Accessibility Specialist

Who we are

SPRINGER NATURE - springernature.com
Springer Nature employs more than 10,000 people in over 50 markets, and is home to some of the best-known names in research, educational and professional publishing.

Working at the heart of a changing industry, we are always looking for great people who care about delivering quality to our customers and the communities we work alongside. In return, we provide opportunities to learn from some of the best in the business, with a culture that encourages curiosity and empowers people to find solutions and act on their instincts.

SN DIGITAL - sndigital.springernature.com
SN Digital (SND) is a technology division of Springer Nature. We are responsible for maintaining and delivering millions of articles used by researchers, scientists and students around the globe.

There are around 230 of us in London, Berlin, Pune, New York, Madrid, Dordrecht, Heidelberg and - coming soon - Lisbon. We work in collaborative, multi-disciplinary delivery teams, developing digital products and services that answer user problems and support business goals.
Who we are looking for
We are opening a new office in Lisbon, and we’re looking for people who want to become part of a global team that aims to put Springer Nature at the forefront of digital publishing.

• The work is interesting and meaningful.
• Our culture is collaborative and friendly.
• We encourage and support growth, both personal and professional.

This is a terrific opportunity for friendly, inquisitive people who want to get involved in our work, who love to learn, who will embrace and develop our culture, and help make SND Lisbon a place where people and ideas can thrive.

Having a good command of English is important; collaboration is important in our day to day work, so being able to communicate your ideas and understand others’ is key.

We are intentionally looking to create teams that are diverse and inclusive. Diversity is the mix of culture, background, experience and personality that we all bring; inclusion is getting the mix to work better together. We want every member of our teams to contribute to our common goals while respecting each other's skills, knowledge and needs.

The role

We’re looking for an accessibility specialist. Your background could be in frontend development, UXD, QA, accessibility testing, or something else. You could also have an interest in accessibility without a formal background in any of these disciplines. What’s important isn’t your background, but your ability to do the work.

The job is based in Lisbon and you will work remotely at times with colleagues in London (UK), Pune (India), Dordrecht (The Netherlands) and Berlin (Germany). We may ask you to travel occasionally, but we won’t require it of you.

Please visit the SND homepage to learn more about who we are and what we do. To gain an understanding of frontend development and our approach to accessibility at Springer Nature, browse our Frontend Playbook.

The team

Frontend Enablement exists to ensure that product teams have the support to do their job to the best of their abilities.

The team provides support & tooling for several key areas— as well accessibility, we assist with web performance, architecture, tooling, monitoring and security. We use emotional intelligence to collaborate with people from other disciplines, and provide effective consultation for our customers.

The job is based in Lisbon, working with team members in Germany and the UK. At the moment the successful candidate can work from home one day a week.

You’ll be working with the Frontend Enablement team to support teams across the company in building accessible, inclusive products.

What you’ll be doing

Within 3 months

• In code contributions and discussions demonstrate understanding of, and harmony with, the constraints, goals, and strategy of Frontend Enablement (FEDE).
• With some supervision, work with the team to identify and complete tasks related to your key area(s) of technical expertise.
• Get to know and begin to build good working relationships with a variety of teams around the business.
• With guidance, begin to support product teams as they build accessible products.
• With guidance, contribute to meetings & discussions with other disciplines to gain understanding of how we integrate & engage with the wider business.
• Advocate for and implement techniques outlined in FED playbooks (such as progressive enhancement and accessibility) in contributions and peer reviews.
• Start contributing towards our open-source frontend playbook.
• Become familiar with, and contribute to, the accessibility of the frontend component & design system architecture we are currently developing.
• Recommend standard accessibility toolchains that product teams can integrate into their workflows.

Within 6 months

• Continue to develop relationships with a variety of teams around the business.
• Begin to train product teams to accurately assess the accessibility of their own work.
• With some supervision, be able to verify the accuracy of product teams’ statements about their products’ accessibility, and identify gaps.
• Work with the team to identify issues with 3rd party vendor products.
• Regularly contribute code and/or reviews to the frontend component & design system architecture to improve the accessibility of our internal code libraries.
• Identify and complete tasks related to your key area(s) of technical expertise with minimal supervision.
• Continue contributing towards our open-source frontend playbook.
• Increasingly take a lead role contributing to meetings & discussions with other disciplines and the wider business.
• Foster wider understanding of our goals & technologies by demonstrating effective communication in meetings & discussions.

Within 12 months

• Continue to advocate for and implement techniques outlined in FED playbooks (such as progressive enhancement and accessibility) in contributions and/or code reviews.
• Collaborate with other teams within the business to implement techniques outlined in FED playbooks.
• Assume ownership of tasks related to your key area(s) of expertise.
• Communicate with non-technical stakeholders regarding those tasks with some supervision.
• Continue contributing towards our open-source frontend playbook.
• Demonstrate effective contributions to meetings & discussions with other disciplines and the wider business, doing so with empathy and quietude.
• Be able to work with product teams to produce VPAT documents for key products.
• Work with SN procurement teams and 3rd party vendors to ensure external software technology meets our accessibility standards.
• Develop procedures and practices within FEDE to help product teams understand how to build websites that meet legal compliance requirements.
• Develop FEDE’s reputation as an expert resource for accessibility matters (e.g. by answering questions, responding to GitHub issues, reviewing pull requests), and doing so without supervision.

INTERVIEW/HIRING PROCESS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
• To protect our candidates’ and interviewers’ health and well being, all interviews will be on the phone and/or via video conferencing applications. If you are chosen to be interviewed, we’ll get in touch with the details.
• If you are successful and are offered a position, we understand that you may wish to delay your start date; we are happy to be flexible and work with you on what suits you best.
• For now, all roles will be remote, but will move onsite when restrictions are lifted. We have put in place a remote onboarding process to ensure new starters have all the equipment, knowledge and contacts they need to be able to start their new career.
• You will have a dedicated contact during the recruitment process who you can contact with any questions regarding this.