Head of Marketing, Penguin Michael Joseph (14-month FTC)

Head of Marketing, Penguin Michael Joseph (14-month FTC)

Head of Marketing, Penguin Michael Joseph (14-month FTC)

Are you a creative and strategic marketing professional ready for a new opportunity at a leading commercial fiction and non-fiction book publisher?

Penguin Michael Joseph is looking to appoint a Non-Fiction Head of Marketing to join the team on an FTC (fixed term contract) basis. We are keen to consider qualified candidates from outside of the publishing industry, as well as those with existing publishing experience.

About Penguin Michael Joseph

Penguin Michael Joseph is responsible for launching and building the world’s most popular and commercially successful authors and brands, including Jamie Oliver, Dawn French, Nadiya Hussain, Marian Keyes, Jojo Moyes, Stephen Fry and Mrs Hinch.

The role

This role will own and develop the day-to-day marketing activity across Non Fiction publishing, with some oversight of Fiction and the MJ digital strategy. Managing a team of two, and reporting to the Marketing Director, you’ll be responsible for contributing to and driving a clear and ambitious growth and sales strategy for our books and author brands, including Stephen Fry, Raynor Winn, Miranda Hart, Nadiya Hussain, David Mitchell and more.

You will work closely with marketing, publicity and sales colleagues to develop relationships with retailers and manage excellent author and agent relationships to ensure that the campaigns for our books lead the market and drive sales. You will be expert in identifying the right audience for every book and be able to share that experience across the team, alongside executing multi-platform media strategies.

Key responsibilities:

1. Take responsibility for all aspects of the promotional strategy for our books from acquisition through to publication and beyond
2. Build a close partnership with the Non Fiction publishing team to set the agenda and contribute to acquisition and growth strategy
3. Represent the Pathways and Cookery lists internally and externally, generating buzz around our books and content
4. Build and develop excellent relationships with authors, agents, brand partners, influencers and internal and external stakeholders
5. Champion innovation and creativity at the heart of every campaign
6. Lead campaigns for high-profile launches
7. Manage, develop and nurture a team of two senior marketers

What you’ll bring

The successful candidate will be highly curious, creative, and an excellent communicator. We’re seeking a visionary leader and people manager who thrives on challenges and embraces change.

1. You’ll be passionate and knowledgeable about lifestyle publishing – pop culture, food and drink, health & wellbeing – bringing professional experience of audience-led marketing in this space, especially in Cookery.
2. Strong leader and experience of team management of a communications team.
3. Audience-focused approach with a demonstrable interest in all things marketing, brands and consumers
4. Creative approach to finding new ways of targeting, engaging and broadening audiences
5. Talented multi-tasker who can prioritise, set direction, problem solve, brainstorm, and negotiate
6. Excellent interpersonal communication skills and experience working with a range of stakeholders – effective influencer with strong powers of persuasion
7. Enjoys line management, able to mentor, challenge and support as an inclusive leader
8. Strategic and adaptable, championing new initiatives and ideas to help the team continuously grow and improve
9. Dynamically trend-spot within the industry and outside of it, predicting the needs of the audience in an ever-changing market
10. Bring diversity of thought and innovation into the marketing team
11. Resilient, and calm under pressure

Application instructions

Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on 16th February.

1. Please ensure you include a cover letter, it is a crucial part of our assessment process. The cover letter offers an opportunity to show how your experience and interests align with the role requirements. The cover letter should be no more than 1 page max.
2. Please note we are looking for someone to join the team from early May ideally.

Up to £50,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

What you can expect from us

Our people are the heart of our business, and we work hard to support a culture of responsibility and recognition.

Our benefits include:

1. Financial – income protection, life assurance, childcare allowance
2. Wellbeing – healthcare cash plan, critical illness cover, health checks
3. Lifestyle – enhanced parental leave, tech scheme, free and discounted books

While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect that you’ll be available to attend in-person meetings in the office three days per week.

About Penguin

We’re the UK’s largest publisher; made up of some 2,000 people and publishing over 1,500 books each year. Our doors are open to all kinds of talent. In a constantly evolving industry, we work hard to stretch the definition of the word publisher. Here, you’ll work with a breadth of talent who all play their part to make each of our books a success. Together, we make books for everyone because a book can change anyone.

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we offer interviews to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role, and opt-in on their application form. The essential criteria for this role are listed as part of the ‘What you’ll bring’ section. There may be times when the volume of applications means we cannot take all eligible candidates to interview.

We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing . Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable to for us to support your request.

Please note, we are not able to accept agency CVs for this role. Any CVs sent speculatively will not be eligible for a fee.

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