Head of sales, Children's - UK sales

Closing date for applications: 22 August 2025

Salary: £50,000 to £58,000 depending on skills and experience

Location: The role is based at our London office 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP on a hybrid-working pattern of 2 days office based (or fully office based if preferred). Allocated office days for this role are: Monday and Tuesday.

Contract: The role is a full-time permanent position

Ready to lead the sales strategy behind some of the UK's most beloved children's authors and books? Bring your sales expertise to this senior leadership role and drive growth for a bestselling list.

Bloomsbury Publishing is looking for a head of sales, Children’s to join our UK sales team. The candidate will lead our retail growth strategy and work with our extraordinary list of bestselling children’s and children’s education authors and brands, including: Katherine Rundell, Martha Mumford, Tom Percival, Catherine Doyle, Katya Balen, Andrew Jennings, The Week Junior and Harry Potter.

This role presents an exciting opportunity for an experienced, enthusiastic and sales/profit driven professional. The candidate should demonstrate a real passion for launching and growing children’s titles and brands in the UK market and be keen to join the fast-moving and high-performing sales team of a top 5 UK publisher at a senior level.

The successful candidate will be solution driven and have extensive knowledge of the UK Children’s market plus a recent track record of sales growth in UK retail accounts. They will be a confident communicator keen to work collaboratively with internal and external contacts to further grow our sales and market share in line with Bloomsbury’s exciting overall future growth plans.


Responsibilities

• Guiding and implementing retailer specific strategy including online. Contribute to annual strategic reviews of key accounts’ business with Bloomsbury and make tailored recommendations to drive sales and inform strategic customer plans
• Working closely with account managers to ensure best possible placement for titles, supporting on negotiations and working closely with the M&P teams on aligning campaigns and developing best in class sales materials
• Manage, develop and support the children’s sales team, inspiring each team member to achieve their best and drive towards organisational objectives
• Support the children’s sales director in the budgeting/reforecasting process for the children’s consumer budgets
• Effectively build collaborative relationships across children’s publishing divisions and with key external stakeholders
• Key voice in the Bloomsbury Children’s acquisitions process, providing market analysis and context to UK acquisition figures

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Direct management or experience of all UK key accounts including Ireland
• Team management experience and leadership qualities
• Solution driven - able to identify and highlight potential obstacles to achieving objectives and propose solutions where appropriate
• Highly numerate and comfortable with forecasting, budgeting and data analysis, ideally with experience of the budgeting process
• Strong and confident communicator, well-practiced in presentation skills across all mediums
• Excellent time-management and organisational skills, with a keen awareness of deadlines and ability to multi-task

Bloomsbury Benefits

As well as a fantastic opportunity to join a global award-winning organisation, Bloomsbury offers the following competitive benefits package:

Working Pattern

• Hybrid working pattern of: 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred)
• 25 days holiday and 3.5 days Christmas company holiday
• Two paid personal wellness days
• Flexible Fridays – take Friday afternoon off by working an additional 3 hours and 30 minutes earlier in the week
• Work anywhere fortnight - For two weeks of any calendar year. The minimum period for working anywhere is one week, the maximum period is two weeks
• Season ticket loan
• Share save scheme
• AXA Healthcare Plan (Private Medical Insurance)
• Peppy Health App
• In-house doctor
• Eye care voucher scheme

Company culture – Employee Voice Meetings, Staff Networks (Bloom, Accessibility, Mental Health, Pride, and Parents, Guardians and Carers, Multi-Faith) and Mental Health First Aiders trained across the UK offices, Publishing Events and access to free Publishing Resources.


Additional information

Please apply with a CV and covering letter addressed to Human Resources (Word or PDF format only) via the ‘APPLY’ button detailing how you meet the requirements outlined above for this role by Friday 22nd August 2025. For best results, please use a desktop to apply as some mobile browsers may not fully support the application portal.

Bloomsbury reserve the right to close the role early if we exceed the required number of applications. Applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK.

Bloomsbury is a place where anyone of any background, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender identity, age, ability, or socio-economic status can thrive, feel comfortable, and be heard and accepted. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community. We are willing to make any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please flag to the recruitment team if required

Please state in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.