Job Description

Role overview

The Deputy Manager, Financial Operations is a senior individual contributor within Global Rights & Royalties. This role owns complex royalty data analysis, supplier and royalty reconciliations, database integrity, advance and earnings payments, and the accurate application of agreement and product structures across multiple geographies. Working with a high degree of autonomy, you will lead payout-based projects, make standard and non-standard operational recommendations, and provide trusted advice on royalty processing, product structures, and payment setups. You will partner with business and technology stakeholders to resolve complex issues, strengthen data quality, and ensure that royalty outcomes align with contractual requirements and business objectives.

You will also work closely with the Manager to monitor critical deliverables, maintain transparent progress reporting, lead quality and validation activities, prepare preliminary transaction reporting, and improve the capability of the wider team through mentoring and technical guidance.

Responsibilities

Royalty Data Integrity and Calculation Assurance
Analyze complex royalty data and validate the integrity of the royalty calculations database and connected operational records.
Ensure royalty calculations, statement outputs, advances, and earnings payments reflect approved agreement terms, product structures, and payment setups.
Conduct routine and risk-based quality checks, control reviews, and data validation exercises across high-value or complex royalty activity.
Identify data gaps, anomalous results, and processing risks; assess root causes and coordinate corrective action before release or payment.
Maintain clear, audit-ready evidence of analysis, validation, decisions, approvals, and adjustments.
Reconciliations, Supplier Accounts and Payments
Lead the reconciliation of royalty supplier accounts, statements, advances, earnings, and related balances, identifying and resolving discrepancies promptly.
Maintain supplier and payment-related records and ensure accurate, authorized, and complete system entries.
Oversee complex royalty statement and payment processing, ensuring compliance with contractual terms, operating procedures, and relevant controls.
Review unusual, high-value, or non-standard payment scenarios and make recommendations within delegated authority.
Escalate legal interpretation, tax, policy, or commercial decisions to the accountable specialist or business owner with a clear statement of facts and impact.
Global Payout Projects and Operational Delivery
Lead or provide senior specialist support for payout-based projects across multiple geographies, from analysis and planning through validation and controlled delivery.
Define operational requirements, dependencies, risks, control points, and acceptance criteria in partnership with the Manager and project stakeholders.
Monitor milestones, exceptions, and actions, communicating progress and decision requirements clearly and early.
Coordinate cross-functional inputs to ensure project outcomes align with business objectives, contractual requirements, and operational readiness.
Conduct post-implementation review and translate lessons learned into stronger processes, controls, and documentation.
Advisory Support on Agreements and Product Structures
Provide expert operational advice on royalty payouts, product structures, agreement terms, and payment setups to support accurate processing and informed business decisions.
Assess the operational impact of proposed or existing structures and highlight dependencies, limitations, risks, and downstream consequences.
Partner with Portfolio, Editorial, Rights, Royalties, Finance, Legal, and other owners to clarify requirements and support correct system treatment.
Distinguish operational application from formal legal or commercial interpretation and route decisions to the appropriate accountable owner when required.
Promote consistent application of approved standards across markets, products, and royalty processes.
Stakeholder, Author and OneCRM Escalation Management
Provide timely, clear, and evidence-based responses to complex stakeholder, author, and agent inquiries.
Ensure prompt and high-quality action on OneCRM tickets, prioritizing material, aged, or recurring escalations and driving them to resolution.
Analyze escalation trends to identify systemic issues, control weaknesses, and opportunities to improve author experience.
Build trusted relationships across internal and external stakeholder groups and influence resolution of complex operational matters.
Communicate risks, trade-offs, and recommendations in a way that enables timely decisions.
Technology Partnership and Sustainable Issue Resolution
Partner with technical teams and business stakeholders to investigate data inquiries, system defects, interface issues, and processing anomalies.
Translate operational and contractual requirements into clear business scenarios, expected outcomes, and validation criteria.
Support root-cause analysis, solution design, testing, and implementation validation to ensure issues are resolved sustainably.
Challenge temporary workarounds where they introduce control or scalability risk and recommend practical long-term solutions.
Contribute to automation, reporting-tool development, data governance, and process standardization initiatives.
Reporting, Controls and Audit Readiness
Prepare preliminary reports, summaries, and analysis of royalty transactions, reconciliations, exceptions, and payout activity for team and management review.
Work with the Manager to monitor key tasks, service levels, risks, backlogs, and project progress, ensuring accurate and transparent reporting.
Maintain adherence to policies, procedures, approvals, contractual requirements, data privacy obligations, and regulatory standards.
Prepare complete documentation and work papers for author audits, internal reviews, external audits, and control testing.
Identify and communicate emerging risks or unusual circumstances, supported by impact analysis and recommended actions.
Technical Leadership and Team Capability
Provide day-to-day technical guidance, mentoring, and constructive quality feedback to junior colleagues and peers.
Help ensure the quality of tasks, analysis, and advice provided by self and others without formal line-management accountability.
Share specialized knowledge through coaching, process documentation, case reviews, and learning sessions.
Promote strong ownership, customer focus, control discipline, and continuous improvement across the team.
Support the Manager in prioritizing complex work and building resilient operational capability.

Qualifications

Essential Qualifications and Experience
Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Commerce, Business Administration or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
Substantial relevant experience in royalty operations, financial operations, publishing, rights administration, or a comparable complex transaction environment.
Experience in publishing, rights, or royalties is strongly preferred.
Demonstrated expertise in royalty or financial data analysis, reconciliations, payment processing, database validation, and complex discrepancy resolution.
Experience leading projects, workstreams, or material operational deliverables across multiple stakeholders or geographies.
Experience providing technical guidance or mentoring to colleagues and improving the quality of team outputs.
Strong experience managing internal and external stakeholders and communicating complex information, risks, and recommendations.
Preferred Experience
Knowledge of royalty calculations, author agreements, product structures, advances, earnings payments, and intellectual property management tools.
Experience with supplier account maintenance, OneCRM or comparable case-management workflows, author inquiries, and escalations.

Job Description

Role overview

Responsibilities

Royalty Data Integrity and Calculation Assurance
Analyze complex royalty data and validate the integrity of the royalty calculations database and connected operational records.
Ensure royalty calculations, statement outputs, advances, and earnings payments reflect approved agreement terms, product structures, and payment setups.
Conduct routine and risk-based quality checks, control reviews, and data validation exercises across high-value or complex royalty activity.
Identify data gaps, anomalous results, and processing risks; assess root causes and coordinate corrective action before release or payment.
Maintain clear, audit-ready evidence of analysis, validation, decisions, approvals, and adjustments.
Reconciliations, Supplier Accounts and Payments
Lead the reconciliation of royalty supplier accounts, statements, advances, earnings, and related balances, identifying and resolving discrepancies promptly.
Maintain supplier and payment-related records and ensure accurate, authorized, and complete system entries.
Oversee complex royalty statement and payment processing, ensuring compliance with contractual terms, operating procedures, and relevant controls.
Review unusual, high-value, or non-standard payment scenarios and make recommendations within delegated authority.
Escalate legal interpretation, tax, policy, or commercial decisions to the accountable specialist or business owner with a clear statement of facts and impact.
Global Payout Projects and Operational Delivery
Lead or provide senior specialist support for payout-based projects across multiple geographies, from analysis and planning through validation and controlled delivery.
Define operational requirements, dependencies, risks, control points, and acceptance criteria in partnership with the Manager and project stakeholders.
Monitor milestones, exceptions, and actions, communicating progress and decision requirements clearly and early.
Coordinate cross-functional inputs to ensure project outcomes align with business objectives, contractual requirements, and operational readiness.
Conduct post-implementation review and translate lessons learned into stronger processes, controls, and documentation.
Advisory Support on Agreements and Product Structures
Provide expert operational advice on royalty payouts, product structures, agreement terms, and payment setups to support accurate processing and informed business decisions.
Assess the operational impact of proposed or existing structures and highlight dependencies, limitations, risks, and downstream consequences.
Partner with Portfolio, Editorial, Rights, Royalties, Finance, Legal, and other owners to clarify requirements and support correct system treatment.
Distinguish operational application from formal legal or commercial interpretation and route decisions to the appropriate accountable owner when required.
Promote consistent application of approved standards across markets, products, and royalty processes.
Stakeholder, Author and OneCRM Escalation Management
Provide timely, clear, and evidence-based responses to complex stakeholder, author, and agent inquiries.
Ensure prompt and high-quality action on OneCRM tickets, prioritizing material, aged, or recurring escalations and driving them to resolution.
Analyze escalation trends to identify systemic issues, control weaknesses, and opportunities to improve author experience.
Build trusted relationships across internal and external stakeholder groups and influence resolution of complex operational matters.
Communicate risks, trade-offs, and recommendations in a way that enables timely decisions.
Technology Partnership and Sustainable Issue Resolution
Partner with technical teams and business stakeholders to investigate data inquiries, system defects, interface issues, and processing anomalies.
Translate operational and contractual requirements into clear business scenarios, expected outcomes, and validation criteria.
Support root-cause analysis, solution design, testing, and implementation validation to ensure issues are resolved sustainably.
Challenge temporary workarounds where they introduce control or scalability risk and recommend practical long-term solutions.
Contribute to automation, reporting-tool development, data governance, and process standardization initiatives.
Reporting, Controls and Audit Readiness
Prepare preliminary reports, summaries, and analysis of royalty transactions, reconciliations, exceptions, and payout activity for team and management review.
Work with the Manager to monitor key tasks, service levels, risks, backlogs, and project progress, ensuring accurate and transparent reporting.
Maintain adherence to policies, procedures, approvals, contractual requirements, data privacy obligations, and regulatory standards.
Prepare complete documentation and work papers for author audits, internal reviews, external audits, and control testing.
Identify and communicate emerging risks or unusual circumstances, supported by impact analysis and recommended actions.
Technical Leadership and Team Capability
Provide day-to-day technical guidance, mentoring, and constructive quality feedback to junior colleagues and peers.
Help ensure the quality of tasks, analysis, and advice provided by self and others without formal line-management accountability.
Share specialized knowledge through coaching, process documentation, case reviews, and learning sessions.
Promote strong ownership, customer focus, control discipline, and continuous improvement across the team.
Support the Manager in prioritizing complex work and building resilient operational capability.

Qualifications

Essential Qualifications and Experience
Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Commerce, Business Administration or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
Substantial relevant experience in royalty operations, financial operations, publishing, rights administration, or a comparable complex transaction environment.
Experience in publishing, rights, or royalties is strongly preferred.
Demonstrated expertise in royalty or financial data analysis, reconciliations, payment processing, database validation, and complex discrepancy resolution.
Experience leading projects, workstreams, or material operational deliverables across multiple stakeholders or geographies.
Experience providing technical guidance or mentoring to colleagues and improving the quality of team outputs.
Strong experience managing internal and external stakeholders and communicating complex information, risks, and recommendations.
Preferred Experience
Knowledge of royalty calculations, author agreements, product structures, advances, earnings payments, and intellectual property management tools.
Experience with supplier account maintenance, OneCRM or comparable case-management workflows, author inquiries, and escalations.

Deputy Manager, Financial Operations

Get Started

Job Description

Role overview

Responsibilities

Qualifications

Deputy Manager, Financial Operations

Get Started

Job Description

Role overview

Responsibilities

Qualifications