Key account executive

Closing date for applications: 7th December 2025

Salary: £28,000 - £32,000 dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

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

Work at the heart of a major publishing powerhouse, supporting global partners and driving sales for books, puzzles, stationery, and more.

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.


What you'll be doing

Over the last few years we have grown our business with our imported, intercompany lists and the third party publishers we distribute. You will be working on a mix of book, and non-book products (games, puzzles, stationary) and with colleagues/publishers from all over the world (US, Singapore, India, Netherlands etc). The key responsibilities within the role are:

Intercompany: Paperblanks, Hachette Livre and Hachette India

• Be the main point of contact between these companies and our sales representatives
• Work with the operations team to ensure metadata is as accurate as possible
• Alongside the inventory team, assist with initial print numbers and forecasts during peak seasons
• Share any useful sales material with the team, ensuring they have everything they need for sell in
• Assist the Head of Imports in selling in to Waterstones
• Send sales reports and conduct analysis to better understand opportunities for growth

Third Party Clients: New Harbinger, BIS and Talisman

• Develop and manage relationships with these publishers
• Manage sales of the lists and be responsible for feedback on title metadata, pricing and pub dates
• Offer input on print numbers and monitor sales to key markets
• Schedule internal presentations twice a year
• Deal with general queries and attend regular meetings

Who we are looking for

• Strong organisational skills coupled with a keen eye for detail
• Great communication skills including the ability to build customer relationships
• An independent decision maker (within agreed parameters)
• Team player who is always willing to help
• Strong IT skills including Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook
• Commercial and analytical minded, able to analyse data to enhance sales and profitability
• Flexible, proactive and positive work ethic
• Good knowledge of the book and stationary market
• Demonstrable sales experience

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.