Assistant Product Manager (Toronto Hybrid)

Overview

Company: Harlequin Enterprises ULC

Date: April 23, 2025

Job Title: Assistant Product Manager

Department: Harlequin Brand Group, New Product team

Reporting To: Product Manager

Status: Regular Full Time

Location: 22 Adelaide Street West, Toronto (hybrid)

Do you believe in romance ever after? We do!

For over 75 years, Harlequin is the leading romance brand with a loyal fan-following all over the world. We’re the romance experts! Our New Product team is bringing our coziest, monster-iest, darkest, rom-com-iest diverse-est, and often spiciest titles yet to new readers.

Reporting to the Product Manager, the Assistant Product Manager will be a key member of the Harlequin Brand Group working specifically within the Harlequin New Product team.

Responsibilities

This role involves:

Data-driven decision making

• On a weekly basis, explores sales and market data to provide meaningful insights and action steps to inform strategic acquisitions and increase profitability.
• Analyzes results across multiple KPIs from multiple data sources to understand short- and long-term performance trends, developing insights and recommending actions (e.g., acquisitions, pricing adjustments).
• Identifies areas where additional insights are needed and liaises with data science and sales teams to investigate further.

Strategy development & execution

• Develops and executes short- to medium-term product line strategy with product development team members, focusing on brand equity and author growth in print and digital channels for the North American market.
• Collaborates with art and editorial teams to create compelling, relatable, and saleable packaging for each title within a series, ensuring execution on brand, on positioning, and on time.
• Maintains deep knowledge of editorial content and range to collaborate with editors, ensuring books align with imprint strategy and are creatively positioned to target audience segments.
• Communicates product strategy and results to key stakeholders—up to the VP level—to secure buy-in on goals, strategy, and tactics.

Multi-stakeholder project management & influence

• Demonstrates strong self-sufficiency and accountability across multiple priorities and deadlines, coordinating various stakeholder groups to ensure successful execution.
• Applies intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) to create story-driven presentations and to manipulate and visualize data effectively.
• Leverages clear and concise communication skills to influence outcomes and align cross-functional stakeholders toward shared goals.

Ownership of market awareness

• Maintains ongoing awareness of the competitive, author, and consumer landscapes (romance and broader categories), identifying trends, validating opportunities, and adapting imprint strategy accordingly.

What’s In It For You?

• Summer Hours from late May to early September
• Hybrid work
• Paid time off days and vacation allotment, starting at three weeks
• Flexible benefit plans to fit your needs and pension matching
• Author events and access to free/discounted books

Qualifications

We are looking for an avid reader who resourcefully tackles challenges, loves staying in the know about books, and rallies teams with gusto. You are a Business, Marketing or Business Administration graduate with a minimum of two years working experience in a product management environment.

About HarperCollins Canada and Harlequin

Harlequin is a leading publisher of commercial fiction and narrative nonfiction. We publish more than 100 titles a month that reach audiences globally. Encompassing highly recognizable imprints that span a broad number of genres, we are home to many award-winning New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling authors. Harlequin is a division of HarperCollins Publishers, the second-largest consumer book publisher in the world. Through HarperCollins’s global publishing program, Harlequin titles are published in 17 countries and 16 languages.

Known worldwide for the quality of its list, HarperCollins Canada is the proud home of many bestselling and award-winning authors, including Esi Edugyan, Heather O’Neill, and Lawrence Hill. It is our vision to publish the best books of our generation and to work with authors over the length and breadth of their careers. Our authors are at the centre of everything we do. In addition to the Canadian publishing program, HarperCollins Canada is responsible for the sales, marketing, and publicity of HarperCollins titles from around the globe.

HarperCollins Canada and Harlequin are Equal Opportunity Employers committed to equal employment opportunities. Employment decisions are based on job requirements and the skills, knowledge, and experience of the candidate, regardless of any other factors unrelated to job performance.

We are also committed to ensuring that the accessibility needs of candidates and employees are considered and accommodated during the recruitment process.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.