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 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 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 candidate will combine strong project management discipline with a practical understanding of licensing deal structures, royalty lifecycles and reporting workflows.

• 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 and 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 of Finance Digital Transformation.

• Apply in‑depth understanding of the licensing royalty lifecycle, including deal structures (MGs, overages, royalty rates, advances, participation, recoupment), contract execution, royalty reporting, 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.

• Work closely with CRM, finance and data teams to ensure WestEnd improvements align with upstream and downstream systems.
• Support dependency management with parallel initiatives affecting licensing and finance processes.

• Proven experience delivering system optimisation or enhancement projects, ideally within royalties, licensing, rights management or complex transactional environments.
• Proven ability to manage projects and directly contribute to technical delivery.
• Strong understanding of licensing royalties, deal mechanics and the end‑to‑end royalty lifecycle.
• 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).
• Experience operating in multi‑territory or agent/sub‑agent licensing models.
• Familiarity with finance systems integrations and data flows.

• 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.

• 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.

Working at WildBrain is an opportunity to join forces with extraordinary, insightful, and imaginative people who recognise your talents and encourage your professional growth. We offer competitive benefits, invest in our people and their future, and promote a creative and inclusive work environment.

We are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. As a global leader in children’s entertainment, we strive to reflect and honour the diversity of our audiences. We create a culture of belonging where every individual feels valued, respected and brings their authentic self to work. We welcome equal opportunities for all employees and accommodate people with disabilities throughout the recruitment process.

We have been made aware of individuals and recruitment agencies falsely claiming to represent WildBrain and offering employment opportunities on our behalf. All legitimate opportunities are managed through our internal Talent Acquisition team and verified partners, and are posted on our official careers page and LinkedIn. If you are unsure about the legitimacy of any outreach, please verify by contacting us directly.