Role overview

The Advanced Specialist, Global Contract Operations is a senior individual contributor within the Global Rights & Royalties Contract Processing Hub. This role provides expert oversight of complex agreement review, approval, contract and product administration, operational suspense resolution, vendor-related contract data, and author or Portfolio queries across supported geographies and lines of business. Operating with a high degree of autonomy, you will review and approve high-profile and non-standard author agreements, make standard and non-standard operational recommendations, protect contractual and financial data integrity, and ensure that turnaround time, service-level, and internal-control commitments are achieved.

You will understand how contract operations connects to royalty calculations, product structures, author payments, and the wider business. You will act as a trusted subject-matter expert, lead contract-related improvement initiatives, provide clear performance insights to stakeholders, and strengthen team capability through peer review, mentoring, and technical guidance. This is an advanced specialist role and does not carry formal line-management accountability.

What success looks like

High-profile, complex, and non-standard agreements are reviewed and approved accurately, within SLA, and with complete supporting evidence.
Contract and product data is complete, current, and reliable across relevant systems, enabling accurate downstream royalty calculations and author payouts.
Contract-related suspense items are researched and resolved accurately, with sales allocated to the correct product, author, and agreement.
Peer audits, quality reviews, and controls identify risk before it affects financial results, royalty statements, or author experience.
Backlogs, turnaround time, and service levels are actively managed, with priorities and dependencies made visible to the Manager and stakeholders.
Author, Portfolio, and business queries receive clear, timely, and evidence-based responses.
Dashboards and reporting provide meaningful insight into volumes, SLA, quality, exceptions, trends, and improvement opportunities.
Junior colleagues receive effective mentoring and feedback that improves quality, judgment, and consistency.

Key responsibilities

and accountabilities

Complex Agreement Review and Approval

Perform comprehensive review and approval of executed publishing agreements, amendments, addenda, and related documentation, with particular focus on high-profile authors and complex or non-standard terms.
Validate key contractual, financial, rights, territory, format, product, royalty-rate, advance, and payment attributes before approval or release for downstream use.
Assess the completeness and operational usability of documentation and coordinate clarification with Portfolio, Editorial, Legal, or other accountable owners.
Make evidence-based standard and non-standard operational recommendations within delegated authority and escalate legal, policy, or commercial interpretation when required.
Maintain a clear audit trail of the agreement review, exceptions, clarification, approval, and correction process.

Peer Audit, Quality Assurance and Controls

Conduct risk-based peer audits of approved agreements to confirm contractual, financial, and system accuracy.
Review work completed by junior colleagues and provide clear corrective guidance, coaching, and quality feedback.
Ensure segregation of duties, delegated authority, approval evidence, and other internal controls are consistently applied.
Analyze defects and repeat errors, identify root causes, and implement preventive actions, targeted reviews, or knowledge interventions.
Protect the quality of tasks and advice provided by self and others while maintaining accountability with the original process owner.

Contract and Product Administration

Oversee accurate contract and product setup, maintenance, indexing, archival, and linkage across approved contract, rights, and royalty administration systems.
Ensure product and agreement relationships are correctly structured to support royalty processing, reporting, and author payments.
Validate approved changes and corrections across relevant records and confirm that downstream impacts are addressed.
Maintain reliable operational records, trackers, repositories, and supporting documentation in line with retention and data-privacy requirements.
Provide expert operational advice on product structures, agreement setups, and processing dependencies.

Contract-Related Suspense Management

Lead the investigation of complex sales held in suspense, particularly items affecting high-profile authors or material royalty outcomes.
Research executed agreements, amendments, product records, system data, and supporting evidence to identify the correct product, author, and agreement allocation.
Coordinate required clarification with Contracts, Portfolio, Editorial, Rights, Royalties, or Legal and document the approved treatment.
Enable accurate clearance or allocation of suspense items and maintain a complete evidence trail for the operational decision.
Analyze recurring suspense causes and recommend preventive improvements to contract setup, product administration, data quality, or upstream processes.

SLA, Turnaround Time and Workflow Oversight

Monitor agreement-processing volumes, turnaround time, service levels, ageing, exceptions, and priority commitments across assigned geographies or lines of business.
Work with the Manager to organize and assign work, rebalance priorities, and address capacity or dependency risks according to business demand.
Meet or exceed individual agreement-review and approval commitments and support consistent team achievement of agreed SLAs.
Escalate material backlog, control, system, or stakeholder risks early, supported by impact analysis and recovery actions.
Keep standard operating procedures, job aids, checklists, and control documentation aligned with current processes and service expectations.

Data Governance, Analytics and Reporting

Promote strong data governance within Contract Operations and ensure contract and product information remains accurate, complete, consistent, and current.
Perform data maintenance and validation exercises and coordinate remediation of identified gaps or anomalies.
Use analytics and reporting tools to produce dashboards and management information covering key performance indicators, quality, SLA, volumes, ageing, trends, and exceptions.
Turn operational data into clear insights and recommendations for the Manager and business stakeholders.
Present team performance, risk, and value-delivery updates through clear, data-led business presentations.

Stakeholder, Author and Portfolio Support

Act as a subject-matter expert for assigned geographies or business areas and build trusted relationships across multiple lines of business.
Respond to complex author, agent, Portfolio, and internal stakeholder queries with timely, accurate, and evidence-based communication.
Collaborate with Royalties and connected functions to support accurate contractual treatment and timely author payouts.
Explain contract-processing requirements, risks, dependencies, and recommended options to technical and non-technical audiences.
Influence resolution through subject expertise and constructive challenge, without relying on formal authority.

Projects, Technology and Continuous Improvement

Lead or provide senior specialist support for strategic initiatives, contract migrations, new business onboarding, and process transformation.
Partner with technology teams to investigate system or data defects, define operational requirements, and validate sustainable solutions.
Support user acceptance testing, implementation readiness, defect validation, and post-implementation review.
Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate agreement review, product administration, quality assurance, and related processes.

Deputy Manager, Financial Operations

Get Started

Job Description