Head of Translation

We are looking for an entrepreneurial and collaborative Head of Translation to lead our high performing translation rights business for the Michael Joseph, Transworld and Vintage divisions here at Penguin Random House UK. Working closely with the Rights Director to manage a team of seven, this role sits within the PRH Adult Rights group team. We are looking for someone who will thrive in building deep relationships, growing our translation rights business across the three publishing divisions, and collaborating with other senior team members across the group team as a whole.

With some of the biggest author names in the business, the titles across these divisions range from prestigious literary fiction to the latest debut romantasy and an extensive range of non-fiction across many genres. To succeed in this position, you will be highly energised by the opportunity to work with a wide range of authors and internal and external stakeholders and passionate about the role you can play in the growth of our business.

This role reports to the Rights Director for Michael Joseph, Transworld and Vintage.

Key responsibilities

In this role you will lead on translation sales growth, achieving excellent sales in your individual market(s), including Germany, as well as setting ambitious targets with the team and ensuring the translation rights business is well organised in relation to travel, sub-agent and title strategy.

You will inspire and steer the team to maximise licensing opportunities and revenue potential for our titles, delivering the best service possible for authors, agents and customers alike.

You will work closely with the publishing divisions in the acquisition of rights and help to develop the vision, direction and goals for each division’s rights business. You will also be the dedicated rights lead for one of your team’s three divisions, responsible for evaluating rights potential of new acquisitions and ensuring this division is well served in all aspects of our rights business.

What you’ll bring

Essential criteria:

• Advanced entrepreneurial instincts and a pro-active approach to acquiring, selling and managing rights.
• An experienced, excellent negotiator with proven influencing skills at all levels and a track record of major deals.
• Strong customer relationships in key translation markets and with literary scouts.
• A supportive and motivational leader and people manager, able to empower a team to do their best work and build on a strong, collaborative and inclusive team culture.
• An opportunistic individual who is curious about new opportunities and developments in the marketplace and has an appetite for learning.
• A dedicated, positive team player, naturally inclined to solicit and share information, participate or drive team projects.
• A strategic, confident and nuanced communicator with sophisticated interpersonal skills and the winning ability to inspire trust and enthusiasm in others.
• An appetite and ability to manage risk and change, confident in handling challenging situations under pressure while delivering to deadlines or targets, showing adaptability as well as the ability to develop others in this aspect.
• An excellent ambassador for books and a commercially astute reader.

Application instructions

Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on Wednesday 22nd January .

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.

We anticipate that our interview process will move quite quickly, with interviews taking place from late January/early Feb.

Salary

Circa £60,000 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:

• 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. We will be 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 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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