OTC technology manager (12 month FTC)

Closing date for applications: Friday 27th February 2026

Salary: £70,000 - £75,000 dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

Location: London

Lead Hachette UK’s technology team to keep critical business systems running smoothly while helping transform the company’s operations for the future.

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.

It's an exciting time to join our business because the publishing market continues to grow and thrive. The UK remains the largest exporter of physical books in the world and book adaptations for film and TV are the foundation of the UK's creative industries.

What you'll be doing

• Owning the design, integrity and performance of the OTC technology platform, supporting mission-critical services including sales order processing, inventory management, core finance integrations and customer service capabilities, ensuring BAU services remain stable and resilient throughout the S/4HANA transformation.
• Supporting the S/4HANA implementation in parallel, providing expert guidance on OTC processes, solution alignment, and transition readiness, while keeping day-to-day operations stable and fully accountable.
• Being accountable for the line management, capability and development of up to 12 FTE, covering SAP Functional Specialists, ABAP Developers and Basis Engineers, ensuring the team is structured, skilled and resourced to support both BAU operations and transformation activities.
• Ensuring effective engagement with the SAP RISE ECS team, establishing clear operational interfaces, escalation paths and ways of working, and acting as a key technology point of contact throughout the transition to S/4HANA.
• Working closely with the Head of Distribution & Finance Applications to define, agree and document clear roles and responsibilities for the OTC technology team in readiness for the S/4HANA transition, ensuring clarity between internal teams, SAP RISE services and delivery partners.
• Leading understanding and adoption of the SAP S/4HANA licensing model (FUE), establishing and maintaining a clear, accessible licensing and responsibility matrix, ensuring it is regularly referenced, kept up to date, and understood by relevant stakeholders.
• Being accountable for the identification, planning and delivery of OTC/SAP work packages within the approved IT Portfolio, including ownership of scope, risks, dependencies, timelines and financial management, balancing BAU priorities with programme demands.
• Acting as a member of the IT Management Team, contributing to the execution of the Group IT strategy and the ongoing development of the IT function, while fostering a diverse, inclusive, positive and high-performing culture.
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with business stakeholders, delivery partners and vendors, enabling effective prioritisation, transparent decision-making and the development of a rolling three-year OTC technology roadmap aligned to both operational and transformation needs.

These are the essential requirements of the role, however not an exhaustive list of duties. It is intended to reflect the nature, range, and context of the work, which will change over time.

What we are looking for

Experience/Knowledge

• Significant experience managing SAP-based OTC technology landscapes in a complex enterprise environment, with responsibility for business-critical BAU services.
• Proven people-management experience, leading multi-disciplinary teams (SAP Functional, ABAP and Basis) with accountability for performance, capability development and operational resilience.
• Hands-on experience supporting or delivering SAP S/4HANA programmes, including transition readiness, cutover planning, go-live support and post-implementation stabilisation.
• Strong understanding of SAP operating models, including experience working with external partners and managed service providers; experience of SAP RISE / ECS engagement is highly desirable.
• Knowledge of SAP licensing models, with experience interpreting, managing or governing licensing and usage (e.g. FUE), and translating this into clear guidance for delivery and BAU teams.
• Experience balancing BAU service ownership with transformation delivery, including prioritisation, risk management and stakeholder communication in change-heavy environments.
• Solid understanding of Order to Cash business processes, including order management, pricing, billing, credit, inventory and finance integrations.
• Experience of IT portfolio and financial management, including ownership of work packages, budget control, vendor spend and delivery governance.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with experience working at senior business and IT leadership levels to align technology delivery to business outcomes.
• Demonstrated commitment to inclusive leadership, with experience fostering diverse, engaged and high-performing teams.

Personal Attributes/Skills

• Calm, credible and resilient leader, able to maintain operational stability while operating in a high-change, delivery-focused environment.
• Strong ownership mindset, taking accountability for outcomes, service performance and team effectiveness rather than relying on escalation.
• Excellent stakeholder communicator, able to translate complex SAP and technology concepts into clear, pragmatic messages for business, delivery partners and senior leaders.
• Confident decision-maker, comfortable making informed trade-offs between BAU risk, delivery urgency and longer-term technical sustainability.
• Highly organised and structured, with the ability to manage competing priorities, dependencies and timelines across BAU operations and transformation programmes.
• Collaborative and influential, working effectively across IT, business functions, system integrators and SAP RISE services without formal authority.
• Proactive and pragmatic problem-solver, anticipating issues, identifying root causes and driving practical, sustainable solutions.
• Inclusive and values-led, actively promoting diversity, equity and inclusion through everyday leadership behaviours and team practices.
• Adaptable and delivery-oriented, able to quickly establish credibility, understand the landscape and add value in a fixed-term role.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, or a related discipline (or equivalent practical experience).
• Optional but desirable certifications: SAP S/4HANA, SAP RISE, or relevant cloud/technology certifications that support ERP delivery and managed service engagement.

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!

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.

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.