Job Description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Key Account Manager to join the Sales team at Michael Joseph on a 12-month fixed-term basis. 

Michael Joseph specialises in commercial fiction and non-fiction, publishing bestselling titles in the genres of women’s fiction, crime, thriller, cookery, memoir, and lifestyle. We are home to authors including Jamie Oliver, Stephen Fry, Dr Julie Smith, Marian Keyes, Jojo Moyes and Jodi Picoult. 

The Role 

You will take full ownership of key accounts including Tesco and Asda, developing and delivering clear, commercially focused plans to drive growth across both frontlist and backlist. 

Working across formats and categories, you’ll identify where opportunities exist — whether that’s improving range, increasing visibility, or building stronger promotional plans — and turn those into tangible results. 

You’ll work closely with internal teams across editorial, marketing and publicity, ensuring our publishing is positioned effectively for your customers, while also bringing valuable market insight back into the business. 

This role is perfect for someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment, has a passion for sales, an eye for detail and maintains a customer-centric mindset.  

Key responsibilities: 

• Own and grow key retail accounts, delivering against sales and profit targets.  

• Develop and execute clear, commercially focused account plans, identifying opportunities to drive both immediate performance and longer-term growth.  

• Take full ownership of results — proactively identifying issues and opportunities and acting on them.  

• Use data and market insight to build a clear understanding of performance drivers, identifying trends, risks and opportunities.  

• Apply analytical thinking to move beyond reporting — translating insight into actions that improve performance.  

• Bring a broader market perspective, spotting opportunities beyond your core accounts and feeding these into the wider team.  

• Build strong relationships across editorial, marketing, publicity and operations, representing your accounts whilst understanding the needs of the business.  

• Influence internal stakeholders by bringing clear, commercially grounded insight and recommendations.  

• Contribute to wider sales and publishing discussions, supporting a joined-up, high-performing team environment. 

What you’ll bring 

Essential criteria: 

• Solid commercial background in sales or retail 

• Proven experience managing customer relationships and accounts, ideally within a retail or publishing environment.  

• A passion for publishing and demonstrable interest in working specifically for Michael Joseph 

• Strong presentation skills. The ability to influence.  

• Commercial acumen and sales analysis skills   

• An attention to detail 

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 13th August. 

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.  

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 

£35,000 - £42,000 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 work from our office in London three days per week. 

Additional Information

Disclosure requirements pertaining to the collection of your personal data:

Responsible for processing the information provided in your application is the company specified in the job advertisement, with its registered office as indicated. The company processes your data for the purpose of establishing an employment relationship on the basis of Art. 6 (1) b GDPR / Section 26 (1) sentence 1 BDSG.

The retention period for your data is determined by the statutory time limits applicable in the respective country, beginning upon completion of the recruitment process. You can find these here.

You can contact the company’s Data Protection Officer at the above-mentioned postal address. 

Further information on data protection and your rights can be found here.
 

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