Growth Lead (Books)

About Packt Packt's mission is to help the world put software to work in new ways, through the delivery of effective learning and information services to IT professionals. We are a technical publisher and learning provider with over 400 staff based across the globe, primarily in India and the UK. Our products have global relevance, and our multimedia portfolio includes over 7,000 books, e-books, audiobooks, and video courses. Role Overview The Growth Lead (Books) sits at the point where Packt's expertise network meets its commercial performance. At the heart of the role is developer relations: building genuine, durable presence inside the communities where practitioners in the vertical actually gather, and earning enough standing there to be treated as a peer rather than a vendor. Community networks are the most valuable asset this role can build, because they compound. A relationship established once can produce an author, an endorsement, a workshop speaker, a reviewer and a launch audience over several years. The core skill is identifying and winning the right voices. Not the largest followings, but the most relevant ones: the expert influencer whose opinion the community actually checks and whose recommendation moves behaviour and drives conversion. A thousand engaged followers in the exact niche are worth more to us than a hundred thousand general technology followers, and knowing the difference is the judgement this role is hired for. Those relationships then become the engine for everything downstream, from commissioning intelligence to launch reach to the credibility our product pages currently lack. Books do not sell because people have heard of them. They sell because a buyer, looking at a product page alongside a dozen alternatives, believes ours is the one that will be correct. Increasingly, technical categories on Amazon are saturated with independently published and AI-assembled titles that look similar at thumbnail size. Our advantages are real but currently invisible at the moment of decision. Closing that gap is the central purpose of this role. This is a strategic, outward-facing role combining developer relations, community fluency, campaign ownership and commercial judgement. This is not a sales role. It is a growth and ecosystem-building role, and it carries accountability for outcomes rather than activity. What you will own Expert network and influencer relationships Identify, approach and build durable relationships with respected practitioners across the vertical: open-source maintainers, conference speakers, community leaders, technical bloggers and newsletter authors, and vendor DevRel figures with independent credibility. Work across the channels where these people actually are, including LinkedIn, YouTube, X, Discord, Reddit, GitHub and domain-specific forums, and develop a working map of who holds genuine influence in the vertical rather than who has the largest follower count. Secure endorsements, testimonials, forewords, guest posts and co-created content. Convert relationships into named, attributable contributions that can be used commercially. Feed community insight back into commissioning. You will often be the first person to notice a topic gaining momentum, and that intelligence should reach the Portfolio Director early. Pre- and post-publication campaigns Design and execute title-specific promotion plans covering reviewer outreach, community activations, contributor-driven campaigns and targeted list building. Sequence activity deliberately. Amazon rank responds to recent sales, and effort spread thinly across months produces a series of spikes that decay rather than a position that holds. Campaign design should concentrate reach into launch windows where it compounds, and sustain momentum deliberately thereafter. Partner with Growth and the commissioning team on metadata, keyword alignment and audience-specific messaging, so that traffic arrives at a page built to convert it. Track and report on campaign performance including review velocity, sentiment, community engagement and, most importantly, the relationship between activity and sales. You are accountable for ensuring expert relationships translate into measurable commercial impact, not for the volume of outreach performed. Partnerships, bulk and licensing Build relationships with vendor partners, training providers, certification bodies, conference organisers, universities, bootcamps and technical training companies. Identify and secure bulk purchase opportunities, and explore licensing and longer-term collaboration models with ecosystem partners. Coordinate with sales and marketing on pricing, positioning and execution so that partnership opportunities are converted rather than merely identified. Community and developer relations Build and activate developer and practitioner communities across GitHub, Reddit, Discord, Stack Overflow and specialist forums. Plan and support webinars, AMAs, expert panels, technical workshops and conference collaborations, working alongside the events programme where the audiences overlap. Drive direct list growth through free events, vendor partnerships, co-branded landing pages and community activations, strengthening owned reach rather than renting attention repeatedly. Amazon presence and the credibility layer This is where the role has the greatest untapped impact, and where we are currently weakest. Amazon rank is driven by sales, weighted toward recent sales. Traffic and reviews do not move it directly; they move it only by producing sales. Conversion is therefore the multiplier on everything else in this role, and credibility is what converts. A buyer choosing between our book and a plausible-looking generated one is asking whether they can trust it to be correct. Your job is to answer that on the page, before they have to guess. In practice: Run a structured programme of named expert endorsements, with real affiliations and specific quotes rather than generic praise, presented consistently across every title so the pattern itself becomes a recognised standard. Engage credible reviewers, coordinate reviewer outreach, and activate reader communities for post-launch review momentum, tracking volume, quality and sentiment. Build systems that sustain visibility beyond the launch cycle, and ensure credibility assets are in place before launch rather than retrofitted, since rank decays faster than a page can be repaired. What we are looking for Genuine fluency in a technical community, with the credibility to be taken seriously by practitioners. You do not need to be an engineer, but you need to be able to hold a real conversation with one. Experience in developer relations, community management, technical marketing or a comparable outward-facing role in a technical domain. An existing network within the relevant vertical is a strong advantage. Campaign ownership experience, with the discipline to plan, sequence and measure rather than react. Commercial judgement, and comfort being measured on outcomes rather than activity. Strong written communication and the ability to represent Packt publicly. Comfort with data, including Amazon performance metrics, campaign analytics and the relationship between reach, conversion and rank. How success is measured Commercial performance and rank performance of the titles assigned to you, particularly the durability of rank and unit performance (7, 30, 90 day units) rather than launch spikes alone. Conversion strength of product pages, including the completeness and consistency of the credibility stack across the list. Review volume, velocity and quality. Growth and quality of the expert network, measured by contributions secured rather than contacts collected. Owned audience reach. Partnership and bulk revenue. Quality and timeliness of community intelligence feeding into commissioning decisions. Why Work at Packt We are a global and remote-first business with most of our team based in India and the UK. We recognize how important our people are and acknowledge and support the things that are important to them. Our culture is open and informal and based around learning. We love sharing ideas and we want everyone to feel that they have an input into how the business works. We are a fun place to work but with a focus on performance and personal development providing opportunities for personal growth and career progression. We try to achieve this by: Ensuring a positive working environment for all team members, supportive of flexible and remote work. Supporting individual development through growth opportunities and internal mobility. Encouraging social collaboration within teams and communities and knowledge-sharing. Fostering a culture that supports a healthy work-life balance. We focus on the full employee experience. We seek to achieve this by: Providing a broad range of benefits and initiatives. Advocating a healthy lifestyle where wellbeing is seen as an essential responsibility. Celebrating success stories and encouraging peer-to-peer recognition. Fostering a culture of self-development. Providing a work environment where the best idea wins, and challenges are encouraged. Benefits: You will also have access to a range of flexible benefits that are designed to help you make the most of your time with us. Bonus scheme 5 day working week 25 days annual holiday (plus bank holidays) Flexible hours: choose how, when, and where you work within India Training programs and Certification Group Medical Insurance Wellness initiatives Salary Range - INR 30K-55K fixed pay per month (skills and/or experience dependent) Disclaimer: Packt does not authorize any third-party consultancies, influencers, or agencies to offer employment opportunities on our behalf. We are not involved in any financial transactions with these parties. Our hiring process is managed internally, and all applications should be made through the official procedures outlined in our job listings.