Job Description

Transworld are looking for a strategic, creative and collaborative Deputy Marketing Director to help lead our Marketing team at an exciting moment of growth and diversification. If you’re looking for a role where you can shape strategy, support a brilliant team, and make a real impact across a best-in-class publishing list, we’d love to hear from you.

About Transworld

At Transworld, we love great storytelling.

We publish the UK’s very best and most-loved fiction and non-fiction. Our authors are master storytellers, commercial giants, and game-changing experts who challenge readers to open their hearts and minds. A Transworld book demands to be discussed, shared, and loved.

We bring our boundless energy, commercial might, and creative teamwork to everything we do. This collective spirit turns authors into brand names, builds debuts into bestsellers, and makes us hugely successful year in, year out. We have been awarded Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards four times and are proud to have published a great many of our authors since the start of their writing careers.

The role

Working closely with the Marketing Director, you will act as a trusted deputy—someone they can rely on to keep things moving, step into key forums, and help shape priorities across the team.

You’ll manage a talented and varied team, creating the conditions for people to thrive and deliver their best work. Alongside this, you’ll oversee major campaigns and ensure we are bringing together creativity, audience insight and commercial thinking in everything we do.

You’ll bring a breadth of experience, curiosity and awareness across genres, with the ability to adapt your approach to different audiences and opportunities.

Key responsibilities:

• Managing, developing and motivating a high-performing marketing team, with responsibility for coaching, feedback, performance and progression.
• Overseeing campaign strategy and execution for key brands and authors, from early positioning through to delivery.
• Using sales data, market insight and competitor awareness to inform decision-making and maximise campaign impact.
• Managing and allocating budgets effectively, with ongoing evaluation against performance.
• Deputising for the Marketing Director in internal and external settings, including team meetings, acquisitions and cross-divisional forums.
• Building strong relationships across editorial, sales, publicity, group marketing and external partners.
• Overseeing key areas of focus including digital, audience development, creative output and agency relationships.
• Bringing fresh thinking, innovation and external perspective into the team, sharing best practice and driving continuous improvement.

What you’ll bring

Essential criteria:

• Proven experience leading and developing teams across a range of levels, with the ability to support, challenge and get the best out of people.
• Experience working across a wide range of publishing genres and audiences, with proven experience of adapting your approach to different audiences and opportunities (e.g. science fiction and fantasy, non-fiction and commercial fiction).
• A strong track record of leading successful, high-impact marketing campaigns and building brands.
• Experience managing large-scale or global campaigns and working with international or group teams.
• Confidence stepping in to lead, make decisions and represent the team when needed.

Preferred criteria:

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence, align stakeholders and represent marketing with authority.
• Strong strategic and commercial thinking, with confidence using data and insight to shape decisions.
• Experience overseeing multiple marketing disciplines (e.g. digital, audience development, creative, media agencies).
• A track record of introducing new ideas, approaches or innovations that have driven measurable impact.
• Experience contributing to acquisitions, positioning or early-stage publishing strategy.
• Highly organised and adaptable, able to prioritise, delegate and keep momentum in a fast-paced environment.

Disability Confident

If you have opted into our disability confident scheme, the essential criteria you must meet to be considered for our interview scheme is listed as part of the What you’ll bring section. Please note, there may be occasions where the volume of applicants means we can’t take all eligible candidates to interview.

Application instructions

Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on Sunday 12th April.

Please ensure you include a cover letter, as it is a crucial part of our assessment process. The cover letter offers an opportunity to show how your experience and interests align with the role requirements. Typically, we expect the cover letter to be no more than one or two pages in length.

Please note that we are expecting first interviews to take place the week commencing 20th April at our Embassy Gardens offices in Vauxhall.

Use of AI tools

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 £65,000 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 the office a minimum of three days per week.

Company: Penguin Books Limited | Job ID: 287860