Technical Operations Team Lead

About Us

The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide.

At the FT, curiosity thrives and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Together, we help audiences stay better informed and deepen their understanding of the world around them.

Our Product & Tech teams drive us forward in an ever-evolving digital landscape, delivering cutting-edge products to over one million digital subscribers daily. Our growth relies on a diverse, dedicated and dynamic group of product, tech, delivery and data specialists.

With a supportive culture, entrepreneurial spirit and opportunities at every turn, there are no limits to where your FT career can take you.

Build a newsworthy career at the FT.

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion 

We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued. A supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves and operate to their full potential. We are committed to removing barriers for everyone, with a focus on addressing those faced by underrepresented groups.

About you

You are an experienced operational and people leader with a passion for delivering reliable, high-quality services that support critical business functions. You have a strong track record of leading operational, service delivery, or business-critical support teams, creating an environment where people can thrive, develop their skills, and perform at their best. 

You are comfortable managing and mentoring team members, fostering collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement. You enjoy working with a wide range of stakeholders, balancing operational priorities with long-term service enhancements, and ensuring the successful delivery of a business-critical print publishing operation. 

Our ideal candidate brings fresh perspectives, strong leadership, and a commitment to building an inclusive and supportive team culture. We believe that diverse experiences and viewpoints strengthen our teams, improve decision-making, and help us deliver the best possible service to our customers.

About the team

Digital Print Services (DPS) is part of Internal Products at the Financial Times and is responsible for managing and supporting the end-to-end processes, systems, and services that enable the daily production and publication of the FT’s print products. The team plays a critical role in ensuring content moves successfully from editorial creation through page production and print publishing, working closely with Editorial, Advertising, Operations, Technology, and external partners to deliver a reliable and high-quality print product every day. 

The team owns a range of business-critical applications, integrations, workflows, and operational processes that underpin the print publishing lifecycle. We are responsible for ensuring the successful execution of daily print production, coordinating operational activities, managing incidents, overseeing change, and driving continuous improvements  that help the FT's print operations run smoothly and efficiently. 

As a team, we combine technical expertise, operational excellence, and strong stakeholder collaboration to operate, support, and continuously improve the FT's print publishing process. We are accountable for ensuring the successful delivery of daily print production while driving improvements that enhance reliability, efficiency, and resilience. 

We are also exploring opportunities to leverage automation, data, and AI-driven capabilities to improve operational efficiency, reduce manual effort, strengthen service monitoring, and enhance the overall reliability of our print production processes. We encourage innovation, continuous learning, and a culture of ownership, collaboration, and service excellence.

The nature of print publishing means that reliability, operational discipline, and effective decision-making under deadline pressure are central to the team's success. 

What you’ll work on

As the Technical Operations Team Lead for Digital Print Services, you will lead the team responsible for managing, supporting, and continuously improving the Financial Times' end-to-end print publishing process.

You will support and develop a team of specialists while helping to shape the strategic direction, operational resilience, and long-term sustainability of the systems, services, and workflows that underpin daily print production. Working closely with stakeholders across Editorial, Advertising, Operations, Technology, and external partners, you will balance day-to-day operational delivery with continuous improvement initiatives and longer-term planning.

This is a people-first leadership role. You will create the conditions for your team to do their best work by fostering a collaborative and inclusive culture, supporting professional growth, improving operational practices, and helping the team navigate both technical and organisational challenges.

While this is primarily a people management role, we value leaders who remain close to the services they support. You will be actively involved in service management, incident response, problem resolution, change planning, and operational improvements. You will work with the team to identify opportunities to improve reliability, efficiency, monitoring, automation, and the overall effectiveness of the Digital Print Services function.

You will play a key role in ensuring that daily print production deadlines and business commitments are met, while continuously improving the efficiency, resilience, and effectiveness of the print publishing operation.

Your responsibilities will include

Service Leadership & Strategy

• Ensuring the successful delivery of the FT's daily print publishing operation, coordinating people, processes, systems, and partners to meet production deadlines and business commitments.

• Owning the performance, reliability, and continuous improvement of Digital Print Services, ensuring agreed service levels and operational expectations are met.

• Helping shape the strategic direction and long-term priorities of the Digital Print Services team, ensuring services continue to meet the evolving needs of the business.

• Balancing day-to-day operational requirements with longer-term initiatives that improve service resilience, efficiency, and sustainability.

• Using service metrics, operational insights, and stakeholder feedback to identify improvement opportunities and inform priorities.

• Leading service improvement activities, identifying opportunities to streamline processes, reduce operational risk, and enhance the overall user experience.

• Supporting decision-making around service operations, tooling, automation, monitoring, and workflow enhancements.

• Working with stakeholders across Editorial, Production, Operations, Technology, and external partners to ensure print services remain reliable, effective, and aligned with business priorities.

• Promoting the adoption of tools, processes, and practices that improve service quality, operational visibility, and team effectiveness.

• Encouraging collaborative problem-solving and a culture of continuous improvement across the team.

People Management & Team Development

• Managing and supporting a team of Digital Print Services specialists through regular 1:1s, feedback, coaching, and career development conversations.

• Supporting performance reviews, development planning, and continuous learning opportunities across the team.

• Creating an inclusive, supportive, and psychologically safe environment where team members can thrive and perform at their best.

• Mentoring individuals at different stages of their careers and helping create opportunities for growth, increased responsibility, and leadership development.

• Supporting recruitment, onboarding, cross-functional secondments, internships, and knowledge-sharing initiatives where appropriate.

• Ensuring workloads are balanced and sustainable, while maintaining high levels of service quality, responsiveness, and operational effectiveness.

• Promoting a culture of collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, and customer-focused service delivery..

• Building and maintaining a resilient, engaged team that can effectively support business-critical print services and adapt to changing business needs.

Service Delivery & Collaboration

• Overseeing the day-to-day operation of the print publishing process, ensuring critical production activities are completed successfully and on schedule.

• Working closely with Editorial, Advertising, Production, and Operations teams to coordinate activities across the print production lifecycle.

• Working closely with stakeholders across Editorial, Production, Operations, Technology, and external partners to understand business priorities and align service delivery with organisational needs.

• Coordinating team resources across operational support, service improvements, change initiatives, and project work.

• Ensuring business-critical print services are delivered reliably and effectively, balancing operational demands with continuous improvement activities.

• Ensuring appropriate operational controls, procedures, and documentation are maintained across the print publishing process. 

• Facilitating service reviews, planning activities, change coordination, and prioritisation discussions.

• Identifying operational risks, dependencies, capacity constraints, and service gaps early, and working collaboratively to implement effective solutions.

• Driving improvements to team processes, operational procedures, documentation, knowledge management, and service standards.

• Promoting automation and process optimisation opportunities that improve efficiency, reduce manual effort, and enhance service reliability.

Communication & Stakeholder Management

• Acting as a key point of contact for Digital Print Services, building trusted relationships with stakeholders across the business.

• Monitoring vendor and supplier performance, ensuring third-party services continue to meet operational and business requirements.

• Providing clear communication and operational updates during production-critical activities, service disruptions, and major incidents.

• Communicating service performance, priorities, risks, planned changes, and operational challenges clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Working closely with Editorial, Production, Operations, and Technology teams to ensure services continue to meet business requirements.

• Managing relationships with external vendors, suppliers, and service partners where required, ensuring effective collaboration and service outcomes.

• Representing the team in operational, project, and governance forums, advocating for service improvements and business needs.

Operational Leadership, Incident Management & Escalation

• Leading the operational response to issues that may impact print production schedules, publication deadlines, or delivery commitments.

• Making informed decisions during production-critical situations to minimise disruption and ensure the successful completion of print publishing activities.

• Ensuring appropriate business continuity, contingency planning, and recovery procedures are in place to support critical print operations.

• Providing leadership and support during incidents, major operational issues, and periods of heightened business activity.

• Acting as an escalation point for service, operational, vendor, and people-related issues.

• Coordinating the response to incidents, service disruptions, and business-critical issues, ensuring timely communication and resolution.

• Leading post-incident reviews and problem management activities, identifying root causes and driving preventative improvements.

• Working with stakeholders and technical teams to make informed decisions on service risks, operational priorities, and recovery activities.

• Maintaining calm, effective leadership and communication during incidents and periods of operational pressure.

• Ensuring appropriate operational readiness, support arrangements, and contingency planning are in place to support critical print production activities.

Our technology

The Digital Print Services team works across a combination of publishing platforms, operational tooling, cloud services, integrations, and vendor-managed systems. Here are some definitions of the technologies, platforms, and tools we commonly work with.

Publishing & Production

• Editorial publishing systems and print production workflows

• Content management and publishing platforms

• Print planning, page production, and editorial workflow tools

Operations & Service Management

• Service management and ticketing systems

• Monitoring, alerting, and operational support tooling

• Reporting, analytics, and operational dashboards

Technology & Automation

• Workflow automation and integration platforms

• AWS and cloud-hosted services

• CI/CD pipelines and deployment tooling

• GitHub and version control systems

• AI-assisted tools and automation technologies

Leadership experience we’re looking for

• Experience leading teams responsible for delivering time-critical operational processes with immovable deadlines.

• Experience managing business-critical services where reliability, service continuity, and operational excellence are essential.

• Experience leading operational, service delivery, technical support, production, publishing, or similar business-critical teams.

• Strong coaching, mentoring, feedback, and people development skills, with a genuine commitment to helping others succeed.

• Experience managing operational priorities, service commitments, and competing business demands in a fast-paced environment.

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across technical and non-technical teams.

• Experience coordinating work across multiple teams, stakeholders, suppliers, and business functions.

• Experience working with external vendors, suppliers, or service providers to support operational delivery.

• A proven ability to drive service improvements, operational excellence, and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Experience leading teams through incidents, operational challenges, and periods of change while maintaining focus and team wellbeing.

• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills, with the ability to assess risks and make pragmatic decisions in complex environments.

• Experience building inclusive, engaged, and high-performing teams.

• Comfortable navigating ambiguity, organisational change, and evolving business priorities.

• Experience working across editorial, production, operations, technology, or other cross-functional environments would be advantageous.

• Experience with print production, publishing operations, media workflows, or other deadline-driven business-critical services would be highly advantageous.

Characteristics we value

• Strong collaboration and communication skills.

• Empathy, emotional intelligence, and a people-first mindset.

• Pragmatism and good judgement when balancing operational, technical, and business needs.

• A strong sense of ownership, accountability, and attention to detail.

• Curiosity and a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.

• A genuine interest in helping others grow through mentoring, coaching, and knowledge sharing.

• Calmness under pressure and the ability to lead effectively during challenging situations.

• Resilience and adaptability in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments.

• A collaborative mindset and an ability to bring people together to solve complex problems.

• An appreciation for continuous improvement, operational excellence, and effective ways of working.

• An interest in journalism, publishing, editorial workflows, or newsroom technology is a plus.

What’s in it for you? Our benefits

Our benefits vary by location, but we are committed to providing best-in-class perks across all our offices. These include generous annual leave, medical cover, inclusive parental leave packages, subsidised gym memberships and opportunities to give back to the community. Full details of our benefits are available here.

We’ve embraced a 50% hybrid working model (averaging two to three days onsite) that fosters trust and remote adaptability while encouraging in-person camaraderie and peer learning. Additionally, we are open to accommodating specific flexible working pattern requests for all roles where feasible.

Accessibility

We are a disability confident employer and Valuable 500 signatory.

Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments/personalisation as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, email talent@ft.com and a member of our team will be happy to help.

Further information

At the FT, we embrace innovation and the use of technology and appreciate that individuals may leverage AI tools as part of their job application process. Whilst we are happy for you to use AI to assist with your application, it is essential that all information provided is authentic and accurately represents your skills, experience, and qualifications.