Head of sales/sales director (12 month FTC)

Closing date for applications: Sunday 8th March 2026

Salary: From £50,000 dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

Location: Based at our London or Sheffield office, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

Looking for a high-impact leadership role in publishing? Head up sales at Octopus Publishing Group and help deliver growth across the UK and beyond.

Hachette UK is a creative powerhouse and the UK's second largest book publishing group. Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity. We're made up of 10 autonomous publishing divisions and over 60 imprints with a rich and diverse history and an incredible range of authors. We're also the market leader in e-books and publish a range of bestsellers in audio format, the fastest growing part of our business.

Our award-winning adult publishing divisions are Orion, which won Publisher of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards; Little, Brown; John Murray Press; Hodder & Stoughton; Headline; Octopus, and Bookouture. They publish fiction and non-fiction in digital, audio and print format, from the world's best and most diverse authors, including Brit Bennett, Candice Carty-Williams, Martina Cole, Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Stephen King, Stieg Larsson, Nelson Mandela, Stephenie Meyer, Maggie O'Farrell, Delia Owens, Ian Rankin, J.K. Rowling, Colson Whitehead, and Malala Yousafzai. Hachette Children's Group publishes a wide and vibrant range of books for children across all age ranges, while Hachette Learning is a market leader in resources for both primary and secondary schools.

Hachette UK is part of Hachette Livre, the world's third largest trade and educational publisher. As well as our headquarters in Carmelite House, London, and our state-of-the-art book distribution centre in Didcot, Oxfordshire, we have recently opened five new offices in Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. The UK region also includes offices in Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, the Caribbean, and Ireland.

Octopus publish books for everyone. We love to enlighten, nourish, entertain and inspire readers and listeners everywhere. Across the three strands of our publishing - Octopus Colour, Octopus Wellbeing, and Octopus Voices - we publish a wide range of books from award-winning cookbooks and wellness titles to ground-breaking thought leadership and beautiful illustrated editions across interiors, gardening, fashion, music and lifestyle, as well as as a select list of fiction. Octopus is a dynamic, supportive and creative environment where ideas flourish and collaboration is key.

What you'll be doing

You will be responsible for the sales for Octopus Publishing Group in the UK and internationally, ensuring budget targets are met and exceeded. Working closely with the publishing team you will be a key voice in informing the publishing process from acquisitions to covers to print confirm meetings. You will work particularly closely with colleagues in Editorial, Marketing and Publicity teams to ensure that all aspects of publishing are aligned and editorial ambitions are connected to sales plans.

As part of the wider Group Sales team you will be a champion for Octopus's titles, ensuring targets and priorities are communicated and the teams are equipped with the best possible material to sell to their key customers and markets. You will define and deliver strategies across formats and markets, driving sales with enthusiasm and commercial expertise.

Who we are looking for

We are looking for a highly motivated, team player with a wide experience and knowledge of the market, to join the Hachette UK Group Sales Team on a 12 month fixed-term contract to cover a period of parental leave. You must be able to develop strong internal working relationships, be flexible, adaptable and positive, and be highly commercially aware.

Good, recent knowledge of the Non Fiction market, including Illustrated Non Fiction, is desirable.

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)
• 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

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.