Licensing Manager in London

IMG Licensing is the global leader in brand licensing, managing licensing programs for the world’s best-known brands and trademarks. With over 25 offices worldwide, IMG Licensing provides a unique one-stop-solution for innovative brand growth across a diverse portfolio of clients from business, entertainment, fashion, food, gaming and sports. IMG Licensing is part of WME Group, a global network of businesses that represent the world’s leading talent, intellectual property, and brands.

The Role And What You'll Be Doing:

We are seeking a commercially driven and highly organised Licensing Manager to support the growth and management of a dynamic portfolio of lifestyle, heritage, and food & beverage brands. This role is ideal for someone with licensing experience who enjoys balancing new business development, client management, commercial operations, and licensee relationships.

You will play a key role in identifying and securing new licensing opportunities, managing existing licensing partnerships, supporting financial performance, and ensuring the smooth administration of licensing agreements. Working closely with clients, licensees, legal, finance, marketing, and creative teams, you will help drive the overall success of our licensing programs.

• New Business Development: Ensuring that all sales materials are kept up to date and ready for prospecting. Lead in identifying new prospects, pitching and procuring deal proposals in key categories for the brands in question.
• Keep up to date matrices of existing and prospective licensee list, which aids the wider sales team by showing gaps/opportunities.
• Independently prospect and manage new deals and facilitate in the dealmaking process for the client program overall.
• Work with the creative and marketing teams to update sales presentation for the brands to help in new business opportunities with prospective licensees.
• Attend trade shows in relevant categories for new business opportunities.

• Licensee Management (commercial): Ensure that licensees are actively selling into territories and to retailers within their license agreement. Retail analysis and updates on where products are being sold, when the licensed products will be in retail how the brands are being positioned and reporting sell out and success data.
• Keep client tracker up to date to ensure the brand program is running effectively and efficiently, as well as providing a quick and easy to read source of all live contract commercial terms and business to date summary.
• Responsible for negotiating and closing all current licensee’s renewals/and or seeking replacement licensees for the client program.

• Financial Reporting & Analysis: Work closely with the finance team to keep on top of slow reporting/paying licensees. Quarterly finance reports and client/licensee biannual reports to monitor performance success/failures. In certain cases, expectation to create client revenue and royalty forecasting.

• Legal Administration: Management of contract generation with the legal team when a new deal is developed. Input deal terms on online platform for the negotiated commercial terms that need to be drafted into the contract. Review of contracts drafted by the legal team to make sure that all commercial terms have been accurately written before distributing contracts for signature. Ensure contracts are fully signed by both parties with hard copies provided to finance and legal for processing. Work with the legal and commercial teams to resolve any change requests and approve with the client.

• Client Management: Work closely with the Associate Vice President to manage communication with the client about their licensing program and licensee updates. Be the liaison between licensees, as well as internal service departments, such as legal and finance for the client. This will include weekly/monthly updates/reports to clients and/or client face to face meetings.

You'll Have These:

• Minimum of 2yrs experience in licensing, including but not limited to lifestyle, British and food & beverage brands.
• Experience and proven success in securing new licensees and expanding licensing programs.
• Highly organised, detailed, and adaptable. Ability to manage workload and switch between sales, brands, clients and licensees is essential.
• A quick learner and able to find solutions to problems.
• Team player but also able to use initiative and be proactive.
• Personality, attitude and enthusiasm are key to build trusting relationships with clients, licensees, new prospects and colleagues.
• Efficient in Word, PowerPoint, Excel and CRM systems.
• Good communicator and professional personal presentation.

How we work: WME Group is at the centre of sports, media, entertainment, and fashion and is a largely relationship-based business. To foster an environment of collaboration, develop our future talent, and build on relationships across leadership, peers, and teams, we work from the office 4 days per week. We see immeasurable value internally and throughout the core of the businesses we support.

Don’t meet every single requirement? We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

WME Group is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that encourages applications from qualified, eligible candidates from all backgrounds and life experiences regardless of race, gender identity, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, or belief. IMG Licensing is an equal opportunity employer that encourages applications from qualified, eligible candidates from all backgrounds and life experiences regardless of race, gender identity, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, or belief.