Sales assistant – foreign language publishing (Maternity Cover)

Closing date for applications: Sunday 15th February 2026

Salary: £31,041 - £36,563

Location: London

A hands-on sales operations role helping bring Usborne’s children’s books to international markets.

Usborne is an independent, family business, creating books which spark curiosity in children of all ages. These range from books for babies such as the bestselling THAT’S NOT MY®… series of touchy-feely books, to YA fiction from acclaimed authors such as Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Ravena Guron – with everything from Sticker Dolly Dressing to Philosophy for Beginners in between. Whilst the company is now a market-leader in children’s publishing and one of the best-known brands in children’s books globally, the company retains a friendly and familial feel. If you want to work somewhere close-knit enough for people to know your name, but which has a first-class reputation around the world, Usborne is the place for you.

We are looking for a highly organised, proactive and detail-focused individual to join our Foreign Language Publishing team, supporting sales operations for the Dutch market and our wider Foreign Language Publishing team on a maternity cover basis. The team looks after all commercial, sales and marketing activities related to Usborne’s Foreign Language Publishing programmes across a number of international markets, and works closely with distributors as well as in-house colleagues in various departments.

The Role

This is a varied and hands-on role providing essential sales operations and administrative support for the Dutch market, while also providing support for the wider team.

Working closely with colleagues across Foreign Language Publishing Sales, Editorial and Design, Production and Digital, you will help ensure that title information, schedules, reports and materials are accurate, up to date and shared on time.

What you'll be doing

• Acting as day-to-day contact for the Dutch distributor.
• Maintaining accurate title records in the company database, including adding new titles, reprints and updating publication programmes.
• Supporting sales activity through the preparation of catalogues, marketing materials, presentations and reports.
• Processing sales and stock data, maintaining Excel-based reports and supporting compliance and regulatory reporting.
• Assisting with coordination of costing and scheduling of new titles, liaising with Production and Editors, and preparing schedules for internal meetings.
• Providing general administrative and team support as needed.

Who we are looking for

This role is suited to a graduate or someone with 1-2 years’ experience in an office or administrative environment, with experience from within publishing or a related industry a bonus.

We are looking for someone who can demonstrate:

• Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to juggle multiple tasks and deadlines.
• Strong attention to detail and confidence working accurately with data, schedules and systems.
• Very good Excel skills and confidence using spreadsheets for reporting and tracking.
• Clear, professional communication skills when dealing with colleagues and external contacts.
• A proactive, helpful approach and willingness to provide general administrative and team support as needed.
• The ability to work independently while also acting as a reliable team assistant, keeping things running smoothly for colleagues.
• Good IT skills, including Microsoft Office;
• Experience with databases such as Biblio is helpful but not essential.
• Fluency in Dutch, written and spoken, is an advantage but not essential

Location and Benefits

This role is based in our London, Farringdon office and we work a 35-hour working week. After a successful initial induction period (where we require new staff to work in the office for 4-5 days per week) we then operate a hybrid working model of 3 days in the office and 2 days working from home subject to business need, which optimises our opportunities for creative collaboration and contact with our colleagues.

In addition to our transparent salary grading structure, for this role we also offer a range of benefits including:

• 25 days paid holiday entitlement plus bank holidays
• Industry-leading Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
• Employee Assistance Programme and Mental Health First Aiders.
• Healthcare Cashback scheme.
• Virtual GP service.
• Enhanced Family Friendly benefits.
• Paid Volunteer Day.
• Rewards and Discount services and shopping.
• Cycle to Work Scheme.
• 75% discount on Usborne books.

Recruitment Process

We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role and therefore applicants must have the right to live and work in the UK at the point of application.

We expect to undertake first round interviews, online from w/c 23rd February with a further in person interview to be held shortly thereafter. We are looking for someone to be available to take up the post in early April 2026.

Please let us know if you require reasonable adjustments at any point during the application and/or recruitment process.

Usborne is dedicated to building a diverse taskforce that reflects the wide range of communities that read our books globally. Decisions are made based on the individual’s skills and experiences and we particularly encourage applications from underrepresented demographics in Publishing.

AI notice

The use of AI has become more prevalent in recruitment application answers and content and whilst AI is undoubtedly a useful tool, we need to see that you're able to demonstrate your ability to originate ideas and write them in a compelling manner, not just generate them using a tool. Therefore, any suspected AI usage may result in your application being rejected.

We welcome and encourage applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries.

Please make sure that you state in your application that you found this role via Creative Access.