemes, and export and international metadata requirements.
Familiarity with BISG working groups relevant to UMPH, such as Accessibility and Audiobook Best Practices.
Familiarity with accessibility metadata requirements for digital publications.
Familiarity with library metadata (MARC) and institutional or library lending models.
Familiarity with rights and permissions metadata and rights management systems.
Basic scripting or query skills, such as SQL, Python, or XSLT, for data validation and bulk updates.
Familiarity with print-on-demand and short-run supply models and their metadata requirements.

Responsibilities

Design the product data model and lead metadata governance, including defining relationships among works, editions, formats, components, and assets.
Establish field definitions, ownership, validation rules, and change procedures within UMPH’s data governance framework; resolve competing requirements or escalate unresolved conflicts.
Establish, document, and maintain metadata standards and taxonomy, including metadata quality requirements, BISAC and Thema subject classification, keywords, and contributor identity.
Assign data stewardship responsibilities with department leaders; train contributing staff; maintain guidance and workflows; and coordinate standards updates.
Monitor changes to ONIX, BISAC, Thema, accessibility metadata, web structured data, and search and recommendation technologies; assess operational implications and recommend priorities and timelines.
Develop classification, keyword, series, collection, comparable-title, and enhanced-content strategies with marketing and sales to improve product discoverability.
Establish metadata and asset-linkage requirements for product pages on UMPH web properties, including Cokesbury, Amplify, and Ministry Matters, as applicable; monitor completeness and coordinate corrections.
Serve as the lead metadata contact for major retail and distribution accounts and ensure complete metadata and reliable distribution for UMPH-published products.
Establish required product data fields and deadlines; validate records and approve them for channel distribution when requirements are met.
Define outbound ONIX and other feed specifications and validation rules; coordinate implementation, monitoring, troubleshooting, and corrections with IT, distribution teams, and contributing departments.
Establish supplier intake and normalization requirements for third-party books and non-book products sold through Cokesbury; oversee validation, duplicate resolution, and reconciliation of conflicting data.
Coordinate third-party product corrections with suppliers and internal data owners and ensure records remain distinguishable from UMPH-published products.
Partner with UMPH’s intellectual property lead to define how approved rights, permissions, territories, licensing restrictions, and contributor terms are represented in product records and systems.
Establish and report measures of record completeness, accuracy, timeliness, feed acceptance, and error resolution; review category placement, search visibility, and channel sales with marketing and sales.
Advise editorial, production, and sales on metadata implications of new formats, series, collections, bundles, subscriptions, print-on-demand, and institutional or library lending terms.
Define metadata requirements for systems, vendors, and new channels; assess vendor capabilities; and participate in system evaluation, configuration, migration, validation, and acceptance testing.
Represent UMPH in assigned industry standards activities, including BISG committees, and apply standards work to UMPH practices.
Manage ISBN and other product identifier assignment, including periodic ISBN purchases.
Document reasons for metadata holds, required corrective actions, and affected deadlines; escalate disputed holds and exception requests through the applicable governance process.
Document and monitor governance, data ownership, standards compliance, product-page metadata requirements, and timely resolution or escalation of conflicting requirements.
Use AI tools responsibly as part of professional work, critically review AI-generated content and recommendations, continue learning about AI, and follow ethical, transparent, and secure practices.