Finance & Commercial Director - Vintage (7-month FTC)

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK’s leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board. We’re looking for a strategic and commercially minded Finance & Commercial Director to join the Senior Leadership Team of Vintage. In this influential role, you’ll provide expert advice on the commercial performance of the business, supporting decisions across areas such as new acquisitions, stock management, sales margins, and author payments.

Working closely with the Managing Director, play a key role in shaping and delivering the division’s growth strategy, including advising on and supporting the development of our publishing imprints. The role will also include line management of both a Finance Manager and Finance Analyst. Alongside driving strategic growth, oversee the division’s financial planning and performance, leading on results reporting, budgeting, and forecasting while ensuring compliance with internal and external financial policies.

While working in close partnership with the Managing Director through a dotted reporting line, maintain financial independence and provide constructive challenge where needed – helping to ensure robust decision‑making and the continued success and growth of the division. This is a fixed‑term opportunity running from the middle of May until January 2027.

About the team: Vintage is a commercially and critically successful publisher with a catalogue of over 6,000 titles. We publish some of the world’s most thought‑provoking, unforgettable, beautifully designed books – from contemporary trailblazers to our red‑spine Vintage classics. This means that our broad family of authors ranges from world‑class prize‑winners to brand new, emerging talent including Margaret Atwood, Tim Spector, Nigella Lawson, Rory Stewart and Jo Nesbo. Vintage is an exciting place to work. We pride ourselves on our dynamic culture, and the whole division celebrates our successes.

Key responsibilities:

• Oversee management accounting, budgeting and forecasting
• Key input into financial and commercial decisions, including author acquisitions
• Oversee development of reporting to aid business decisions
• Ensure best practice and financial controls are followed
• Lead and present at senior management reviews, including month‑end financials, and budget and forecast meetings
• Line‑manage a team of two finance resources, including recruitment, training, and development of those employees
• Develop financial awareness throughout the division, for example completed titles, and deliver training sessions to non‑financial staff on reading and understanding acquisition P & L’s
• Respond quickly to requests for additional information which may aid the business to improve their profitability
• Aid in the strategic review of the business to drive growth at a turnover and profit level, including building closer relationships with Publishing Directors to build these at an imprint level – including title mix, spread of risk, scheduling, and identifying potential authors to poach
• Challenge business to be financially efficient (e.g., stock, print decisions, pricing & cost leadership), including where we can remove complexity or challenge thinking on ways of working

What you’ll bring:

Essential criteria:

• At least 2 years’ experience within a similar position, ideally within the media industry.
• Proven ability to manage and motivate a team, and the ability to develop individuals to reach their potential and deal with underperformance if required.
• Creativity combined with sound commercial judgement and highly developed analytical capability, including the ability to have challenging conversations.
• Qualified accountant

Preferred criteria:

• Excellent communication and presenting skills, both written and oral, with the ability to influence a wide range of people.
• Attention to detail but the ability to also think strategically.
• Individual who presents well and delivers with self‑confidence and emotional intelligence.
• Ability to multitask and handle competing priorities.
• Strong team player with interpersonal sensitivity.

Disability Confident: 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 with, for us to support your request.

Application instructions: Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59 pm on Tuesday 31 March. 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.

Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team. We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you.

Salary: Circa £105,000, dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

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. For this role we expect that the successful applicant will be in the office for three days a week.

Company: The Random House Group Limited | Job ID: 287636