Senior Project Editor

Who we are and what we do

Octopus publish books for everyone. We love to enlighten, nourish, entertain and most of all inspire readers and listeners everywhere. We're a leading publisher of non-fiction books, working to publish exciting, market-leading books across our many unique imprints, including Philip's maps and guides. 

Octopus is a division of Hachette, one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, with 12 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.

We are looking for a Senior Project Editor to join a small, dynamic team that publishes a mix of MBS, wellbeing, cookery, gift, game and stationery titles - in both colour and mono -  for the trade, alongside developing titles for leading US coedition partners . 

Our team focuses on clever, timely and imaginative backlist reissues and reworks from our extensive archive, IP creation and creative reimaginings of classics.

Our recent titles include A Year in Story and Song, Stitch, How to Make Better Cocktails, and 50 Healing Plants – a botanical card deck published in association with Chelsea Physic Garden. Forthcoming titles include A Recipe for Every Day of the Year, Preserving and two card games – Who Am I?: Pop and Who Am I? Movies.

What you'll be doing

This is an exciting opportunity to make stand-out, package-led non-fiction books and gifts. 

You’ll work very closely with the Publisher as well as a Designer, and two more junior editors - providing guidance to colleagues when required and monitoring and championing the accuracy and quality of our titles.

You'll work independently to project manage more complex titles, including the briefing and management of appropriate freelancers, schedules and budgets.

Many more straightforward projects will be created entirely inhouse and you'll be copyediting, editing and proofreading as required.

Who we are looking for

To thrive in this role you will have a self-starting passion for making books of the highest quality, commercial awareness, and proven experience in four-colour publishing. You’ll be adept at managing a book from concept to finished copy, with excellent editorial skills and an eye for design and detail. We work fluidly in live files and you'll need to be at least intermediate (and ideally advanced-expert) in Adobe Indesign.

You’ll be overseeing the whole list and will need strong project management skills in order to shepherd a long and varied list of concurrent live projects and new pitches. You’ll be a great communicator and will build strong relationships with colleagues across business as well as authors, agents and freelancers.

Although it's not a requirement or expectation, we'd love to hear your ideas for future titles and on how to shape our list. We encourage creativity and imagination at every step.

In your application, please submit your CV, cover letter, and a Portfolio of recent relevant work (which is in the cover letter section).

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.

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