Art Director, Transworld

Transworld are looking to appoint a creative and forward-thinking Art Director to lead our Design department. Reporting to the Managing Director, this role will be part of the Transworld leadership team and take full strategic and operational responsibility for our design portfolio.

About our team: At Transworld, we love great storytelling. We publish the UK’s very best and most-loved fiction and non-fiction. Our authors are master storytellers, commercial giants, and game-changing experts who challenge readers to open their hearts and minds. A Transworld book demands to be discussed, shared, and loved. We bring our boundless energy, commercial might, and creative teamwork to everything we do. This collective spirit turns authors into brand names, builds debuts into bestsellers, and makes us hugely successful year in, year out. We have been awarded Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards four times and are proud to have published a great many of our authors since the start of their writing careers.

The role: You will oversee and guide the design strategy for all Transworld books, ensuring the delivery of impactful and market-leading book jackets and related materials to the highest standards. You will provide leadership to a high-performing Design department, motivating and mobilising them to do their best work, as well as having oversight of our freelance designers. You will also have the opportunity to bring your creativity and imagination to your own list of titles.

• Lead the design of the division - oversee work of internal and external designers, ensuring a consistently high quality of work for all titles and other design work passing through the department.
• Participate fully as a Head of Department in the strategic direction of the company.
• Identify and develop concepts and initiate ideas for new approaches and styles.
• Take ownership for your own titles, creating industry leading and genre defining designs, within established budgets & guidelines.
• Commission and art direct work from illustrators and photographers.
• Lead meetings representing the design department (e.g. cover meetings).
• Structure the department & schedule to allow timely quality delivery of books and visual material.
• Allocate books to the team members and/or freelance designers according to schedule and skillset.
• Continuously improve the efficiency of the schedule.
• Ensure accurate & efficient management of budget lines under own control e.g. per title/ freelance budget.
• Plan workloads, supervising overall quality of the team as well as recruiting and training new team members.
• Ensure the design team continue to develop professionally & contribute to the best of their ability.

What you’ll bring: Able to bring insight and imagination to how our authors’ works are translated to impactful and commercial book covers. Experience of setting and executing a strategic vision for a design department. Experience of leading a high-performing team of designers with the ability to motivate and develop. Able to manage multiple creative projects and plan effectively to meet deadlines. Experience of pushing boundaries and being forward thinking in your own design work. Able to build effective working relationships with internal partners. Experience of effectively working within the constraints of a budget.

Preferred criteria: Specific experience of creative design for book covers and related materials.

Application instructions: Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on Sunday 25th May. Please ensure you include a cover letter, as 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. Typically, we expect the cover letter to be no more than one or two pages in length.

Circa £75,000 - £95,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

What you can expect from us: 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 will be in the office a minimum of two 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.

The recruitment process: 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 PRHCareersUK@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk. 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.