Editorial director

Closing date for applications: Wednesday 18th February 2026

Salary: £45,000 to £55,000+ dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

Location: London

Take a senior editorial role at the heart of children’s publishing, driving the growth of bestselling picture book brands.

Hachette Children's Group is one of the UK's largest children's publishers, our mission is to make it easy for children and young people everywhere to access books and see themselves reflected. We aim to maximise our readers' life chances by inspiring a lifelong love of reading, publishing books for every stage of their journey to adulthood from Enid Blyton to Alice Oseman's Heartstopper. Hachette Children's Group is a division of Hachette, one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, with 10 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.

What you'll be doing

Are you a highly motivated and experienced commissioner of picture books with a proven track record of working with well-known authors and illustrators? Are you a confident and collaborative editor with a head for strategy, committed to publishing the very best stories to delight young minds?

Hachette Children’s Books is seeking a self-starting Editorial Director of Brands to join their Picture Book team. Working closely with the Preschool and Picture Book Publisher, you will be responsible for delivering growth across an award-winning, bestselling list of established and growing brands. You’ll commission, acquire, and edit new books, while implementing strategic thinking and identifying new opportunities. This role will see you maximise the potential of the brand list, building strong relationships with authors and illustrators, alongside internal and external stakeholders.

This is a brilliant opportunity for someone with energy and enthusiasm, creative vision, excellent interpersonal skills and an ambitious mindset.

Who we are looking for

We are looking for a proactive and experienced acquirer, commissioner and editor of picture books with a successful history of working with established authors and illustrators. Knowledge and commercial judgement of the Children’s market both in the UK and internationally will be essential, and a thorough understanding of contracts with proven negotiation skills is a must. The ability to work closely and collaboratively with authors, illustrators, agents and broader stakeholders will be key, as will high-level communication, project management and organisational skills. We’re looking for someone with passion and flair to drive the continued growth of our picture book brand publishing.

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!

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

Our commitment

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 your interview, please let us know.

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

We welcome and encourage applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries.

Please make sure that you state in your application that you found this role via Creative Access.