Head of Editorial and Design Operations, Editorial

Head of Editorial and Design operations, Editorial, Children’s Trade

The opportunity

Bloomsbury Children’s Books publishes brilliant fiction, non-fiction and picture books for young readers from pre-school to young adult - we work with the very best authors and illustrators to make outstanding and award-winning stories.

This newly created role takes the lead on process improvement across the Children’s Trade and Education publishing teams. With an immediate priority to develop and implement a new end-to-end critical path that meets industry best practice, you will be key to a more efficient department, supporting editors and designers in delivering the best outcomes for their books. You will also be involved in cross-departmental strategy implementation projects, providing a bridge between creative, commercial and operational elements of the publishing process to support ongoing growth.

This role works closely with each stage on the publishing pipeline. You will be a member of the publishing leadership team, and report to the Editor in Chief of Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

The role

Responsible for the creation and implementation of a new critical path across B&W and colour publishing

Researching all elements of critical path from acquisition to delivery to warehouse, including the dataflow

Developing editorial and design Biblio workflows for all product types, with clear roles and responsibilities

Working with design, SMP, production, audio, digital depts to identify critical path requirements

Creating and maintaining reports to monitor critical path performance and keep stakeholders updated on progress

Overseeing critical path progress, identifying issues and suggesting solutions

Setting targets and measuring attainment of targets

Manage the publishing schedules and ensuring they’re updated - with particular reference to budget and reforecast timelines

Oversee systems training - Biblio/ Vista and/or Cognos/ Bookscan

Responsible for creating and maintaining meetings schedule, with attention to purpose, outcomes and process

Seeking opportunities for process improvement in the department’s day-to-day working

Initially, no line management but this will be reviewed after a period of time

This job description does not form part of your contract of employment.

Knowledge, skills and experience

A meticulously organised professional with a thorough grounding in publishing processes, both colour and mono.

Understands the needs of a commercial business built around creative people and outputs.

An adaptable team-player with a demonstrable skill for improving working lives through practical, solution-focused process change.

Great at bringing people together to gather information, distilling it and finding solutions that work for all.

Advantageous to have a good working knowledge of Biblio or other title management systems.

A good communicator.

Your background may be in editorial, operations, production or other areas - but we need you to be a quick learner who speaks the language of design and editorial.

Additional information

The role is a full-time permanent position

The role is based at our London office 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP on a hybrid working pattern of 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred). Allocated office days for this role are: Monday and Tuesday

Bloomsbury Benefits

As well as a fantastic opportunity to join a global award-winning organisation, Bloomsbury offers the following competitive benefits package:
Working Pattern

**hybrid working pattern of**: 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred)

Holidays

25 days holiday

3.5 days Christmas company holiday

2 Personal Wellness Days

**Other Benefits**:
Flexible Fridays - take Friday afternoon off by working an additional 3 hours and 45 minutes earlier in the week

Season Ticket Loan

Sharesave Scheme

In-house Doctor

Eyecare Voucher Scheme

That Day - access to complementary wellness workshops

Company culture - Employee Voice Meetings, Staff Networks (BAME, Disability, Mental Health, LGBTQ+ and Parents, Guardians and Carers), 15 Mental Health First Aiders trained across the UK offices, Publishing Events and access to free Publishing Resources

For additional benefits see below

We are willing to make any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please flag to the recruitment team if required

Applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK.