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Project Manager (6m FTC)
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Job Description
We have an exciting new opportunity to join our Strategic Projects team as their new Project Manager. This role is offered on a 6-month fixed term contract basis, with hybrid working from our office in Embassy Gardens, London (approx. 2 days per week). Reporting to the Head of Strategic Projects, you’ll be responsible for leading teams to deliver projects that span one or more business departments. The Project Manager will manage resources, schedules and financials whilst adhering to stage gate quality guidelines throughout the full project lifecycle. This also includes management of issues, risks and project change requests to ensure successful and on-time project delivery.
The Team
The Strategic Projects team is a key part of Penguin Random House Operations (which also includes Technology, Facilities and Distribution). We help Penguin Random House achieve transformational change, delivering initiatives based on our strategic priorities, and supporting essential replacements to core processes and systems as they become end-of-life. We support changes from initial Conversations and Prioritisations through to implementation, engaging with departments across PRH and DK to help changes take place and embed.
The Role
Key Responsibilities:
- Provide leadership to a project team by building and motivating team members to meet project goals, adhering to their responsibilities and project milestones.
- Full project life cycle ownership: successful project delivery will include full implementation from initiation to implementation/hypercare for one or more project initiatives simultaneously.
- Report on project success criteria results, metrics, test and deployment management activities.
- Prepare estimates and detailed project plans for all phases.
- Procure adequate resources to achieve project objectives.
- Manage the day-to-day project activities and resources and chair the project management team meetings.
- Provide status reporting regarding project milestones, deliverables, dependencies, risks and issues, communicating across leadership.
- Understand interdependencies between technology, operations and business needs.
- Participate in feasibility studies, vendor selection and proposals for evaluation by appropriate key stakeholders.
- Review various vendor statement of works (SOWs) and Specifications for requested goods and services.
- Set and continually manage project expectations while delegating and managing deliverables with team members and stakeholders.
- Develop and deliver progress reports, proposals, requirements documentation and presentations to various audiences, including project team, sponsors, and key stakeholders.
- Manage project issues and risks to mitigate impact.
- Continue professional development in order to keep abreast of emerging technologies, methods and best practices.
- Maintain and develop a good understanding of project management principles, methods and techniques.
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What You’ll Bring
Essential Criteria:
- Previous project management experience with a track record of managing plans from creation to execution. Specifically:
- Experience of managing file management or document management projects involving user data migration. Technical expertise is not required, but you should be confident leading delivery across business and technical teams, managing dependencies and supporting the adoption of new ways of working.
- Experience of managing technology projects involving system integrations and SAP development. Technical expertise is not required, but you should be confident leading delivery across technical teams, managing dependencies and working with specialist SMEs and suppliers.
- Experience with the Microsoft Office digital suite, including but not limited to Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, One Note etc.
- Strong organisational skills, proactive and comfortable working in a dynamic project delivery environment.
- Good Knowledge of Waterfall/Agile project management, frameworks, methodologies and associated governance structures - including, but not limited to Prince2 and Scrum.
- Ability to present and explain technical information to non-technical audiences, establishing rapport.
- Awareness of IT frameworks such as ITILv3 and the software development process, including requirement gathering, analysis/design, development tools/technologies, release/version control testing and deployment management.
Desirable Criteria:
- Proficient in MS Project or experienced in using a PPM Tool with planning capabilities.
- Experience of working with SAP, enterprise system integrations and file management platforms (e.g. Box, Microsoft 365/SharePoint, Nasuni) would be advantageous but is not essential.
- Experience of using JIRA, Confluence and ChatGPT.
- Experience within creative, publishing, media industries is beneficial but not essential.
Application Instructions
Please apply with your CV and Cover Letter by 23:59 on Monday 20th July 2026.
AI
Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team.
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We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you.
Disability Confident
As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we offer interviews to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role, and opt-in on their application form. The essential criteria for this role are listed as part of the ‘What you’ll bring’ section.
There may be times when the volume of applications means we cannot take all eligible candidates to interview. We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing PRHCareersUK@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable with, for us to support your request.
Salary
The salary for this opportunity is £65,000-£70,000, depending on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus a generous bonus scheme and benefits.
Hybrid Working
While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect that you will work from our office in Embassy Gardens, London 2 days per week (typically Tuesday & Thursday). You will be required to be flexible on other days as required by the business.
Additional Information
Disclosure Requirements Pertaining to the Collection of Your Personal Data:
Responsible for processing the information provided in your application is the company specified in the job advertisement, with its registered office as indicated. The company processes your data for the purpose of establishing an employment relationship on the basis of Art. 6 (1) b GDPR / Section 26 (1) sentence 1 BDSG. The retention period for your data is determined by the statutory time limits applicable in the respective country, beginning upon completion of the recruitment process. You can find these here.
You can contact the company’s Data Protection Officer at the above-mentioned postal address.
Further information on data protection and your rights can be found here.
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