At Penguin Random House, we make books for everyone because a book can change anyone.

Our Social Impact team are at the heart of how we bring this mission to life every day. Their work focuses on three core priorities – giving everyone equal access to books; building the readers of the future; and publishing books for everyone. This includes large-scale outreach programmes such as Libraries for Primaries which campaigns for every school in the UK to have a library, and Lit in Colour, our campaign to support schools to diversify the teaching of English literature. The team also plays a key role in helping to deliver and communicate our ambitious company-wide inclusion and sustainability strategies.

The role:

Our Head of Social Impact will lead and manage the Social Impact team, reporting into our Chief Brand Officer.

No two days will be the same in this role – you’ll be responsible for a broad range of activity and partnerships which ultimately help to put social impact and sustainability at the heart of everything we do.

Key responsibilities:

Support the Chief Brand Officer to set the strategic direction for our social impact and sustainability strategy in the UK across ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) topics. This includes ensuring that our approach is innovative, industry-leading, shaped by materiality and aligned with long-term business growth.
Oversee the effective delivery of our responsible business strategy, partnerships and activities. This includes identifying and managing relevant ESG risks and setting and delivering annual KPIs.
Lead effective ESG governance, working closely with senior leaders including our CEO. You’ll also be responsible for our annual ESG reporting.
Drive the brand activation of our social impact work, finding opportunities to tell our story to key audiences including consumers and authors, and putting purpose at the heart of our employer and consumer brand. You’ll use both data and storytelling to demonstrate the value of our social impact and sustainability work.
Develop a network of strong relationships with key industry stakeholders, representing Penguin Random House UK at internal and external events, and preparing briefing notes for key senior spokespeople ahead of events and meetings. You will also work with the Communications Director and Chief Brand Officer to help manage relevant reputational risk and crises.
Lead and manage a high-performing Social Impact team, ensuring personal development opportunities and effective collaboration, as well as modelling inclusive leadership.

What you’ll bring:

Proven experience in effectively managing multiple complex projects in a large and complex organisation, utilising the power of influence to drive impactful change.
An excellent track record of building relationships with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders to foster collaboration and drive strategic initiatives.
Experience in delivering an organisation’s responsible business or ESG strategy and implementing ESG initiatives that have resulted in tangible impact and positive change.
Excellent project and budget management skills, coupled with high energy to set a dynamic pace of delivery, ensuring that goals are met and initiatives are successful.
Experience in line management, with the ability to lead and inspire a team to achieve outstanding results, fostering a collaborative and empowering work environment.

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 in different teams across Penguin Random House UK.

This is a hybrid role, based in our offices in London, as there are activities and meetings that you will need to support in-person. We are happy to discuss hybrid working arrangements with you during your recruitment process.

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.

What you can expect from us:

Salary: Circa £60,000 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, free and discounted books

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: 269061

Head of Social Impact (269061)

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Head of Social Impact (269061)