Contracts Executive
Hachette UK is looking for a proactive and experience Contracts Executive to join our bustling Contracts & Business Affairs Team.
What you’ll be doing
Reporting to the Senior Manager, Contracts & Business Affairs (Octopus), the successful candidate will work closely with the Little, Brown, Dialogue and Octopus publishing teams as well as with colleagues in the Contracts & Business Affairs Department to:
- draft, review and negotiate contracts working within company policy and KPIs
- advise editorial and publishing teams on contractual elements of acquisitions
- draft, check and amend other associated contractual paperwork, including addenda, novations, reversions, cancellations and specified subsidiary rights contracts
- respond to internal and external contract queries
- work on ad hoc projects
- manage the Little, Brown, Dialogue and Octopus team logs
- working with the rights and royalties teams
- build and maintain successful working relationships with external business partners and colleagues at all levels of the Contracts & Business Affairs Department, Little, Brown, Dialogue and Octopus and other relevant HUK teams
The above list is not exhaustive or exclusive and the job holder will be required to undertake other such duties as may be reasonably required.
Who we are looking for
- Relevant experience in contracts (or business affairs/legal) in the publishing, media or entertainment sectors
- Detail orientated and highly organised
- Advanced skills in Microsoft Office 365
- Knowledge of, or aptitude for, relevant applications/systems
- Ability to communicate and build positive working relationship with contacts at all levels
- Commercial awareness and financial literacy
- Interest in copyright and contract law
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
- 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 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, Carmelite House, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.
Who we are and what we do
About Hachette UK
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 12 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; Quercus; Octopus, Bookouture and Dialogue Books. 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 Hodder Education 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.
Hachette UK is a leading UK publishing group. The group is made up of eleven autonomous publishing divisions and over fifty imprints with a rich and diverse history. The Contracts & Business Affairs Department powers the creative success of Hachette UK’s publishing divisions through technical expertise and sound commercial partnership. The department comprises a team of 20 who handle approximately 3500 contractual paperwork requests per annum, which include a wide variety of contracts with a focus on head agreements.
We are looking for an executive to work with the Little, Brown, Dialogue and Octopus divisions of HUK.
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 for 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