Designer, Children's Publishing Division

This is a creative position focusing on creating the highest quality, industry-leading Fiction covers and interiors on time and to the agreed brief. This includes design innovation, pre-press, and administrative aspects of bookmaking, while working closely with the fiction Art Director, Editors, and other Designers to create bestselling books in various formats for Simon and Schuster Children’s Books.

This role is responsible for creating designs from brief to print while working within budget and schedule, commissioning illustrators and negotiating contributor contracts, ensuring delivery to time and budget, while regularly updating on project progress. The successful candidate will liaise with Production, Sales & Marketing, Rights, freelance designers, and external suppliers, and support the wider design team with departmental requirements. They will apply in-house and brand style guides across all design projects, create and support the supply of marketing assets across print and digital formats, maintain bibliographic information, organise artwork, and archives, prepare print-ready digital files to printer specifications, and keep up to date with illustrators, agents, market trends, and competitor activity.

The ideal candidate will have a strong knowledge of illustration, design, agents, and creative trends, strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to liaise across departments and external contributors. They will have excellent time management and organisational skills, can manage multiple projects and deadlines, and have a proactive and collaborative approach to supporting the wider design team along with strong creative problem-solving ability. They will also be adaptable, reliable, and able to work effectively in a fast-paced environment.

Applicants will ideally have a minimum of 3–4 years’ experience commissioning artwork and managing creative contributors, experience preparing and converting digital file formats for print production, and experience managing or supporting the management of schedules and project workflows. It is highly desired that the applicant has a formal design qualification or equivalent experience within a design environment.

Salary starting from £31,000. Closing date: 09/06/2026. Please apply by attaching your CV, examples of work, and cover letter. Unfortunately, Simon & Schuster UK cannot accept applications from candidates without a legal right to work in the UK or who require visa sponsorship. Right to work checks are carried out on candidates who make it to the offer stage.

Simon & Schuster UK is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, and gender expression. At Simon & Schuster UK, the spirit of inclusion feeds into everything that we do; we believe that opportunity, access, resources, and rewards should be available to and for the benefit of all.