Careers at Phaidon

The Phaidon family of companies — Phaidon, The Monacelli Press, and Artspace — are devoted to celebrating and showcasing the creative arts through our growing publishing programs and e-commerce marketplace platforms. In each of our companies, we offer career opportunities to curious, creative, and independent individuals who share our passion for art, design, architecture, and popular culture.

Phaidon is the premier global publisher of the creative arts with over 1,500 titles in print. We work with the world's most influential artists, chefs, writers, and thinkers to produce innovative books on art, photography, design, architecture, fashion, food, and travel, and illustrated books for children. Phaidon is headquartered in New York and London, with offices in Paris and Berlin. Phaidon books are sold in a wide variety of sales channels, bookstores, and specialty shops, retail and online around the world.

The Monacelli Press, a leading publisher of illustrated books for twenty-five years, challenges the conventions of publishing to produce some of the most provocative, inspiring, and essential titles on architecture, visual art, interior design, landscape architecture, and photography. A separate imprint, Monacelli Studio, was founded in 2015 and focuses on the applied arts, adding art instruction, photography technique, and crafts to the publisher's growing list of books. In 2020, Monacelli joined the Phaidon family of companies.

Managing Editor – Culinary Titles (London)

Phaidon are looking to appoint an exceptional Managing Editor for its small culinary titles list, based in London. This role will be responsible for the freelance culinary editorial team, establishing and fostering a highly collaborative culture, and ensuring the smooth running of our culinary books.

Working closely with the Managing Editor, Publisher and Commissioning Editors, the Managing Editor for Culinary will be responsible for overseeing editorial assignments and workloads, tracking and maintaining the commissioning pipeline, and helping the team to resolve problems to keep books on time and budget, within Phaidon’s exacting standards. In addition to their overall managerial responsibilities, the successful candidate will also lead special projects and the culinary reprint process, imprint page checks and the conversion of books into new formats, editions and bindings.

Substantial and proven project-management experience of complex illustrated culinary books is essential, along with first-class communication skills, a dedication to excellence and accuracy, the ability to work calmly under pressure, and a talent for building strong relationships with others. The successful candidate will also have a demonstrable knowledge of and passion for the culinary world.

We are looking to work with talented people based on their abilities and we would particularly welcome applications from candidates from currently under-represented groups in book publishing.

When applying, please include details of any specialist skills or subject knowledge you may have. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend an online interview and may be asked to complete an editorial test, which can be done at home. The position is based in our London office.

To apply, please send a current CV and cover letter to careers@phaidon.com.

All applicants must have the right to live and work in the country for which they are applying.

Commissioning Editor – New York

Phaidon is the premier global publisher of the creative arts, with over 1,500 titles in print. We work with the world’s most influential writers, chefs, architects, designers, photographers, and thinkers to produce innovative books on food, architecture, design, art, photography, fashion, general interest, travel, and illustrated books for children.

An exciting opportunity has arisen in our New York office for a commissioning editor with strong commercial acumen, a collaborative approach, and background in visual culture. Working closely with the Publisher, you will be responsible for commissioning and creating books on a wide range of subjects, identifying and bringing to fruition books for a broad and global readership.

Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

Identifying commercially attractive ideas for books for a global audience, across the Art, Architecture, Design, Fashion, General Interest, and Photography lists, and taking them successfully through the acquisition process
Sourcing and commissioning the perfect team of contributors
Project managing your books, working closely with relevant in-house and freelance staff as necessary
Working in partnership with the Editorial, Design, and Production teams to ensure your books are created on time and within budget
Liaising with the Marketing and Sales teams to help your projects exceed their potential.

Skills and experience required:

Experience publishing in the visual arts, with broad-ranging knowledge of the subject areas.
Extensive contacts within the subject areas and a talent for building excellent relationships.
Proven negotiating, decision-making, and analytical skills, as well as financial acumen.
Creativity, can-do attitude, and commercial awareness.
Outstanding organizational and communication abilities, with proven skills in multi-contributor or complex project management, and confidence when both working within a team and with autonomy.
A dedication to excellence and accuracy, and an eye for detail.
A minimum of 5 years’ experience in illustrated book publishing is desirable for this role, as is basic knowledge of InDesign.

All applicants must have the right to live and work in the United States. Phaidon employs people based on their abilities and experience. We treat all employees and job applicants fairly and equally and aim to attract and develop talent from a wide range of backgrounds and identities to reflect our diverse, international audience. To apply, please send your full CV, with a cover letter for the attention of Deb Aaronson, to careers@phaidon.com before April 3, 2025.

Senior Editor – New York

Phaidon is the premier global publisher of the creative arts, with more than 1,500 titles in print. We work with the world’s most influential writers, chefs, architects, designers, photographers, and thinkers to produce innovative books on food, architecture, design, art, photography, fashion, general interest, travel, and illustrated books for children.

An exciting opportunity has arisen in our New York office for a senior editor with strong editorial skills, commercial acumen, a collaborative approach, and background in visual culture. Working closely with the Publisher and Commissioning Editors, the senior editor will be responsible for developing and project managing books on a wide range of subjects, from commissioning through to handover of final files.

Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

Project managing illustrated books from receipt of manuscript, through to handover of final files to production, across the Art, Architecture, Design, Fashion, General Interest, and Photography lists, taking projects successfully through the book-making process
Preparing and managing schedules and budgets for assigned book projects
Commissioning and managing contributors and freelancers, including writers, photographers, designers, copyeditors, proofreaders, etc.
Overseeing all text editing, including any structural edits and necessary revisions, copyediting, and liasing with authors
Liaising with picture researchers to ensure hi-res images are sourced and cleared for use within budget
Working closely with the Editorial, Design, and Production teams, and freelance staff as necessary, to ensure books are delivered on time and within budget
Liaising with the Marketing and Sales teams to help your projects exceed their potential

Skills and experience required:

Proven editorial experience, ideally within visual arts publishing
Creativity, can-do attitude, and commercial awareness
Outstanding organizational and communication abilities, with proven skills in multi-contributor or complex project management, and confidence when both working within a team and with autonomy.
A dedication to excellence and accuracy, and an eye for detail
A minimum of 5 years’ experience in illustrated book publishing is desirable for this role, as is basic knowledge of InDesign.