Director, Strategic Partnerships in London

At Warner Music Group, we’re a global collective of music makers and music lovers, tech innovators and inspired entrepreneurs, game-changing creatives and passionate team members. Here, we turn dreams into stardom and audiences into fans. We are guided by three core values that underpin everything we do across all our diverse businesses:

• Curiosity: We do our best work when we’re immersing ourselves in culture and breaking through barriers. Curiosity is the driving force behind creativity and ingenuity. It fuels innovation, and innovation is the key to our future.
• Collaboration: Making music and bringing it to the world is all about the power of originality amplified by teamwork. A great idea, like a great song, travels globally. We ignite passions and build connections across our diverse community of artists, songwriters, partners, and fans.
• Commitment: We pursue excellence for our team and our talent. Everything in music starts with a leap into the unknown, and we’re committed to keeping the faith, acting with integrity, and delivering on our promises.

WMG is home to a wide range of artists, musicians, and songwriters that fuel our success. That is why we are committed to creating a work environment that actively values, appreciates, and respects everyone. We encourage applications from people with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Consider a career at WMG and get the best of both worlds – an innovative global music company that retains the creative spirit of a nimble independent.

A little bit about our team: Warner Music’s Global Business Services (GBS) is the home to the finance operations, legal and administrative functions that provide critical support and best-in-class services to our global finance labels and affiliates. Each regional center embodies the collaborative and creative spirit that stems from the company’s deep history in nurturing entrepreneurial thinking and artist-focused innovation, enabling our employees to develop a wide range of skills through cross-function collaboration and development opportunities.

Your role: As the Strategic Partnerships Director, you will serve as the main architect and lead for the strategic integration of workstreams within the GBS framework. Reporting to the VP of Global Operations, this role will oversee the "front door" for operational expansion, and will be responsible for facilitating the transition of critical functions from regional labels, affiliates, and M&A activities into our centralized global shared service center (SSC) model or to specialized third-party partners. You will serve as a high-level strategic advisor and advocate. You will navigate a complex global finance environment to ensure every transition is seamless. All transitions will be governed by rigorous internal controls and aligned with our long-term scalability goals.

We are looking for a resilient, data-driven leader who can coordinate critical relationships with international collaborators and external service providers. This role ensures that GBS continues to deliver world-class performance and service excellence.

Here you’ll get to:

• Manage internal and external project managers, fostering a culture of strategic collaboration, high performance, and operational excellence.
• Develop and lead all aspects of the global intake framework. This is the strategic entry for transitioning workflows, business functions, and corporate mergers into the GBS ecosystem.
• Act as the lead for Mergers & Acquisitions within the shared operations function. Evaluate the back-office landscape of acquired entities and develop a roadmap crafting the integration of their operations into this centralized services model.
• Lead the end-to-end lifecycle of organizational transitions. Ensure functional migrations from regional divisions and associated companies are completed timely and within budget. Minimize impact on business continuity.
• Act in a senior strategic advisory role to regional leadership and functional heads. Navigate complex organizational structures to secure alignment, advocacy, and formal approvals for global transition initiatives.
• Manage high-stakes relationships with third-party service providers and outsourcing partners, ensuring external delivery models meet WMG’s rigorous standards for quality, scalability, and cost-efficiency.
• Establish and monitor important metrics and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure partners meet the same standards WMG has internally.
• Present transition roadmaps and arguments to global governance committees, managing priorities and goals in alignment with WMG’s overarching strategic vision.
• Ensure all partnership models and work migrations adhere to corporate governance standards, including strict oversight of internal controls, resource allocation, and budgetary parameters.
• Manage the project lifecycle, including scoping, knowledge transfer, "shadowing," and stabilized go-live phases.
• Provide post-transition analysis and performance management, establishing KPIs to measure the success of integrations and the ongoing health of global partnerships.
• Collaborate with HR, CI, Reporting, Automation and Tech leads to ensure that new workstreams are supported by the necessary talent, optimized processes, and technological infrastructure from day one.

About you:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Finance, Operations Management, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in project management, specifically focused on functional migrations, shared services, or GBS transitions, including large-scale Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) management.
• Proven track record of leading end-to-end functional migrations and M&A integrations within a complex, global matrix environment.
• Experience with influencing stakeholders across different time zones and cultures without direct authority.
• Proven track record of resilience in "high-velocity" environments where you find a way to move the ball forward despite shifting priorities or internal roadblocks.
• Experience managing multi-dimensional workflows and multiple projects, and ability to effectively communicate priorities to executive audiences.
• Experience onboarding newly acquired entities or business units into a global service model.

We’d love it if you also had:

• MBA or an advanced degree in a strategic or analytical discipline.
• PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent Project Management certification.
• Lean Six Sigma Green or Black Belt.
• Hands-on experience with Pega, S/4HANA, or ServiceNow.
• Experience in a shared services environment.
• Music industry experience a plus.

As the home to 10K Projects, Asylum, Atlantic Music Group, East West, FFRR, Fueled by Ramen, Nonesuch, Parlophone, Rhino, Roadrunner, Sire, Warner Records, Warner Classics, and several other of the world’s premier recording labels, Warner Music Group champions emerging artists and global superstars alike. And our renowned publishing company, Warner Chappell Music, represents genre-spanning songwriters and producers through a catalog of more than one million copyrights worldwide. Warner Music Group is also home to ADA, which supports the independent community, as well as artist services division WMX. In addition, WMG counts film and television storytelling powerhouse Warner Music Entertainment among its many brands.

Together, we are Warner Music Group: Independent Minds. Major Sound.

Love this job and want to apply? Click the “Apply” link at the top of the page, or apply directly with your LinkedIn. Applying with LinkedIn will import all of the information you put in your profile, but will still allow you to upload a resume and cover letter. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear from us right away. We’re taking our time to review all resumes, and to find the best people for WMG. Thanks for your interest in working for WMG. We love it here, and think you will, too.

Warner Music Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer.