Head of Social Impact

at  Penguin Books Limited

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.

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.