Studio co-ordinator

Closing date for applications: 27 June 2025

Salary: £27,000 -£33,000 dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

Support the award-winning design studio at Octopus Publishing that works across all titles, from contemporary fiction to illustrated cookery.

Octopus publish books for everyone. We love to enlighten, nourish, entertain and most of all inspire readers and listeners everywhere.

Octopus 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.

Octopus is a market-leading non-fiction publisher with a heritage of working with talented authors and strong brands. Our passion is for creating high-quality books with innovative design and vision for the widest possible market.

We publish a wide range of illustrated and non-illustrated books under three strands:

• Octopus Voices: the home of our narrative non-fiction publishing and our small, but growing fiction list
• Octopus Wellbeing: the home of our health and well being publishing
• Octopus Colour: the home of all our illustrated imprints

The Design department works across all Octopus publishing, from contemporary fiction and non fiction to art reference and cookery, responsible for covers for narrative books, and covers and interiors for illustrated books. We work closely with other departments, particularly Sales, Marketing & Publicity and Production.

What you'll be doing

Core to this role is supporting all administrative and operational duties relating to the design department. We are looking for someone who can quickly adapt to a varied and changing environment and loves collaborating and problem solving.

Key responsibilities:

• Studio Administration - Handle cover artwork approval, filing, invoices etc
• Scheduling - Communicate and chase deadlines, work with designers to keep our online database (biblio) up to date, keep track of schedule changes etc
• Meetings & Internal Relationships – organise our weekly covers meeting and be a point of contact for other departments

Who we are looking for

• Organised: You have strong planning, time management and organisation skills, and some understanding of budget management too – with the ability to re-prioritise as required.
• Measured: We want to track the success of our critical path so you are able to show and communicate the team's results.
• Accurate: You work to a high degree of accuracy and meet deadlines.
• Entrepreneurial: Every day, you spot opportunities to drive improvements and efficiencies.
• Proactive and Open: We want people who embrace innovative ideas, challenges and change with positivity and a hands-on approach.
• Teams are the new heroes: There is no better feeling than being part of a successful and dynamic team, so you recognise that teams are the real heroes and you'll build, encourage and maintain strong relationships across the business.
• Only Human: We all make mistakes, but you are not afraid of failure. You learn and show how the experience has helped the business learn for the future and benefitted all.
• Ambitious: You crave success, and Octopus is the place to achieve it. We will support you all the way and make sure you have the tools and development in place to help you succeed.
• Relevant: You have some knowledge of design within the Publishing industry and some experience of using Bibliographic systems.
• You. You are real. And you are true to yourself. We cherish and celebrate diversity so you will feel right at home whoever you are.

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
• Dental 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!

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.

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

Please include in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.