Head of Digital Workplace (14-month FTC)

Are you ready to take on a pivotal role shaping the future of work at Penguin Random House UK?

We are seeking a dynamic and driven Head of Digital Workplace to join our team on an initial 14-month FTC to cover a period of parental leave. In this role, you will play a pivotal role in working with key business stakeholders to ensure alignment between our Technology teams and our business functions to enhance operational value, service and customer satisfaction. With a focus on Digital Workplace systems, you will play a significant role in redefining how Technology services are delivered, contributing to the harmonisation of business systems across all our locations.

In this position you will report into our Director of Enterprise Strategy, Architecture and Workplace Solutions and line manage a team of 4.

In this role, your responsibilities will include:

• Providing advice to leverage Technology solutions, improving service delivery quality and promoting reuse of existing solutions.

• Proactive collaboration with team members, vendors and colleagues to achieve organisational goals.

• Driving business value by identifying and delivering fit-for-purpose technology solutions and assisting colleagues in adopting new and existing solutions.

• Monitoring capacity versus forecast demand and securing funding for future needs, ensuring resource estimation and budget justification.

• Establishing seamless communication and escalation procedures across all functions supporting Technology delivery.

• Initiating understanding of departmental Technology priorities and strategic demands, providing early notice of needs to ongoing programmes.

• Designing processes for new and changed technology offerings and ensuring resources are available for timely implementation.

• Improving management of Technology assets and service capability, maximising economies of scale and supporting service operations.

• Influencing the maintenance of Technology standards to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and compliance with policies and legal obligations.

• Managing and monitoring service level agreements, engaging in incident and problem management processes for continuous improvement.

• Providing transparent understanding of service agreements, reducing service costs and delivering measurable service improvements.

• Providing engaging leadership, contributing to the wider Technology strategy and maintaining up-to-date knowledge of emerging technologies and their potential applications.

What you’ll bring:

• Extensive experience in operational Technology estate transformations and cloud transformations within a large organisation.

• Proficiency in Business Technology SaaS solutions, including M365 Modern Workplace and collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Service-Now.

• Expertise in implementing enterprise-scale Digital Asset Management solutions for media assets, including content, images and video.

• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence and take accountability for complex technology decisions.

• A solid track record of building and leading high-performing Technology teams with clear roles and defined skillsets.

• Experience in Technology Impact Analysis, New Technology Awareness, Innovation, and Technology Selection.

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. 

Our approach to hybrid working:

While our offices are places for you to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, having flexibility about where you work is just as important for doing your best work and for your wellbeing. So, we don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to how we work across Penguin Random House UK.

For this role, there are regular meetings and activities that you will need to attend in person mainly at our offices in London. Outside of these moments, you can choose to work remotely.

The exact balance of office to remote working can be discussed with your future manager during the recruitment process. What we can say now is that you won’t need to go into the office five days a week, unless of course you want to.

Please apply with your CV by Wednesday 1st May. Interviews will likely be held virtually and in-person across a two-stage process.

What you can expect from us:

Salary: Circa £100,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

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/

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

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we're part of the offer an interview scheme. This is where disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role can opt in to get to the next recruitment stage. There may be some situations where volume of applicants means we can't 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: Penguin Books Limited 

Country: United Kingdom 

State/Region: London 

City: London 

Postal Code: SW11 7BW 

Job ID: 269917