Music Merchandise Production Lead

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. If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments for you from application onwards, including alternatives to the online form or to disclose a neurocognitive condition, please email UniversalMusicCareers@umusic.com.

UMUK value e-Commerce as a key foundational channel to connect artists and fans. This is a key role within our central team to be a key production lead for our merchandise product development strategy. You’ll work closely with CFT and internal teams to source, manage and produce merchandise product ranges with our CFT and external suppliers.

Using your production management experience, you will deliver high quality and sustainable products in line with fashion trends, whilst ensuring the product reaches our warehouse partners in time to ship product to fans. You will also oversee the print on demand processes and vendor management for the group and help to manage production workflows for all merchandise production.

This role is unique in that it has design, production, creative and operational elements. The day to day will be varied, fast paced, and often high pressure but always rooted in making and delivering products that are in line with our CFT’s wider product and commercial strategy and ensuring that we create a range of products that feel authentic to our artists and delight their fans.

The B Side: Skills & Experience

• Management of short lead time print production (printing on blanks) workflow and timelines for UMG artists across the group.
• Management of longer lead time cut and sew apparel and bespoke non-apparel (jewellery, accessories, homeware, stationary etc) production workflow and timelines.
• Management of Product Development of these areas (where needed) for CFT comments and approval.
• Keeping up to date information on Monday.com boards.
• Compiling costings, requesting POs, SKU and order information.
• Managing Print-on-Demand products, from costings, blanks offer and product setup.
• Liaising with EPMs (ecommerce Product Managers) and Design teams for full product briefs (as and when required), advising of any technical or production restrictions for proposed designs.
• Attending CFT and artist meetings (where needed) to input on product capabilities and timelines.
• Work closely with and supporting the Production Lead and Head of department.
• Work closely with the central ecommerce operations team to make sure that product is delivered on time to our warehouse partners, updating them of print delays or issues affecting due dates.
• Keeping a good rapport with our supply base including site visits. Sharing information on their capabilities and new offerings to the wider team.
• Bringing in new suppliers to the mix when needed, handling the onboarding process.
• Arrange and implement weekly production meetings with the EPMs and wider team.
• Work closely with CFT, managing timelines for upcoming merch ranges to enable planning according to critical release dates and clearly communicate / oversee the production schedule to ensure the timely delivery of print artwork files.

Skills and Experience

• Previous and demonstrable experience in music merchandise/ fashion production management, preferably working with UK based printers and suppliers.
• Proactive, able to bring their experience to the team.
• Able to relay information and solutions in meetings.
• Admin focused, organised, reliable and timely.
• Flexible and agile mindset, to meet the demands of changing briefs needing creative problem solving.
• An eye for detail, able to think on the aesthetics of the final product, as well as the fan experience, packaging and end use.
• A passion and awareness of music and fashion culture.
• Ability to liaise and work with various departments, taking initiative and being proactive.
• Print-on-Demand and UK printing experience is preferable.
• Understanding of various print and embroidery techniques (D2G, DTF, Sublimation, Screen, CMYK etc).
• Experience in paper printing for posters and art prints (litho, digital, giclée etc) is preferable.
• Methodical and highly organised, with the ability to project manage tasks, from initial brief, through to order and delivery.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Strong Excel skill and email etiquette is a must.

Just So You Know…

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.