Head of Audio Content, Penguin Random House

At Penguin Random House Audio, the UK’s leading audiobook publisher, we are dedicated to making the very best audiobooks. Working with exceptional acting talent, producers and studios, we publish award-winning and bestselling audiobooks such as Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club series, Bernadine Evaristo’s Booker-winning Girl, Woman, Other, Stephen Fry’s Troy and Dr Julie Smith’s Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?

We have an exciting opportunity to join this fast-paced team as Head of Audio Content.

The Opportunity

The Head of Audio Content role will play a lead role in our audio publishing strategy for key titles, brands and authors. The successful candidate will manage an editorial team working across a number of publishing houses and work closely with key authors and agents, alongside the Publishing Director.

In terms of management, you will:

• Play a leadership role in the editorial senior team
• Line manage a team of editors
• Make sure audiobooks are kept on their critical path
• Be an exemplar for ambitious and creative production approaches and publishing strategies
• Ensure your team work collaboratively with sales and marketing to create the very best publishing strategies for our authors
• Collaborate with your fellow Head of Audio Content regarding resource and ways of working

On the publishing side you can expect to be:

• Leading the audio publishing for some of our biggest authors and brands and working closely with the audio sales and marketing teams to drive growth
• Ensuring viability and profitability of acquisitions, demonstrating an understanding of financial goals at a title level, as well as audio divisional goals
• Leading on casting decisions and overseeing recordings for high-profile audio publications
• Building close relationships with voice agents and talent, to ensure we are always widening our talent pool and working with the best narrators in the industry
• Representing PRH Audio at industry events, as well as with key senior internal stakeholders.

What you’ll bring

We’d love to hear from you if you combine a love for audio and experience with the publishing process. We’ll need you to bring an author-focused approach and the knowledge of the end-to-end critical path of a finished book and audiobook. You will also need to understand how texts and voices intertwine and have the commercial mindset to understand what will work in the market.

You’ll bring lots of:

• Experience working in books and/or audio publishing
• Commercial knowhow, knowledge of the market and retail landscape
• Confidence working with senior stakeholders across projects
• Ability to juggle various projects at any one time, both for yourself and your team
• Line management experience
• Experience managing budgets and,
• Enthusiasm for audiobooks!

If you’d like to help to shape the future of audiobooks, the fastest-growing area of publishing, please apply to us with a CV and cover letter by the end of the day on Sunday 16th October

In your cover letter we would like you to tell us about what you think the current trends are in the audio market and about what you think the key elements to publishing a great audiobook are (in no more than 300 words).