Job Description

Are you passionate about children's literature and excited by the prospect of working with beloved brands like Peppa Pig, Peter Rabbit, Roald Dahl, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Penguin Random House Children’s is seeking a dynamic Key Account Executive to join our vibrant team. In this role, you will manage sales to a diverse range of gift and high-street accounts, expanding our reach beyond traditional book retail. This is a unique opportunity to be creative, work with iconic brands, and contribute to the success of our books through collaboration with PR, Marketing, Design, Production, and Editorial teams.

We are ideally looking for the successful candidate to join us at the end of August 2026.

Key responsibilities:

• Collaborate closely with your line manager to achieve team sales targets.
• Manage your own accounts, building strong relationships, securing repeat business, and communicating effectively with clients.
• Lead your own projects and customer meetings with confidence.
• Handle requests from various teams across the division.
• Serve as the first point of contact for events and author orders.
• Provide feedback to editorial and marketing teams on book suitability and performance.
• Coordinate with Production and Inventory Management on costings and deliveries.
• Work with Editorial and Design to gather materials for presentations.
• Perform daily administrative tasks, including raising Purchase Orders, using industry-specific software, maintaining spreadsheets and databases, cost chasing, invoice chasing, reporting, clearing permissions and royalties for Direct Sales customers, and processing orders with meticulous attention to detail.

What you’ll bring:

Essential Criteria:

• A highly motivated and enthusiastic attitude, with confidence in your abilities.
• Comfort in a sales environment and the ability to lead customer meetings.
• Strong presentation and communication skills, both verbal and written.
• The ability to quickly build relationships with colleagues and clients.
• A passion for our books and the ability to inspire enthusiasm in others.
• A can-do attitude with a willingness to learn and adapt.
• Proficiency in using multiple in-house systems and overall computer literacy.
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail.
• The ability to prioritise and respond swiftly to briefs and customer requests.
• A collaborative spirit, happy to support team members.
• An interest in children’s books or the publishing industry.

Preferred criteria:

• Sales or buying experience in retail or publishing.

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 Thursday 28th May.

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.

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

Up to £35,000 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 visit our office in London, two days per week.

Company: The Random House Group Limited | Job ID: 288937