BOOKER PRIZE FOUNDATION: Digital Director

The Booker Prizes have a unique place in the literary sphere, enjoying an enviable reputation as a cultural institution that is highly respected, much loved and hotly debated throughout the world. Over the past 57 years, around 700 extraordinary books have been brought to the attention of the public, influencing reading tastes and transforming culture in Britain and beyond, along with the careers of hundreds of writers from around the globe.

The Booker Prize Foundation is a registered charity, established in 2002, which is responsible for awarding the Booker Prize, the Bukhman International Booker Prize and the Children’s Booker Prize. It exists to inspire more people to read – and write – the world’s best fiction.

Other aspects of the Foundation’s work include:

• Books Unlocked, a long-standing reading initiative in prisons in partnership with the National Literacy Trust;
• the UEA Booker Prize Foundation Scholarship, awarded annually to a candidate for the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia;
• the funding of Braille and audio editions of Booker Prizes books through the RNIB;
• PEN Presents x International Booker Prize, which supports and funds translators from the Global Majority, who are currently chronically underrepresented in the UK publishing landscape;
• a Booker Prizes Quick Read, in partnership with The Reading Agency – a collection of stories by Booker-nominated authors, written in an accessible and easy-to-read style, aimed at people who are less confident readers or who have lost the reading habit.

Since 2021, the Foundation has undergone a digital transformation and has experienced steep growth across its website, newsletter and social channels. At the heart of this growth is a reader-focused digital strategy built around informative, entertaining, accessible and award-winning content that celebrates Booker-nominated books past and present, prioritises engagement across all platforms and reaches far beyond the Booker Prizes’ original core audiences.

We welcome and encourage applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries.

About the role

The Digital Director will lead the Booker Prize Foundation’s digital presence, line managing a talented team of award-winning content producers, designers and marketers. This is a senior leadership role focused on strategic direction, operational oversight and organisational alignment, rather than hands-on content production, and reports to the Chief Executive.

Working across teams, the Digital Director will continue to define and deliver a coherent digital roadmap that supports the organisation’s wider mission, audience ambitions and brand identity. They will lead digital planning and governance, improve systems, data, reporting and other processes and workflows, as well as create digital activity that is effective, sustainable and aligned across teams.

The role will provide senior leadership oversight of editorial standards, while supporting specialist team members to lead the day-to-day creation and delivery of content. The Digital Director will typically provide guidance and approval at key project milestones, such as strategic initiation and final approval, enabling team members to manage high quality delivery.

The Digital Director will represent the Digital team in planning and leadership discussions and take overall accountability for the digital content and marketing budget, some of which may be managed by team members.

Key responsibilities

• Critical part of the BPF senior leadership team, helping to continue to refine and implement overall strategy, as well as contributing to the BPF’s operational leadership.
• Overall accountability for managing digital content and marketing budgets.
• Collaboration with all BPF teams, the Advisory Committee, Board and external stakeholders.
• Act as a senior advisor on digital opportunities, risks, best practice and future vision.
• Digital strategy and leadership.
• Work closely with senior leadership to align digital priorities with BPF’s strategy.
• Refine and lead the organisation’s overarching digital strategy across website, social media, video and digital audience platforms, bringing a strong perspective on future technology and user behaviours.
• Continue to develop the long-term digital planning roadmap aligned with organisational goals, audience development and brand positioning, delivered through individual prize cycles and other core activities.
• Represent Digital team in senior meetings (including at Board level) and cross-teams planning discussions.
• Maintain strong relationships across all teams to continuously drive integrated planning and delivery, across prize cycles and other core activities.
• Editorial and brand oversight.
• Provide senior editorial oversight and governance across digital content output.
• Maintain consistency of tone, quality, accessibility and brand identity across content and digital platforms.
• Strategic leadership, guidance and high-level direction to content, social and video teams.
• Approve major campaigns, initiatives and projects at key stages.
• Support and oversee teams in establishing effective editorial processes, decision-making structures and approval workflows.
• Audience growth, analytics and performance.
• Work alongside the COO to refine and oversee operational and financial KPIs, and reporting frameworks including digital analytics and performance evaluation across digital platforms.
• Use audience insight, data and other appropriate inputs including third-party research to inform digital strategy and decision-making both across the BPF and individual prize cycles.
• Monitor website, social and campaign performance, identifying key trends and opportunities for optimisation and growth.
• Team leadership and operational management.
• Lead and support cross-functional digital team of seven.
• Line manage three direct reports covering editorial, digital content creation and digital marketing.
• Identify opportunities to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the team, and reduce operational pressure on individual team members, through continuous improvement in systems, workflows, data quality, resource and project planning and prioritisation.
• Encourage collaborative working across content, communications/PR, events and fundraising.
• Foster a culture of strategic thinking, accountability and continuous improvement.
• Maintain effective, fit for purpose and audience-focused digital platforms and tools.
• Manage external digital partners, agencies or freelancers where appropriate.

Person specification

• Significant senior-level experience in digital leadership within the arts, cultural, charity, media or creative sectors.
• Demonstrable success developing and implementing digital strategies and long-term audience plans.
• Experience leading cross-functional digital-focused teams.
• Significant experience in driving a culture of continuous improvement and innovation in systems, data, reporting and operational processes.
• Strong experience overseeing complex digital ecosystems spanning website, newsletters, social media, video and editorial content.
• Strong understanding of digital publishing, audience engagement, analytics and performance measurement.
• Strong understanding of editorial standards, brand governance and digital best practice.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to balance strategic oversight with pragmatic operational decision-making.

Contract: The BPF will consider applicants to fulfil the requirements in either a permanent role, or a fixed term contract of between 12 to 24 months. BPF will furthermore consider applicants who wish to fulfil the responsibilities in a full-time role, or working four days per week, including the option of flexible working hours.