Closing date for applications: 15 October 2025
Salary: £33,000-£37,000 pro-rata, dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)
Location: This role can be based at our London or Sheffield office, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week. This is a part-time position, where you will work 28 hours per week.
Bring your imagination, editorial vision and passion for illustration to an award-winning picture book list and take the editorial lead in bringing unforgettable stories to life.
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 11 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
Are you an imaginative and experienced picture book editor with an eye for a great text and a passion for illustration? Do you have a successful track record of taking books from acquisition to publication?
Hachette Children’s Books is looking for a creative senior editor to join their picture book team, on a parental leave contract starting in January 2026. Reporting to the editorial director of picture books, you will be the editorial lead on a range of picture book titles, working collaboratively with authors, illustrators and agents to create the best possible books on an award-winning and bestselling list. Liaising closely with your design colleagues at every stage, you will be responsible for delivering the books on time and on budget. You’ll read and review picture book submissions, negotiate on contracts and champion titles at meetings. You will be someone with a wealth of ideas, and a collaborative, organised and imaginative approach.
Who we are looking for
We are looking for an experienced acquirer and editor of picture books, with excellent project management and editorial skills. A good understanding of the design and illustration process will be necessary, as will good knowledge of the children’s market. We’re looking for someone highly organised who is passionate about books for young readers, and who enjoys working as part of a team.
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.