Licensing executive (6 month FTC)

Closing date: 5 June 2026

Salary: £30,000 to £33,000, dependent on experience (+bonus +benefits)

Contract: Fixed-term for 6 months

Looking to build a career in publishing rights and licensing? Hachette Children’s Group is seeking a Licensing Executive to join its Media Rights team on a six-month fixed-term contract, supporting the licensing of merchandise, stage, audio, partnerships and live events across a hugely recognisable list of children’s brands and authors.

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

The Licensing Executive (6-month FTC) works with the Head of Licensing, the Director of Media Rights and Licensing Coordinator in licensing ancillary rights (merchandise, stage, audio, partnerships, educational and live events) for HCG and Enid Blyton titles.

The Licensing Executive will be responsible for managing all aspects of licensing projects assigned to them, including procuring new deals, negotiating contracts, coordinating approvals and managing stakeholders, supported by the Head of Licensing.

The Licensing Executive will drive new business by undertaking business development research to identify new business growth areas and develop new customer leads.

Additionally, the Licensing Executive will provide limited administrative support to the Head of Licensing and the Director of Media rights, especially on film/TV projects.

Duties will include:

Business development/revenue generation

• Researching business growth areas and identifying potential licensees in the UK and internationally
• Generating leads and building relationships with new licensees in the UK and internationally
• Negotiating commercial terms and contracts for assigned projects (with support from Head of Licensing)
• Coordinating licensing approvals

Client duties

• Day to day management of relationships with merchandise, partnership and stage licensees for assigned projects
• Day to day management of relationships with key stakeholders (including authors, illustrators, agents and copyright holders, as appropriate) for assigned projects

Administrative support

• CRM database: taking meeting minutes, inputting to system, logging and tracking deals
• Inputting deals on Biblio and raising advance invoices
• Ensuring all royalty statements are sent to Royalties team and invoiced in a timely fashion
• Booking meetings
  
  

Who we are looking for

• Excellent communication skills
• Highly organised and able to multi-task
• Eager and motivated to find new contacts, build relationships and secure new deals
• Extremely commercial in outlook
• Able to manage projects independently
• Computer skills – Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Knowledge of publishing systems (e.g., Biblio) would be a plus
• Experience and/or contacts in the merchandise or stage industries would be beneficial

Experience: This is not an entry level role. Experience in a licensing or publishing rights role to assistant level at minimum is required, preferably coordinator or above.

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
• An active range of staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including AgeWise, Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing, Women in Techand religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

The role will 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.

We want everyone to have the opportunity to perform at their best during our recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, you can let us know at the ‘Reasonable Adjustments’ section of your application. We’ll make sure you’re supported throughout the process.

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

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