Working for us

You will have the opportunity to manage the production of journals, reports, books and other publications, in both print and digital form, for leading publishers and public sector organisations throughout Europe.

You will have direct contact with clients and the opportunity to develop a strong personal reputation for quality, reliability and delivering results. Note that we are a specialist publishing services company: our clients are publishers, but we are not.

The skills you bring to us will determine which team you work in and which clients you work for. We generally look for people with demonstrable experience of one or more of the following:

editorial office management
writing
substantive editing or rewriting
copy-editing
proofreading
publishing project management.

First-class technical skills are important as well.

About our company

Prepress Projects is a small business based in Perth, Scotland. We are fully employee-owned and currently have 15 employees.

Our bright and spacious office is located in a modern office building close to the centre of Perth. All employees can take advantage of our flexible working policy, and opportunities to work from home are available.

We have been Investors In People continuously since 2005 and currently hold a Silver award for Investors In People and a Gold award for Investors In Young People.

All employees, unless they opt out, are automatically enrolled in a contributory pension plan (to which the company also contributes).

We have a comprehensive training programme and there is a scheme for providing financial support for long-term distance learning courses. In most years we are able to take on one or two interns over the summer.

We are an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership status, or pregnancy or maternity status.

Important information

Unless otherwise stated, all posts advertised here are full-time and are based in our office in Perth. Full-time means working 37.5 hours weekly during Monday to Friday inclusive (there is a flexible working scheme).
All employees, unless they opt out, are automatically enrolled in a contributory pension plan (to which the company currently also contributes).
There is a scheme for providing financial support for long-term distance learning courses.
Holiday entitlement is 29 days annually, including four company fixed days (two at Christmas and two at New Year), rising to 34 days after 3 years’ service.
Occasional travel may be required, e.g. for training or to conferences or to clients’ offices in the UK or abroad (typically mainland Europe). This is a key requirement for all posts.
An ideal background is a degree in science or humanities and either relevant publishing experience or a postgraduate publishing qualification. Relevant experience means experience gained in an editorial, design, production or technology environment, preferably with an STM or humanities publisher.
We are an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership status, or pregnancy or maternity status.
We do not accept applications submitted by or sent via recruitment agencies.
All applicants must be eligible to work in the UK and supply proof of this.
We work on confidential and sensitive material. All employees must be able to pass a Disclosure Scotland background check (or other check as required by our clients).

Current vacancies

Here are our current and recent vacancies. We strongly recommend that all applicants review our lists of things to do and things not to do before applying, and follow the advice they contain.

Speculative enquiries

We welcome speculative applications even when we are not actively recruiting, but only if you have solid publishing experience.

Technology skills

For all posts
It is essential that you are at ease with technology and able and willing to acquire new skills through personal effort. A tendency, even a slight one, towards autodidacticism helps a great deal.

As we are almost exclusively Macintosh based, practical experience of macOS, and in particular Microsoft Office for Mac, will be useful.

Design and layout posts
Solid experience of Adobe Creative Cloud applications such as InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Bridge will be advantageous, as will experience of the Mac version of MS Office.

If you can create or amend automation scripts for use during layout, so much the better.

Technology posts
Sound knowledge of one or more of Applescript, CSS, ePub creation, VBA, XML, XSL, or Unix-based systems or network administration, or the clear ability to acquire such skills, is essential.

Another way of looking at this: if you can use awk, sed and grep without (too often) referring to a manual, and want to work in publishing, then we may be the company that can offer the experience and opportunities you are looking for.