{"id":3620961,"url":"https://alion.io/job/bertelsmann-inventory-controller-12m-ftc","title":"Inventory Controller (12m FTC)","company":{"id":20910,"name":"Bertelsmann","domain":"bertelsmann.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/bertelsmann","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"SuccessFactors","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":99,"open_postings":36,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.028,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":24,"computed_at":"2026-11-07T05:47:08Z"}},"role":"Finance","role_family":"Finance","seniority":null,"employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["London, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":32000,"max":null,"currency":"GBP","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":42928},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"GDPR","optional":false},{"name":"SAP BusinessObjects","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-02T18:23:42Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-02","last_verified_at":"2026-11-07T05:01:11Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":4,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":4},"description":"Job Description\nWe are looking for an Inventory Controller to join the Penguin Group Publishing Operations team on a 12-month fixed-term contract basis in London.\nThe Inventory Management team collaborates with colleagues within Publishing Operations and across Sales, Production, Finance, and our Publishing Houses to maintain the correct stock levels for every one of our titles throughout their lifecycle. The team plays a critical role in managing relationships with our distribution colleagues and our external partners to ensure the efficient distribution of our books.\nThe role\nReporting to the Senior Inventory Manager, you’ll manage the day-to-day inventory requirements for a portfolio of titles, helping to maintain appropriate stock levels and availability.\nThis is a busy and varied role, with great opportunity to learn, develop, and support multiple colleagues across the wider Inventory team. You’ll ensure things run smoothly.\nKey responsibilities:\nManaging Inventory processes for Print on Demand titles\nOrdering stock imported from Group Companies\nWorking with Sales Operations and Production to set up Local Prints for Group Companies\nManaging Inventory reserves and reporting on Out-of-Stock titles\nManaging the Non-Trade inbox and setting up bespoke printings\nReleasing customer orders from our Order Management System, including stock for independent shops and Amazon\nMaintaining price grids for Group Territories\nAttending meetings and actioning reprints for the team as needed\nRunning weekly and monthly reports to track information\nCarrying out other ad hoc team support when needed\nCross-skilling with other Inventory Management colleagues to provide optimal team support\nContributing to system improvements and testing across inventory processes.\nWhat you will bring\nEssential criteria:\nWe are looking for a team player with excellent logistical skills who can multi-task whilst maintaining attention to detail.\nExperience of inventory, stock management, supply chain or a comparable operational environment.\nYou will need to work well under pressure to meet deadlines and be able to prioritise your workload effectively.\nYou must be able to demonstrate a high level of competency with Excel, and the ability to quickly learn new systems and processes.\nYou’ll have a proven ability to influence process changes so having some experience of working in a data heavy role will help you to adapt quickly into this role.\nThe ability to make decisions independently and communicate your reasoning clearly and confidently.\nExperience of working with data and using it to make accurate, time-sensitive decisions.\nAn understanding of the publishing process and how Inventory works alongside Sales, Production and Finance.\nConfidence in working with multiple systems and interpreting information from different sources.\nExperience with inventory or reporting systems such as SAP, Biblio or Business Objects.\nApplication instructions\nPlease apply with your CV and Cover Letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 23:59 on Sunday 15th November 2026.\nAI\nHere 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.\nWe 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.\nDisability Confident\nAs 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.\nWe encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing . Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable with, for us to support your request.\nSalary\nThe salary for this opportunity will be c.£32,000 depending how your experience and skills align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.\nHybrid working\nWhile 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.\nFor this role we expect that you’ll work from our Embassy Gardens office a minimum of 3 days per week during the probationary period, moving to 2 days a week after probation.\nAdditional Information\nDisclosure requirements pertaining to the collection of your personal data:\nResponsible 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.\nThe 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.\nYou can contact the company’s Data Protection Officer at the above-mentioned postal address.\nFurther information on data protection and your rights can be found here.\nRecruiting-Platform powered by SmartRecruiters.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5591,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Hybrid work"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Publishing","TV Production","Music Industry","Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-02T18:23:42Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":89,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.888,"p_room":1,"age_days":4,"expected_fill_days":24,"reasons":["conf:0","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-07T05:47:08Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":42928,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/bertelsmann-inventory-controller-12m-ftc","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/bertelsmann-inventory-controller-12m-ftc.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-07T07:28:48Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":2660,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-08T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":20910},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=20910"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fbertelsmann-inventory-controller-12m-ftc"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fbertelsmann-inventory-controller-12m-ftc"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fbertelsmann-inventory-controller-12m-ftc"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/bertelsmann-inventory-controller-12m-ftc\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fbertelsmann-inventory-controller-12m-ftc"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3620961}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"bertelsmann.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3620961},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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