Senior Editor, Ebury (12-month FTC)

We are looking for an experienced non-fiction, illustrated book editor to join the team at Ebury to work across some of our biggest, best-selling talent published by the Food and Lifestyle Hubs.

This Senior Editor role is offered on a 12-month fixed term contract from early July 2025, covering a period of parental leave in the team. 

About the Hubs

Ebury’s hub model blends editorial, publicity and marketing, and feeds on idea flow from every area of the team. It’s a thriving and ultra creative team and space.

In the Ebury Food Hub, our mission is to make life tastier and easier, to introduce more readers to new and established food voices, to shine a light on overlooked cuisines and expand culinary horizons. To make connections in the most joyful way possible: through cooking and eating. As the No.1 cookbook publisher in the UK, the list is simply unrivalled. From Yotam Ottolenghi, Ixta Belfrage and Julius Roberts to Mary Berry, Rick Stein, MOB, Jane’s Patisserie and the Bored of Lunch phenomenon, the depth of talent is exceptional.

In the Ebury Lifestyle Hub, our mission is to create beautiful solutions for everyday needs. From Charlie Mackesy, Stacey Solomon and Will Kirk, Tim Minchin, Mackenzie Crook and Frances Tophill – you’ll be working with a broad range of authors whose work spans the lifestyle genre, covering home and garden, fashion, self-expression and giftable humour books.

The role

You’ll be working across two really exciting parts of the business and gaining great insight and experience in both. You’ll be responsible for supervising all processes of book production, from acquisition to publication, to turn a manuscript into a finished product. You’ll also be responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the central illustrated editorial team.

Key responsibilities:

• Carefully looking after our brilliant, best-selling authors and high-profile talent and providing exceptional day-to-day author care.
• Managing the internal book process of specified books, including scheduling, completely compiling the jacket and cover copy, collating proofs, arranging and working through a legal read, populating Advanced Title Information, liaising with the author, agreeing a delivery date, liaising with Production, typesetters and designers and agreeing and managing a budget for the book.
• Working collaboratively across the marketing, publicity, sales and rights teams and taking responsibility for presenting a variety of books to the wider company in various meetings.
• Producing expertly designed concept-led publishing, settling and managing editorial schedules and budgets, working with freelancer creatives and the inhouse Ebury editorial and production teams.
• Contributing to new projects and acquisitions meetings, being engaged with popular culture and trends, and always looking for the next big thing in publishing.
• Line managing two members of staff within the team.

What you’ll bring

We’re looking for someone who has a genuine passion to work on food and lifestyle titles and the confidence to oversee complex and fast-paced schedules. You’ll be responsible for championing books and engaging the teams around you to get the book the attention it needs.

Essential criteria:

• Experience taking full colour non-fiction books through the publishing cycle
• Demonstrable awareness of and engagement with the food and lifestyle markets
• Experience of managing multiple projects at once and confidence to pick up projects half-way through

Preferred criteria:

• Line management experience
• Excellent communication skills and author care
• Ability to stay calm under pressure
• Adept at problem solving, especially in relation to colour book creation
• Team player approach

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 20th 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 we are looking for someone to join the team in early July, so we are happy to accommodate a reasonable notice period for the right candidate.

Salary

£39,000 - £42,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

What you can expect from us

Our people are the heart of our business, and we work hard to support a culture of responsibility and recognition.

Our benefits include:

• Financial – discounted shopping, season ticket loan, rental deposit loan
• Wellbeing – healthcare cash plan, employee assistance, gym loan
• Lifestyle – taste card, tech scheme, free and discounted books

For our full benefits list please visit: https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/what-we-offer/

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 the office twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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.

The recruitment process

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

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 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: The Random House Group Limited 

Country: United Kingdom 

State/Region: London 

City: London 

Postal Code: SW11 7BW 

Job ID: 278300