Senior Designer, Cornerstone (12-month FTC)

Cornerstone are looking for a talented Senior Designer to work across all of our imprints. This is a 12-month fixed term contract to cover a period of parental leave, and we are looking for someone to start by early March 2025.

About Cornerstone

Cornerstone is a division within the iconic publisher Penguin Random House, our home. In turn, Cornerstone is home to six imprints: Century, Del Rey, Inklore, Hutchinson Heinemann, #Merky Books, and Cornerstone Press, each with its own specific focus and remit. Every Cornerstone book also goes on to become a Penguin paperback.

Within publishing, Cornerstone has an enviable track record of bestsellers, prize winners and culture-shaping books, working with many of the world’s most interesting voices, often throughout their entire career. Our books span genres, categories and marketplaces globally.

The role

Joining a team of 10 and reporting into the Art Director you’ll be responsible for working on book covers across a range of fiction, non-fiction, hardback and paperback books. In particular, this role will work with some of Cornerstone’s biggest brand authors.

You can expect to be inputting into weekly covers meetings with the publishing teams and working closely with colleagues in Production, Editorial, Sales and Marketing and Publicity. You will have a proven track record of designing and commissioning outstanding book covers that break new ground and appeal to the broadest audience. Your creative instincts and design skills will be matched by your understanding of the book market and ability to communicate your ideas clearly and confidently.

Key responsibilities:

1. Effective, high-quality design of a range of titles to meet bespoke creative and commercial briefs
2. Monitor and review the direction of projects to keep on track
3. Effective communication including negotiation skills
4. Planning and management of schedules
5. Regular and ongoing input into creative meetings
6. Represent design department in wider divisional meetings
7. Provide support and advice to junior members of the team
8. Commission illustrators/designers and develop their ideas
9. Awareness of budgets and responsibility for ensuring spend is within budget (negotiating fees and contracts)
10. Keeping up to date with current design trends in publishing and beyond

What you’ll bring:

1. Proven track record of designing and commissioning outstanding book covers across a range of styles, including for high-profile brand authors*
2. Strong commissioning experience in illustration, photography and design*
3. In-depth knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite including InDesign and Photoshop*
4. Adept at developing strong relationships with Editorial, Sales and Communications teams
5. Ability to manage multiple projects at once, whilst also collaborating with team members and providing guidance where helpful
6. Confidence in communicating with authors and agents
7. Self-motivated but also collaborative and flexible and able to manage time effectively

Application instructions

Please apply with your CV, cover letter and portfolio (either link or attachment) by 11:59pm on Tuesday 3rd December. Please ensure you include a cover letter alongside your CV and portfolio. It offers an opportunity for you to tell us how your experience and interests align with the role requirements.

Salary

£40,000 – £45,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus 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:

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

For our full benefits list please visit:

Hybrid working

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. Cornerstone colleagues work in our Embassy Gardens office three days a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are happy to discuss this further as part of the interview process.

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.

The recruitment process

You can read about our recruitment process at

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 marked with an asterisk* 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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