From 2001 to 2012, Jacqueline Harvey worked at Abbotsleigh School, Sydney. She retired as deputy head of the Junior School in late 2012 in order to pursue writing on a full-time basis.
Harvey began publishing for children in the early 2000s, with the Code Name series: Code Name Mr Right, Code Name Unwanted, and Code Name Rescue. Her 2005 picture book The Sound of the Sea was an honour book in the Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards in 2006.
In 2010, she began publishing the highly successful Alice-Miranda series of chapter books: they regularly appear on the honour lists and shortlists of children's choice awards, and have been shortlisted for such awards as the Australian Book Industry Awards and the Davitt Awards. In 2012, while still publishing the Alice-Miranda series, she began the Clementine Rose series.