Royalty System Transformation Manager -12m FTC in London

WildBrain CPLG is a world-leading entertainment, sport and brand licensing agency with 20 offices worldwide. Since 1972 we have been providing our partners with dedicated licensing and marketing professionals and fully integrated retail, creative & product development, legal and accounting services. We are looking to add to our talented team of innovators that can help us manage some of the most profitable and enduring brands in the world! We believe that our partnerships are about clarity, openness, and trust, and we are widely known for our straightforward approach.

We are seeking an experienced Royalty System Optimisation Lead to spearhead the optimisation of our existing royalties system, WestEnd. This is a delivery‑focused project role, responsible for translating business needs into system improvements and working hands‑on with the WestEnd vendor team to drive tangible functionality enhancements. The 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. This role does not own day‑to‑day royalty processing or accounting. Instead, it exists to fix, streamline and future‑proof the system that supports those activities. It requires a technically capable candidate who is comfortable operating at the intersection of Project Manager and Business Analyst and who actively contributes to delivery, including direct involvement —not solely coordination.

Key Responsibilities

• 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.
• 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

Integration & Broader Systems Alignment

• Work closely with CRM, finance and data teams to ensure WestEnd improvements align with upstream and downstream systems (e.g. CRM, ERP, reporting tools).
• Support dependency management with parallel initiatives affecting licensing and finance processes.

Experience & Skills Required

• 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.
• Hands‑on experience with royalty or rights management systems (e.g. WestEnd, Counterpoint, Jaguar or similar).
• 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

• By the end of the contract, the Project Manager will have:
• 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 will recognize your talents and encourage your professional growth and development in a work environment that promotes creativity and individuality. We offer competitive benefits, and we invest in our people and their future.

Our Commitment

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are in our DNA. As a global leader in kids and family entertainment, we strive to reflect and honour the diversity of our audiences around the world. We believe that creating diverse and inclusive content & brands begins with fostering a culture of belonging at WildBrain. To us, a culture of belonging is one where we celebrate and welcome the diversity of all employees, stakeholders, and external partners and strive to create an environment where every individual feels valued, respected, and brings their authentic self to work. We demonstrate our commitment to this by striving to provide a supportive work environment and a corporate culture that welcomes and encourages equal opportunities for all employees. We recognize that people bring experience and talent that goes beyond the technical skills and requirements of a job. If you possess similar experience that is close to what we’ve listed here, we encourage you to please still consider applying. We strongly believe that diverse experience, transferable skills, and passion are key! WildBrain accommodates people with disabilities throughout the recruitment and selection process. Applicants are encouraged to make their needs known in advance if accommodation is required.