Senior Director of Operations, Commercial Affairs

Music is Universal. It’s the passionate and dedicated team at Universal Music who help make us the world’s leading music company. From A&R to finance, legal to digital, sales to marketing, Universal Music is the place to grow and develop your career within a truly commercial and innovative business that leads in everything it does.

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, age, marital status, background, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities. We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought within our teams and are fully committed to embracing the talents of people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and other forms of neurocognitive variation. We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to recruitment, workplaces, and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles.

The Commercial Affairs department at UMG oversees our commercial activities around the world, helping deliver our artists in the best possible way to the global audience. We work with all of our labels to create effective commercial campaigns across all of the artists on the roster, as well as working with distributed labels on their artists. We are a fast moving, dynamic department where high performing individuals can thrive. Intelligence and creativity are required and rewarded; agile thinkers only should apply.

The primary role of the Director of Operations will be to oversee the international commercial planning of new product releases, working with all repertoire owners and 3rd party distributed labels to help maximise the commercial potential of UMG repertoire outside of the home market via the global territories. Responsibilities include:

• Drive and support the Ownership business, primarily working with our owned channels (D2C) to ensure that the right products, both music and merchandise, are created and sold around the world.
• Working hand in hand with the analysis team to provide data to the repertoire owners, advising key artist release plans regarding formats, timing, and required assets to maximise every release.
• Regular reporting back to repertoire owners on performance of their repertoire to evaluate and further advise on future commercial opportunities.
• Working with the US commercial team to build global priority release schedules, responsible for communication and co-ordination of all new release plans between Commercial Affairs departments internally and internationally.
• Liaison with supply chain on high security protocol and all high security releases to ensure the balance between stock availability, required levels of security, and cost effectiveness.
• Through constant demand analysis, work with repertoire owners and supply chain to maximise sales and minimise obsolescence.
• Approvals of all cost of product, involving liaison with the pricing team.
• Work with the global CRM team to ensure that messaging drives the right commercial results.
• Management and appraisal of all Content Approval from international repertoire owners.

Must Have Skills and Experience Required:

• Previous music business experience at a senior level in both commercial and International marketing roles.
• Demonstrated ability to bring a project to market from origination and understand the full commercial exploitation throughout the lifecycle.
• Experience in senior positions with responsibilities over staff members and ability to build effective relationships.
• Strong commercial sensibilities with wide-ranging knowledge of all music business revenues.
• Previous experience of managing budgets and responsibilities to deliver profitable business opportunities.
• In-depth knowledge of the commercials behind both the physical and digital business.
• Ability to interpret data and make commercial recommendations based on analysis.
• Excellent communication skills – keeping relevant parties updated and informed appropriately while balancing confidentiality and commercial sensitivities.
• Degree level education (ideally in a numerate or scientific subject).
• High level of Excel skills and all-round mathematical ability.
• High level of presentational skills (Keynote, Powerpoint) with the ability to present effectively and engagingly to a range of audience at a senior level.

Nice To Have:

• Experience working at a local market level.
• Understanding of the production process/supply chain.
• Existing relationships with senior management at UK / US labels.
• Passionate music fan with both frontline and catalogue knowledge.

We are Universal Music Group UK – the UK’s leading music-based entertainment company. We exist to shape culture through the power of artistry. We help UK artists produce, distribute and promote the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music to inspire and entertain fans at home and around the world.

The best way to flourish in our ever-changing industry is to create a team that truly reflects the incredible diversity of our artist roster and society. We’re committed to creating an inclusive culture where everyone can belong, thoughtfully express themselves and bring something unique to our creative journey and our shared passion for music.

Bonus Tracks: Your Benefits include Group Personal Pension Scheme, Private Medical Insurance, 25 paid days of annual leave, Interest Free Season Ticket Loan, Holiday Purchase scheme, Dental and Travel Insurance options, Cycle to Work Scheme, Salary Sacrifice Cars, Subsidised Gym Membership, Employee Discounts.

The company presents this job description as a guide to the major areas and duties for which the jobholder is accountable. However, the business operates in an environment that demands change and the jobholder's specific responsibilities and activities will vary and develop. Therefore, the job description should be seen as indicative and not as a permanent, definitive, and exhaustive statement.