Deputy marketing director/marketing director (12 month FTC)

Closing date for applications: 16th January 2026

Salary: £60,000+ dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

Location: This role can be based at our London or Sheffield office with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week

Contract: 12-month fixed-term

Take the next step in your marketing career, shaping strategy and leading teams across a dynamic and diverse fiction and non-fiction portfolio.

The John Murray Group which encompasses John Murray Press, Quercus, John Murray specialist and Dialogue, is one of the fastest growing and most profitable divisions of Hachette UK, with imprints that encompass a range of bestselling, pioneering and prize-winning publishing. From incredible literary and commercial fiction to thought-provoking non-fiction, we are home to bestselling fiction brands such as Mick Herron, Elly Griffiths and Beth O’Leary and the biggest names in non-fiction including David Attenborough, Trevor Noah and Miriam Margolyes. We pride ourselves on being entrepreneurial, curious, and excited about discovering and nurturing new voices that can shape and shake our world.

The deputy/marketing director will join the team to cover a colleague’s maternity leave and help oversee the trade marketing department, devising and delivering the marketing strategy across our broad range of commercial and literary fiction and non-fiction. Reporting into the creative & marketing director, you’ll be full of energy and thrive on working with an engaged, passionate department. As this is an opportunity to manage and develop a team, you’ll be adept at building strong working relationships with your peers and other departments, and you will be someone with outstanding leadership skills and team management experience who strives for excellence.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a creative and talented head of marketing or deputy director equivalent to take the next step in their career, bringing your extensive line management experience, commercial expertise and creative spark to a great leadership role. You’ll be a highly organised and proactive individual with a meticulous eye for detail, fantastic sense of the market and excellent communication skills. You’ll be confident in leading a team, representing the needs and wants of the department and aligning these to the wider business goals, managing stakeholders at all levels of the business and bringing energy and passion to everything you do. Experience in commercial publishing is also desirable.


Responsibilities

• Working with the creative and marketing director to lead & develop the John Murray Group trade marketing team, driving excellence across everything we do
• Line management responsibility for approx. 4 marketers and overseeing a department of 10
• Overseeing first-class campaign delivery across our fiction and non-fiction lists, in addition to directly managing key brand and breakout campaigns
• This role has a particular emphasis on leading the marketing strategy for our commercial publishing (Quercus), maximising the value of our frontlist and backlist across all formats, overseeing the Quercus marketing budget and being a key voice in acquisitions
• This role will champion the importance of evaluating the efficacy of marketing activity, placing consumer insight and data analysis at the heart of everything the team do
• Liaison and relationship management with our media buying agency
• Oversee department strategy across digital promotions, AMS & communities’ growth
• Manage our proof, Netgalley & sustainability strategy
• Attend the Hachette Group marketing director meetings

Knowledge, skills & experience

• Significant marketing experience at a senior level in publishing
• Proven team and line management experience, supervising, managing and developing marketers
• Expert knowledge of target market and industry, with a particular focus on commercial publishing
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, you will be confident chairing meetings and expertly guiding the conversation
• Strong financial understanding and budget management skills
• Adaptable, organised, collaborative and an excellent problem-solver

What we offer

Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:

• 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
• Private medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Generous pension schemes
• Rent deposit loans
• 2 community days per year
• Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months)
• Retail discounts through Hachette rewards
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Eye care vouchers
• Wide-ranging training library
• Development programmes (including mentoring)
• Up to 70% off book purchases
• A charity bookshelf
• 12 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including AgeWise, Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

Our commitment

The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking junior roles. For more information visit www.booktradeentrysupport.org

Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds.If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.

Please state in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.