Royalty System Transformation Manager -12m FTC

WildBrain CPLG is a world‑leading entertainment, sport and brand licensing agency with 20 offices worldwide. Since 1972 we have provided partners with dedicated licensing and marketing professionals and fully integrated retail, creative & product development, legal and accounting services.

We are seeking an experienced Royalty System Optimisation Lead to spearhead the optimisation of our existing royalties system, WestEnd. This delivery‑focused project role sits at the intersection of licensing, royalties, finance operations and technology. The successful candidate will combine strong project‑management discipline with a practical understanding of licensing deal structures, royalty lifecycles and reporting workflows, enabling them to challenge requirements, prioritise effectively and ensure solutions are fit for purpose. The role is not responsible for day‑to‑day royalty processing; it focuses on fixing, streamlining and future‑proofing the system that supports those activities.

Key Responsibilities

• Royalty System Optimisation & Delivery
  • Own and deliver a defined WestEnd optimisation roadmap, covering process efficiency, data quality, automation and usability improvements.
  • Lead requirements definition across Partnership Finance, Royalties, FP&A, Controllership and Legal Operations teams, ensuring end‑to‑end workflows are properly understood before system changes are designed.
  • Convert business needs into clear functional specifications for the WestEnd vendor and associated technical partners.
  • Manage delivery of system enhancements end‑to‑end: scoping, prioritisation, build, testing, deployment and post‑release validation.
  • Actively engage in the technical delivery and take ownership of operational tasks to ensure deliverables are met.
  • Workstreams include:
  • Credit control functionality
  • Delinquency control functionality
  • Subagent accounting
  • Forecasting automation
  • SKU setup automation
  • Reporting enhancements
• Vendor & Stakeholder Management
  • Act as the primary day‑to‑day interface with the WestEnd vendor, coordinating enhancements, resolving issues and maintaining delivery momentum.
  • Challenge vendor proposals where required to ensure solutions address root causes, not symptoms.
  • Coordinate UAT with internal users, ensuring changes are robust, understood and adopted.
  • Maintain strong engagement with senior stakeholders, providing clear progress updates, risk management and dependency tracking.
  • Coordinate with Corporate Royalties team and Director, Finance Digital Transformation, programme lead on parallel ERP and data architecture projects.
• Licensing & Royalties Process Expertise
  • Apply in‑depth understanding of the licensing royalty lifecycle, including:
  • Deal structures (MGs, overages, royalty rates, advances, participation, recoupment)
  • Contract execution and set‑up
  • Royalty reporting and validation
  • Billing, cash application and reporting to licensors
  • Ensure system changes support real‑world licensing complexity, including multi‑territory deals, sub‑agenting, forecasting and reporting nuances.
• Integration & Broader Systems Alignment
  • Work closely with CRM, finance and data teams to ensure WestEnd improvements align with upstream and downstream systems such as CRM, ERP and reporting tools.
  • Support dependency management with parallel initiatives affecting licensing and finance processes.

Qualifications

Essential

• Proven experience delivering system optimisation or enhancement projects, ideally within royalties, licensing, rights management or complex transactional environments.
• Proven ability to both manage projects and directly contribute to technical delivery, including hands‑on system optimisation and implementation.
• Strong understanding of licensing royalties, deal mechanics and the end‑to‑end royalty lifecycle.
• Demonstrated experience working directly with external software vendors to deliver functional improvements.
• Ability to translate business processes into clear system requirements and challenge stakeholders constructively.
• Excellent project management skills: planning, prioritisation, dependency management, delivery tracking.

Desirable

• Hands‑on experience with royalty or rights management systems (e.g. WestEnd, Counterpoint, Jaguar or similar).
• Experience operating in multi‑territory or agent / sub‑agent licensing models.
• Familiarity with finance systems integrations and data flows.

Soft Skills

• Practically focused with strong execution capability.
• Process‑driven, structured and pragmatic.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and untangling complex workflows.
• Confident influencing both technical vendors and senior business stakeholders.
• Delivery‑focused, with a bias toward practical outcomes rather than theoretical perfection.

What Success Looks Like

• Delivered measurable improvements to WestEnd usability, data quality and process efficiency.
• Reduced operational friction in royalty reporting, billing and forecasting.
• Left behind clear documentation, prioritised backlogs and improved ways of working between business teams and the vendor.

What We Offer

Working at WildBrain is more than a job — it’s the opportunity to join forces with extraordinary, insightful and imaginative people who recognise your talents and encourage your professional growth and development in a creative and inclusive work environment. We offer competitive benefits and invest in our people and their future.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are in our DNA. We strive to reflect and honour the diversity of our audiences worldwide. We believe that creating diverse and inclusive content & brands begins with fostering a culture of belonging at WildBrain. We are committed to providing a supportive work environment and a corporate culture that welcomes and encourages equal opportunities for all employees.

Important Notice

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