Careers

Hachette Australia is the second largest publisher in Australia and part of the Hachette Livre Publishing group.

Just as our authors are important to us so is our staff. We aim for a non-corporate environment which is an enjoyable place to work each day. We go to great lengths to look after our employees, and to give our authors the best publishing experience in the industry.

Working at Hachette Australia not only comes with competitive salaries, and an industry-leading bonus plan, other benefits include; summertime working hours, paid parental leave schemes, and training opportunities.

If you are enthusiastic about publishing, hardworking, and looking for a great place to work, then you will enjoy being on our team.

Publishing Director

ABOUT THE ROLE
Hachette Australia is seeking a passionate and experienced Publishing Director to head our Australian and New Zealand Publishing Divisions. This is a wonderful opportunity for someone who is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about Australian publishing to lead a thriving and collaborative team of experienced Publishers, Editors, Production, Rights and Contract professionals. Combined with Board responsibilities, this role will be responsible for the creative vision, strategic direction, implementation, acquisition, execution, production, and delivery of books on the Australian Publishing list, as well as providing support to the Moa Press and Little Moa teams at Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand. This is a permanent full-time Board position, reporting directly to the CEO and located in our Sydney CBD office.

This role, alongside the CEO, is responsible for setting, meeting and exceeding company budgeted targets for Australian publications and for enhancing our reputation and brand on a global level. The Publishing Director will serve collaboratively with the Hachette Australia & New Zealand Executive Board to manage and exercise the organisation’s fiscal, administrative, legal, HR and Corporate Social Responsibility obligations, contributing to the overall strategic plans for our three businesses. Working collaboratively, this role will ensure that Hachette Australia meets and exceeds our commitment to diversity, equity, sustainability and the environment through our HR, acquisition, production, and management practices.

ABOUT YOU
You are a strategic connector who excels at bringing together the right people and ideas to deliver successful publishing projects. Your leadership nurtures a high-performance environment within your team, empowering every individual to reach their fullest potential. Relationships are key, and you can effectively manage multiple stakeholders, including authors, agents, publishers, and licensors, to secure the publication rights necessary for our success.

You bring a wealth of global experience and insight into the publishing landscape, particularly industry processes, evolving trends, and emerging opportunities. You have a strong understanding of commercial potential, financial management and reporting, P&L management and corporate governance.

A full job description outlining the responsibilities of the role will be provided at the interview stage.

WHAT WE OFFER
At Hachette, our people are our greatest assets, and our benefits reflect this. In addition to 20 days annual leave per year and public holidays, we have an extensive list of benefits that include: a wide-ranging training library, development programs including mentoring, up to 50% off book purchases, two community days per year to volunteer at your charity of choice, annual flu immunisation and skin check clinic, many employee networks to join, a blend of office-based (three days) and home-based working (two days) per week, work from home January, mental health support and awareness with free counselling and much more!

WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO
We seek out the best stories. We nurture them. Then we share them. Hachette Australia/NZ is a team of expert publishers, publishing professionals and passionate readers dedicated to discovering and supporting talented writers and illustrators in working with them to craft exceptional stories. We select the very best, whatever the genre – from bestselling commercial fiction to literary prize-winners, award-winning children’s books to attention-grabbing memoirs and eye-catching history, lifestyle and sport. And then we pour 100 years of publishing excellence into every page, bringing them to readers in the formats they love.

We are proud to have discovered, nurtured and shared some of the most exciting and bestselling authors in Australia including Geraldine Brooks, Michael Robotham, Joanna Nell, Favel Parrett, Davina Bell, Jessica Townsend, and Peter FitzSimons.  In Australia, we are incredibly committed to seeking out and developing diverse writing talent and publishing stories that reflect the experiences of all Australians. Our ambition is for our staff, our publishing, our authors, illustrators, and designers to reflect the society we live in, and our Changing the Story initiative was created to have impactful, meaningful and sustainable change in all areas of diversity, equity and inclusion.

OUR COMMITMENT
Hachette employs people based on 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 an interview, please let us know.

APPLICATIONS
If you’re interested in working in our great Sydney CBD location and being the first to hear about and read the biggest and best books in the world, then please submit a resume and a cover letter which outlines your suitability for the role to careers@hachette.com.au by COB Wednesday May 22.  Please note, due to the volume of applications only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Summer Internship Program

Applications for Hachette Australia’s annual paid summer internship program are now closed. Check back next year for our 2024-2025 round.

Launched in 2020, the summer internship program is for anyone interested in a career in publishing. The full-time internship runs for four months, comes with an entry-level remuneration, and is offered each summer. No formal qualifications are necessary.

The Hachette Australia Summer Internship Program provides both a broad understanding of the trade publishing business and a deep dive into how the various departments within a commercial publishing house work together to take books to market – and ultimately into the hands of readers.

To help demystify working in Australian publishing and make the industry more accessible to people from a wide range of backgrounds and skillsets, Hachette Australia has also developed a local Guide to Publishing brimming with information about what life is like working inside a publishing house. Full details on the internship and Guide can be found here. 

Watch our 2022 virtual guide and Inside the Publisher Q&A 2023 for prospective interns and people interested to learn more about working in publishing. You can also read our Frequently Asked Questions.

A Guide to Publishing

This booklet will show you what publishing is, what publishers do and how you can have a rewarding career in publishing – whatever your skills or background.

Read the PDF.

Internships

Hachette Australia supports the Open Book Internship, a new paid internship program aimed at fostering cultural diversity in the Australian publishing industry. Please click here for more information and to apply.