Neon Squid creates beautiful non-fiction books for children aged 5–14, including the critically acclaimed Secrets of the Forest, Tales of Ancient Worlds, the Young Zoologist series and We Need to Talk About Vaginas. We are looking for an experienced and creative Managing Editor to join our small, friendly team to act as paternity cover for six months.
Your team: The Neon Squid team consists of three editors and three designers. As such everyone is expected to muck in with all sorts of jobs! We work on a variety of projects so no two days are the same.
Your role:
Working closely with the Publishing Director and Creative Director, you will have an important role in helping us to develop our list. You will directly oversee a Senior Editor and an Editor. We are looking for someone with a keen editorial eye and an ability to get the best out of people. You must have a proven track record of managing people and be super-organised. In addition, because we are such a small team, you will also be required to help come up with new book ideas and edit your own titles. If you are good at pub quizzes that is a bonus.
Your key responsibilities:
Manage the editors: Guide them through the publishing process, helping them to achieve personal and company objectives.
Edit: Ensure that the text in our books is to the highest possible standard and works for an international audience.
Be a creative spark: Help us to come up with new ideas that we can add to our list, help the team find exciting authors suitable for our books and inject fun into books you review!
Collaborate with designers: Make sure the text and illustrations in our books complement each other.
Assist sales and marketing teams: Liaise with other departments to ensure they have everything they need to make our books successful.
Present: You will occasionally be required to present our titles to the sales teams.
Essential experience, abilities and knowledge you’ll need to succeed:
Managerial skills: You must have experience of managing editors and editorial teams, and you must be able to work well with different personality types.
Strong editorial skills: You will be responsible for the high editorial quality of our books.
Proven experience: You must have worked in children’s non-fiction publishing, bringing creative ideas to life.
Adobe InDesign: You must be able to work in the Adobe Suite as you will be doing some hands-on editing.
Organisation: You must be able to demonstrate an ability to manage your workload and that of others, and be able to create book schedules.
Creativity: We need lots of fun, creative ideas for how to make stimulating educational books for kids.
Desirable skills we’d love you to have:
A passion for science and history
What you’ll get in return:
In return we can offer you a range of great projects, a supportive and collaborative working environment as well as a competitive salary and benefits package.
Salary: c. £51,000 per annum pro rata depending on experience
Closing date: 12 April 2026
Some of the benefits we offer:
28 days’ annual leave increasing with years of service + bank holidays
Generous pension scheme
Discounted private medical insurance
Group income protection scheme
Enhanced family pay and leave
Flexible working hours and summer hours (early finish on a Friday during summer months)
2 Volunteer Days per year
75% off all Pan Macmillan books and regular staff book sales (highly reduced rates)
Season ticket loan/advance
Cycle to work scheme
Discounts on shopping, Tastecard+ and gym memberships; Christmas club savings
Daily free breakfast and monthly company lunch
This is a full time fixed term role for 6 months, and will be based in our offices in Farringdon, London, with some flexibility to work from home each week.
All applicants must be able to demonstrate the right to live and work in the UK in order to be considered for this role.
At Pan Macmillan, we are highly committed to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at every level of our organisation. We welcome applications from all individuals, including any age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We want to ensure that all candidates are supported throughout the recruitment process, if you have any reasonable adjustments or accessibility requirements please do let us know. Our efforts to promote DEI are ongoing, and we continually strive to learn and improve our policies and practices. You can read our full Diversity & Inclusion Pledge here:https://www.panmacmillan.com/about/diversity-and-inclusion
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