Quality Assurance Lead

Quality Assurance LeadQuality Assurance Lead (£32,000–42,000 depending on experience, plus pension)Start date: Mid-November 2026, or as soon as possible

Location: Fully remote (UK).

Our team is based in London and Oxford.Lex Academic purveys white-glove editing, indexing, and translation services to academics, doctoral candidates, and university presses worldwide, with particular strength in philosophy, classics, and history. We seek to appoint a full-time Quality Assurance Lead to take responsibility for the standard of every edited manuscript that leaves the company.This role reports directly to our Editorial Project Manager and CEO. The role is fully remote.About the roleThis is a full-time remote role for a Quality Assurance Lead. Our editing is carried out by PhD-educated freelance editors working remotely, and no manuscript is returned to a client until it has passed a second, independent check. The Quality Assurance Lead performs that check: a secondary copy-edit of each manuscript (articles, theses, and monographs, predominantly in the humanities and social sciences) once the freelancer has returned it. This involves correcting residual errors of grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling; ensuring consistency of style and formatting; verifying that citations and references conform to the required style; and making sure that the editor’s comments and queries to the author are clear, correct, and appropriately phrased. Where a freelancer’s work has fallen short, the Quality Assurance Lead corrects the work (e.g., correctly applying the style guide; improving the mark-up on the text, etc.) and itemizes the shortfalls so that the freelancer can learn and improve.Each week, our Editorial Project Manager will provide the list of jobs to be quality-controlled. The Quality Assurance Lead works through that list, quality-controlling each project, and reporting back on each manuscript.Lex Academic are a boutique editorial outfit, so the focus is not on high volumes of work, but exceptionally high quality across around 50 projects per month. The work is deadline-led and spans many citation styles and publishers’ house styles; the Quality Assurance Lead must therefore be able to move between conventions without loss of accuracy and to work to fixed delivery dates. We expect the Quality Assurance Lead to be the most exacting reader in the company: someone for whom a stray comma, an inconsistent reference, or an unidiomatic sentence is never a small matter. All of our editorial work is carried out by human experts, without recourse to AI.Skills and qualities requiredRight to work in the UK (UK passport required)At least ten years’ professional experience in proofreading and copy-editing, ideally of academic work (required for shortlisting)Native-level command of written English: our work arrives in English and demands the highest proficiency in the languageProficiency in all major citation styles, including Chicago (notes–bibliography and author–date), MHRA, MLA, APA, Harvard, and OSCOLAOutstanding attention to detail, together with the judgement to distinguish an error from an authorial choiceThe ability to assess another editor’s work rigorously and fairly, and to record its shortcomings preciselyImpeccable time management and the ability to work to fixed delivery dates across several manuscripts at onceHigh degree of competence in Microsoft Word (Track Changes and comments) and Office 365A PhD, preferably in the humanities or social sciences (anthropology, philosophy, classics, and history are our core fields), is strongly preferredOne or more foreign languages are preferred (most desirable: French, German, Italian, Arabic)Proficiency in Adobe Acrobat (for PDF proofreading) and InDesign (for typeset proofs) is very desirableWhen quality-assurance tasks are lighter, you will be required to perform copy-editing tasks, proofreading, and other tasks that fit your experienceApplicants should have at least a very good first degree in the humanities or social sciences, an impeccable command of the English language, and the temperament to check the work of other experts with rigour and tact. Ten years’ professional experience in proofreading and editing will be required for shortlisting.This fully remote role requires exceptional concentration, exactness, and a commitment to delivering editorial work of the highest quality. Our motto is that we never let an academic client down.Salary: £32,000–42,000 depending on experience (plus pension).Leave: 28 days per year, plus your birthday off. Interviews will be held remotely.To apply, please email HR with a full, up-to-date CV and a covering letter explaining your suitability for the role. Top candidates will be invited to complete our quality-control exam and, if successful, to interview shortly afterwards. We hope to fill the role by mid-November 2026, or as soon as possible.