Penguin Ventures, the licensing and consumer product division of Penguin Random House Children’s UK, is looking for a Product Development & Approvals Manager to join their growing team on a full-time and permanent basis.

About Penguin Ventures

We’re off the page and on an adventure!

We take our iconic literary brands and characters off the page, and bring them to life via our licensing and consumer products programme, with brands including Peter Rabbit, The World of Eric Carle, The Snowman, Spot and Flower Fairies. We connect with our audience and fans at every touch point – whether that’s on physical products, through partnerships at retail, within promotions, across digital, or through live experiences such as stage shows or garden trails – managed in-house through our expert team.

The Role

Reporting to the Creative Director and joining a team of 12, this role is responsible for an array of creative duties, including:

• Working with the Creative Director to monitor and review the direction of projects with general ownership of the product approvals process via the internal Brand Comply approvals system

• Responsible for the line management of one – Creative Assistant – providing support and advice

• Coordinating submissions and outgoing feedback

• Coordinating approvals with global 3rd party licensing agents

• Developing and maintaining product catalogue(s) and consumer products visual archive – including photography of product and in store displays with support from the Creative Assistant

• Manage the social media and marketing needs of the Penguin Ventures team, working closely with the Central owned Brands Team

• Supporting the sales team where relevant to create pitch documents or creative meetings

What You’ll Bring

While we don’t expect you to have worked with Children’s brands beforehand, you willl have an in-depth knowledge of product development, product approvals, product approval systems (such as Brand Comply), and be passionate about the brands we look after.

We’ll need you to be a proactive and methodical worker, organised, creative and with an eye for detail. You’ll have several year’s experience working with Adobe Creative Suite – particularly Photoshop, InDesign and Adobe Illustrator. You will be used to working with several external and third party partners, licensees and creative agencies

Importantly, too, you will need to demonstrate creative flair and possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

What you’ll get in return is a collaborative and creative team that will champion your ideas and give you the opportunity to work with some of the best-known brands in the world. This is an excellent opportunity to move into a managerial role or to expand your product development expertise in a different field.

Application Instructions:

Please apply with your CV and cover letter by midnight on Thursday 11th April.

Peter Rabbit is one of our most successful brands – what do you think is one of the most exciting things we’ve done with this brand in the licensing space? Please spend no more than 300 words in answering this question as part of your cover letter.

What you can expect from us.

Salary: Circa £40,000 depending on how your skills and experience align to 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. This role is based in our Embassy Gardens office in Nine Elms (SW11 7BW), London. We’re currently three days in the office, and two days remote working, and we are happy to answer questions about this at interview stage.

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. 

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.

Company: The Random House Group Limited 

Country: United Kingdom 

State/Region: London 

City: London 

Postal Code: SW11 7BW 

Job ID: 269331