This is an exciting opportunity to join HarperCollins Publishers — one of the world's leading publishing houses — as a Contracts Executive within the Legal & Contracts team, based at our offices at London Bridge. Working closely with the Contracts Manager, you will play a central role in the full lifecycle of publishing contracts, from advising commissioning editors at the earliest stages of acquisition through to drafting and negotiating agreements with authors, agents, and publishers. The role offers genuine breadth, spanning acquisition contracts, rights agreements, permissions, and — as your confidence grows — the opportunity to take on dedicated responsibility for supporting an entire editorial department as their primary contracts contact.

Key tasks and accountabilities

• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating contracts with authors, agents, and publishers

• Advising commissioning editors on commercial and contractual terms at the pre-acquisition stage

• Reviewing and providing guidance on rights agreements for the Rights department

• Acting as first point of contact for an editorial department on contract and deal-related queries

• Liaising with colleagues at all levels, from editorial assistants to Publishing Directors

• Anticipating contractual issues and proactively offering solutions

• Processing reversion requests, permissions, and issuing ISBNs

• Supporting the senior team with management information and ad hoc requests

Skills required

• Working knowledge of copyright and contract law, and the confidence to apply it in a fast-paced commercial environment

• Strong drafting and negotiation skills, with the ability to handle complex agreements independently

• Clear and effective communicator — able to translate legal and contractual concepts for non-legal colleagues at all levels

• Proactive and solutions-focused, with the ability to anticipate problems before they escalate

• Comfortable managing multiple priorities and deadlines without losing attention to detail

• Collaborative by nature, with a track record of building trusted working relationships both within and outside a team

• Resilient and adaptable — able to remain calm and objective under pressure or when facing pushback

• Curious and commercially minded, with a genuine interest in staying ahead of legal and industry developments

Benefits

• Hybrid working model (3 days in the office)

• 28 days holiday plus bank holidays (option to buy and sell holiday days)

• Enhanced pay for maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave

• Private healthcare cover and life assurance

• Summer Hours

• Free access to HeadSpace, employee assistance programme (24 hour helpline), mental health first aiders, and a wellbeing portal

• Season ticket loans (from day 1 for entry level) and cycle to work scheme

• Relocation Rent Support Loan

• Employee networks: HC All In (open forum), Elevate (for ethnic minority colleagues), HarperParents, Menopause at Work, Pride at HC, Social Mobility Network and Neurodiversity at Work

• Unlimited training on our Learning and Development portal, management courses (up to MA level) and mentoring programmes

• Virtual GP and eyecare vouchers

• Gym membership discount

• Onsite physiotherapy (London only)

• Charitable donation matching and 2 volunteering days

• We're a certified Carbon Neutral company

• Free e-books and audiobooks, digital newspaper subscriptions and discounts on books

• Subsidised canteen and retail discounts

• Onsite prayer room

At HarperCollins, we value authenticity and integrity in our recruitment process. To ensure a fair and accurate evaluation of all applications, we ask that all responses to assessment questions reflect your own thoughts, experiences, and capabilities.  This allows us to fairly assess your knowledge, skills, and experience to determine how they align with the role. We value diverse perspectives and genuine contributions, even if answers are not perfect. The use of AI tools or external assistance to generate responses is discouraged unless explicitly permitted for specific tasks.

If you wish to discuss anything regarding this position and/or your application to this role, please reach out directly to stephanie.jemmett@harpercollins.co.uk with subject heading ‘Vacancy Query’ plus the job title and we will aim to get back to you within 5 working days.

Please note, if you are interested in the role you would need to submit your application via Applied. We do not accept email applications.