Production Controller

Employment Type: Full time

Location: Hybrid · London, UK (3+ days office based)

Salary: £30,500 – £32,000 (GBP) Depending on skills and experience

Team: Group Production

Seniority: Mid-level

Closing: 11:55pm, 25th Jan 2026 GMT

Perks and benefits:

• Work from home option
• Wellness programs
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Mentoring/coaching
• Cycle to work scheme
• Candidate happiness
• Hybrid working model (3 days in the office)
• 28 days holiday plus bank holidays (option to buy and sell holiday days)
• Enhanced pay for maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave
• Private healthcare cover and life assurance
• Summer Hours
• Free access to HeadSpace, employee assistance programme (24 hour helpline), mental health first aiders, and a wellbeing portal
• Season ticket loans (from day 1 for entry level) and cycle to work scheme
• Relocation Rent Support Loan
• Employee networks: HC All In (open forum), Elevate (for ethnic minority colleagues), HarperParents, Menopause at Work, Pride at HC, Social Mobility Network and Neurodiversity at Work
• Unlimited training on our Learning and Development portal, management courses (up to MA level) and mentoring programmes
• Virtual GP and eyecare vouchers
• Onsite physiotherapy (London only)
• Charitable donation matching and 2 volunteering days
• Green Electric/Hybrid Car Benefit Scheme (salary sacrifice)
• With Trees for Life we plant a tree in the Highlands of Scotland for every permanent hire
• Free e-books and audiobooks, digital newspaper subscriptions and discounts on books
• Subsidised canteen and retail discounts
• Onsite prayer room

Job Description:

This is an excellent opportunity for a Production Assistant ready to step up or an existing Production Controller seeking a new challenge. In this role you will get an opportunity to work on a wide range of products from our Non-Fiction and Non-Trade lists, including full colour, mono, and novelty, working across highly successful brands, and bestselling titles. You will oversee the production of colour-illustrated and mono books for HarperCollins, including managing Pavilion backlist titles, Harper North frontlist mono titles and Special Sales projects.

The ideal candidate will have proven experience in book production, ensuring projects meet budget, quality, and schedule requirements. You will be able to demonstrate strong organisational and communication skills, along with creativity and attention to detail. You must be adept at prioritising tasks and meeting deadlines. Importantly, you will understand the different specifications of a book and be able to communicate your understanding of this in the interview process.

Key Accountabilities:

• Ensure products are produced within budget through estimating and maintaining costs (print, paper and bind costs as well as plant costs); negotiating with suppliers where applicable; presenting accurate final costs and processing invoices.
• Run costings, ensuring commercial decisions are made using the most accurate information.
• Manage schedules for titles, from costing through to delivery, ensuring effective communication to all stakeholders.
• Manage special sales, from pricing, scheduling, file supply/approvals through print to shipping and delivery notes.
• Work with print and freight suppliers in Asia, Europe and elsewhere to ensure effective production.
• Liaise with warehouse and client services staff on stock issues and the release of your titles.
• Manage the archiving process to ensure that all product is available via the Digital Asset Management System.
• In conjunction with managers, ensure all books and other products comply with relevant safety legislation.
• Ensure print work is placed according to HC social compliance and other standards, particularly in relation to specific licensors.
• Maintain accurate records and data within the production system.
• Develop relationships with key suppliers.
• Check plotter proofs or InSite proofs, check colour proofs where necessary and make sure printing matches proofs or previous printed copies.
• Maintain communication with the appropriate creative and commercial teams, attending reprint meetings.
• Assist other Production Controllers and Production Manager when required to manage workload and departmental needs.

Experience required:

• Demonstrable experience as Production Assistant or Production Controller at a book publisher
• Good knowledge of production within the book trade
• Negotiating with suppliers, establishing good working relationships
• Managing multiple projects simultaneously
• Working with multiple stakeholders
• Basic experience of product safety requirements, ideally

Skills required:

• The knowledge to convey detailed specifications for books to suppliers
• Interest in print production
• Good numerical skills
• Ability to ask for help with solving problems, escalating as necessary
• Strong IT skills including Microsoft Office
• Desirable: understanding of InDesign/print pdfs

At HarperCollins, we value authenticity and integrity in our recruitment process. To ensure a fair and accurate evaluation of all applications, we ask that all responses to assessment questions reflect your own thoughts, experiences, and capabilities. This allows us to fairly assess your knowledge, skills, and experience to determine how they align with the role. We value diverse perspectives and genuine contributions, even if answers are not perfect. The use of AI tools or external assistance to generate responses is discouraged unless explicitly permitted for specific tasks.

If you wish to discuss anything regarding this position and/or your application to this role, please reach out directly with the subject heading ‘Vacancy Query’ plus the job title and we will aim to get back to you within 5 working days. Please note, if you are interested in the role you would need to submit your application via Applied. We do not accept email applications.