Senior designer (6 month FTC)

Closing date for applications: 2 November 2025

Salary: £39,000 - £44,000 pro-rata dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

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

Bring creative ideas to life across a diverse range of titles, designing books that stand out on the shelf.

Little, Brown's identity is personified by our innovative, dynamic and free-thinking people. Across our thirteen imprints, you won't find a wider range of titles anywhere in UK publishing. We pride ourselves on quality and diversity. A repeat recipient of the Publisher of the Year award, we're one of the most successful and dynamic publishers in the UK. Little, Brown 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

Reporting to the literary art director/creative director, you’ll be key in bringing our books to life, working alongside a team of highly creative, well regarded and hardworking designers who tackle the challenges for a diverse range of books. You will be a vital part of the team, expected to work across all our imprints, handling the creative process from initial brief to final artwork. You’ll work independently and have creative autonomy and the opportunity to commission illustrators, photographers and other designers. A major part of your day will be the development of great working relationships with our editorial teams where strong skills in conveying ideas and effectively interpreting feedback will be integral. You will also be key in providing support for and influencing the team.


Who we are looking for

This is an ideal opportunity for an experienced designer/art-director with broad experience to join our busy and creative department. You’ll be enthusiastic about the challenge of working across many publishing genres and look at pushing boundaries to help our books stand out. Your abilities will enable you to put yourself in the shoes of our readers and design a cover that strongly engages with them. You’ll need proven design experience, an impressive portfolio that demonstrates all your design talents, have a love for problem solving, possess great communication skills and have strong abilities to creatively respond to feedback. Adobe Creative Suite skills and an established knowledge of print and digital reproduction know-how is also essential.

In your application, please submit your CV, cover letter, and a 1-10 page PDF Portfolio of recent relevant work.


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

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.