Publications Specialist II – Magazine Editor

Position Overview

Location: Remote

Travel: Occasional travel for conferences, publication planning meetings, stakeholder engagements, and outreach events as required

Background Investigation: Must be eligible to obtain and maintain required USDOT facility and network access

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday during standard business hours with flexibility to support publication deadlines and production schedules

Employment Type: Full-Time

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the complete lifecycle of Public Roads magazine and associated publication products.
• Develop and maintain editorial calendars, production schedules, and publication timelines.
• Coordinate multiple concurrent publication efforts and overlapping production cycles.
• Serve as the primary liaison between authors, editors, technical reviewers, graphic designers, web teams, and Government stakeholders.
• Manage article intake, review, approval, tracking, and final publication activities.
• Oversee version control and publication workflow management throughout the production process.
• Ensure all content complies with Federal publishing requirements, editorial standards, branding guidance, and accessibility requirements.
• Support editorial review, proofreading, and quality assurance activities.
• Coordinate technical, legal, public affairs, and management reviews as required.
• Track publication milestones and proactively resolve production delays or workflow issues.
• Support development of promotional content and publication outreach activities.
• Maintain publication records, archives, production documentation, and stakeholder contact lists.
• Prepare status reports and production updates for Government stakeholders.
• Recommend improvements to publication processes, workflows, and quality control procedures.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Journalism, English, Publishing, or a related field.
• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in publication management, editorial operations, or magazine production.
• Experience managing recurring publications, magazines, journals, newsletters, or comparable communications products.
• Experience coordinating complex editorial review and approval processes.
• Strong project management and organizational skills.
• Experience managing publication schedules, production timelines, and multiple simultaneous deliverables.
• Strong writing, editing, proofreading, and communication skills.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams and multiple stakeholder groups.
• Ability to manage priorities in a deadline-driven environment.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and publication management tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing technical, scientific, research, or government publications.
• FHWA, USDOT, or other Federal civilian agency publication experience.
• Experience using Adobe InDesign, Acrobat, or similar publication-production tools.