Office Manager, Penguin General

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Are you an experienced office manager, or have experience working in a creative environment organising, providing administrative assistance, and generally keeping everything on track?

We're recruiting for an Office 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, 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.

This opportunity is offered on a 12-month fixed term contract covering parental leave, from December/January.

About Penguin General

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, Sathnam Sanghera 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.

Key responsibilities of the role

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 Office Manager 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

How to apply

If this sounds like your next role, please apply with your CV and cover letter by 11:59pm on Tuesday 8th October.

About Penguin

We're the UK's largest publisher; made up of some 2,000 people and publishing over 1,500 books each year. Our doors are open to all kinds of talent. In a constantly evolving industry, we work hard to stretch the definition of the word publisher. Here, you'll work with a breadth of talent who all play their part to make each of our books a success. Together, we make books for everyone because a book can change anyone.

Salary: Up to £35,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align with the role, plus bonus and benefits.

Competitive benefits package: Our people are the heart of our business, and we work hard to support a culture of responsibility and recognition.

Our benefits include:

• Financial - income protection, life assurance, childcare allowance
• Wellbeing - healthcare cash plan, critical illness cover, health checks
• Lifestyle - enhanced parental leave, tech scheme

For our full benefits list please visit: https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/what-we-offer/

Hybrid working: We're experimenting with a hybrid way of working that suits the needs of each team. 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 you'll be in our London office 2 days a week minimum. We will discuss this with you through the recruitment process.

The recruitment process: You can read about our recruitment process at https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/how-we-hire/

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. 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 to for us to support your request.

Please note, we are not able to accept agency CVs for this role. Any CVs sent speculatively will not be eligible for a fee.

*Internally this role will be referred to as Studio Manager, rather than Office Manager.

Company: Penguin Books Limited

Country: United Kingdom

State/Region: London

City: London

Postal Code: SW11 7BW

Job ID: 273756

Date: 24 Sep 2024

Location: