Senior Designer - Character, Custom and Entertainment

Senior Designer - Character, Custom and Entertainment

Department: Character, Custom and Entertainment

Reporting to: Art Director

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Hours: Full Time

Location: Vauxhall, London (Hybrid Post Probation)

Closing Date: 18 th January 2026

About Walker Books

Walker Books UK is part of the vibrant international group that includes Candlewick Press, Holiday House and Peachtree in the USA and Walker Books Australia. Renowned for its truly original publishing and outstanding quality, the Walker Books Group is home to a wide range of children's and young adult books.

Award-winning authors and illustrators for the group include Angie Thomas, Sydney Smith, M.T Anderson, Patrick Ness, and Jon Klassen. We are also enormously proud to publish beloved family brands including Lucy Cousin's Maisy, Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram's Guess How Much I Love You and Martin Handford's Where's Wally?

About the Role

Are you a creative force brimming with book ideas and with a flair for design and typography? Do you have a passion for illustrated children's books? Do you have a proven track record in designing covers and interiors across a broad range of pre-school books, picture books, licensed characters and brands in children's publishing, at speed, at scale, and to the highest standard? We have a newly created Senior Designer role within our fast-paced Character, Custom and Entertainment (CCE) department, working on our beloved family brands to deliver a publishing programme of profitable and innovative titles and helping to create the brands of the future.

This role will be responsible for publishing projects for our Character brands including Guess How Much I Love You, Wally, Maisy and We're Going on a Bear Hunt. You will also be involved and support across the full CCE list. We are looking for an imaginative designer who can develop innovative designs, bring ideas to the table and manage a list of complex projects. You need to have strong commissioning skills, a passion for illustration, and experience of working on novelty books - as well as a strong track record in licensed characters and brands.

In this role, you'll take ownership of projects from concept to completion, developing stand out designs that meet market and brand requirements and keeping within brief, budgets and deadlines as well as line managing Designers in the team.

Skills and Experience

• Experienced in children's licensed character/brand design and custom publishing (including family gifting, young novelty, picture books and board formats), adhering to brand guidelines and/or style guides, and with evidence of having led design projects with creativity, originality, and market appeal, initiating and driving concepts
• Skilled in managing multiple complex projects simultaneously to deliver a high volume of creative work without compromising on quality, deadlines or budgets, with a high level of attention to detail
• A proactive communicator, able to work constructively with all internal and external contacts, and to give clear, constructive art direction to ensure artwork meets narrative, brand, and production needs, communicating design ideas clearly, both visually and verbally.
• Aware of the importance of diverse representation in children's publishing, in the context of making inclusive children's books, and familiar with accessibility in book design.
• Experienced in people management, as well as leading engagement with external freelance and packager resource
• A seasoned Mac and Adobe CC user with expert knowledge of In Design, Photoshop, and strong skills in Illustrator, Bridge and Acrobat

We Offer

• A supportive working environment where all voices are respected and creativity is not hierarchical
• Hybrid work (at least two days in the office per week) once you have successfully passed probation
• 22 days annual leave per year plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (with annual leave increasing with length of service up to 27 days)
• Enhanced Pension Scheme
• Health Insurance and Health Cash Plan
• Life Assurance
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Pay
• Access to an Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Plus, other great benefits!

All children deserve to see themselves, their families, and their communities represented in the books they read. As children's book publishers, it is our goal to ensure that the books and content we publish authentically and joyfully reflect the world around us. As an employer, we are committed to creating and maintaining a supportive working environment where everyone is included, valued, and empowered to do their best and most creative work. As an equal opportunities employer, we welcome candidates from all backgrounds without regard to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, sex, or any other characteristic protected by law and those not yet protected by law.

Support and Adjustments

If you have any queries about this role or require any reasonable adjustments for your application or throughout the recruitment process, please let our team know by contacting us at .

Please note we reserve the right to close vacancies before the closing date where we have received sufficient applications. We recommend submitting your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

Senior Designer - Character, Custom and Entertainment