Creative Assistant Designer - Children's Books

Pan Macmillan UK is one of the largest general book publishers in the UK, with imprints including Macmillan, Mantle, Pan, Picador, Boxtree, Sidgwick & Jackson, Bello, Tor, Kingfisher, Macmillan Children's Books, Two Hoots, Bluebird, Campbell Books, Macmillan New Writing and Macmillan Digital Audio. Pan Macmillan is part of Macmillan Publishers International Limited.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a highly creative, motivated, and organized Assistant Designer to join the Campbell Books design team at Macmillan Children’s Books, working on an innovative and diverse list of novelty books for children aged 0–6.

Your role: Reporting to the Art Director, you will play a critical role in supporting the design team. In this busy, stimulating, and wide-ranging role, you will assist with vital administrative design tasks, work on existing and new novelty design projects, and hone your creative skills. You will also collaborate closely with the Editorial, Production, Communications, and Sales teams to help bring our preschool titles from initial concept to final approval.

Your key responsibilities:

• Concept & visual development: Work with the Art Director and design team on new titles throughout the publishing process, including creating and developing engaging visual concepts, polished visuals, and physical dummies for internal use and sales presentations.
• List management: Assist in the creation and development of backlist, reissue, re-use, and re-jacketed titles, as well as working on brand-new projects from the initial stage to final approval.
• Cross-departmental collaboration: Liaise closely with Editorial and Production teams regarding project briefings, schedules, proofing, and corrections, and ensuring alignment on design deliverables.
• Production support: Support the design team in preparing and delivering print-ready files to the Production team, ensuring all technical specifications and schedules are met.
• Stakeholder engagement: Establish effective communication with the Sales and Comms teams to understand their design needs and expectations, providing highly finished visual assets for presentations.
• Freelance coordination: Commission and manage external freelancers, including illustrators and designers, under management supervision.
• Team support: Provide comprehensive administrative and design support across the team, assisting senior designers as and when needed.
• Tech integration: Explore and engage with evolving creative tools, such as AI, safely and effectively within the design team’s workflow.

Essential experience, abilities and knowledge you’ll need to succeed:

• Design foundation: A creative eye supported by a portfolio that reflects an interest in physical print design, layout, or children’s media, with a readiness to develop these skills further.
• Software knowledge: Practical experience using Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator on an Apple Mac platform.
• Organization & prioritization: Effective organizational skills with a proven ability to manage multiple project tasks simultaneously and prioritize workloads effectively to meet deadlines.
• Communication & collaboration: Clear and collaborative written and spoken communication skills, with a proactive, supportive approach to working within a team and cross-departmentally.
• Production awareness: A basic understanding of printing processes and a strong willingness to learn the unique requirements of novelty book manufacturing.
• Inclusion and representation: An active dedication to promoting diverse voices and inclusive practices, taking personal responsibility for ensuring our workplace and publishing reflect the communities we serve.
• Community: A collaborative approach to building a supportive and vibrant environment.
• Curiosity: A strong drive for learning and a readiness to embrace different perspectives.
• Integrity: A foundation of openness and honesty, taking responsibility for actions and learning from mistakes.

Desirable skills we’d love you to have:

• Novelty & preschool interest: Exposure to, or a specific creative interest in, multi-format preschool children’s publishing (e.g., board books, pop-ups, flap books).
• Industry insight: A general awareness of the children’s publishing landscape, high street retail trends, or competitor books.
• Tech curiosity: An interest in learning about and experimenting with evolving AI design tools where appropriate for creative workflows.

What you’ll get in return: In return we can offer you a range of great projects, a supportive and collaborative working environment as well as a competitive salary and benefits package. Salary: £30,000 to £35,000. Note on salary: The offered salary is dependent on experience and expertise. We benchmark our ranges to ensure fair, competitive compensation that grows with your impact.

Closing date: 11th June 2026

Some of the benefits we offer:

• 28 days’ annual leave increasing with years of service + bank holidays
• Discounted private medical insurance
• Enhanced family pay and leave
• Flexible working hours and summer hours (early finish on a Friday during summer months)
• 2 Volunteer Days per year
• 75% off all Pan Macmillan books and regular staff book sales (highly reduced rates)
• Season ticket loan/advance
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discounts on shopping, Tastecard+ and gym memberships; Christmas club savings
• Daily free breakfast and monthly company lunch

This is a full‑time, permanent role, and will be based in our offices in Farringdon, London, with some flexibility to work from home each week.

Application process & inclusion: Please note: All applications must be submitted via our careers site to be considered. We are unable to accept CVs or applications sent via email. All applicants must be able to demonstrate the right to live and work in the UK in order to be considered for this role. At Pan Macmillan, we are committed to publishing a wide range of voices that reflect the full breadth of the communities we serve. Joining us means playing an active role in bringing our titles to life as part of a team that champions inclusion at every level. We are dedicated to building a workplace that is as diverse and welcoming as the stories we tell, ensuring all perspectives are celebrated across everything we do. We are highly committed to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at every level of our organisation. We welcome applications from all individuals, including any age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief.