Creative Project Manager (Art Department)

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Creative Project Manager (Art Department)

Internally, this position is known as the Studio Manager within our Art Department.

Are you an experienced studio manager, or have experience working in a creative environment in a project management role, organizing, providing administrative assistance, and generally keeping everything on track?

We're recruiting for a Creative Project Manager to work in our Art Studio at Penguin General. This is a central figure in the day-to-day operations of the Art Department that designs book covers, jackets and illustrations and you will be managing the workflow of the creative team. This pivotal role oversees, troubleshoots, and manages the schedule, providing admin support as well as project management, generally being the first point of call for all queries.

About the team

At Penguin General, winner of Publisher of the Year 2019, we publish a broad range of books from prize-winning novelists and top 10 bestsellers like Richard Osman, Elif Shafak, and Bernardine Evaristo in many genres including lifestyle, business, history, crime, and popular fiction.

The Art Department are a team of 8 who work designing covers and insides of up to 300 books a year including hardback and paperback titles.

The role

Key responsibilities:

Reporting into the Art Director, this position will ensure all our book covers are on track, and that we hit the right deadlines for UK and International sales teams, for marketing and publicity teams and ensure the smooth running of the department.

Responsibilities include:

• Day to day operations of the Art Department
• Manage the design production schedule and sign off process
• Update and maintain design relevant aspects in Biblio (our internal system)
• Administrative support to the immediate and wider team
• Track and process invoices in a timely manner
• Draw up contracts for freelance designers, illustrators, photographers etc
• Help facilitate the implementation of new operational systems in the Design team
• Basic working knowledge of InDesign and Photoshop (we can provide training for this)
• Attend cover/briefing meetings and take minutes.
• Working with Art director to set agenda for cover meetings
• Chasing briefs on the biblio system, cover copy, author sign off to ensure all covers on schedule.
• Represent the team in the non-design related meetings.
• Ensuring provide back up and support for Art Director.

What you'll bring

The Creative Project Manager (Art Department) is a lynchpin of the team and is responsible for ensuring that book covers and jackets meet their deadlines at each stage of their production. For that reason, we are looking for someone with demonstrable experience in project management, office management or senior administrative/support roles. It's not a requirement that you'll understand how an art department works, or have worked in a creative environment before, but you'll be excited to! You'll also:

• Be calm, personable and to be able to cope with encouraging others and enforcing deadlines.
• Be confident dealing with stakeholders at all levels in the organisation from designers to editors, to sales and marketing colleagues
• Have excellent prioritisation and organisation skills to manage designers workloads
• Have good use of systems and understanding of technology which will help manage a busy team
• Be a solutions-oriented; foreseeing issues and being proactive in resolving them

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 11:59pm on 6th February 2026.

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 £37,000 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 you will be in our London office 2 days a week minimum. We will discuss this with you through the recruitment process.

Company: The Random House Group Limited | Job ID: 285822