Senior Manager, Business Affairs

Job Description

This is a 12 month maternity cover and requires you to be in the office 4 days per week.

This position sits within the Disney+ Original Commissions Business Affairs team. This role is based in our London head office in Hammersmith.

You will be negotiating commercial deals with external content suppliers and production companies in relation to EMEA Original Productions for The Walt Disney Company in EMEA. This will include managing negotiations with producers, talent representatives, distributors and licensors for original productions, and co-productions and pre-acquisitions applying best practice and in alignment with The Walt Disney Company international policies and standards.

You will create and manage processes, workflows and a framework for deals that are competitive, agile and adhere to the Disney brand values as well as liaising between external and internal stakeholders locally and internationally. This will involve handling negotiations, and supporting VP of Business Affairs in negotiating development, talent and production deals, pre-buy deals, as well as coordinating information flow and approval processes with adjacent departments including Creative, Finance, Production Management, Legal Affairs, Marketing etc., and data input and maintenance in systems relevant to support and police the relevant deals.

It is essential to the success of this role to have multi-year experience in business affairs (or legal & business affairs) and to have worked on unscripted and/or scripted production projects in depth (ideally with experience of both). Ability to interact internally in collaboration with colleagues that account for different functions within the business is key as well as ongoing interaction with the local EMEA teams.

Finally, this role will provide key support on fulfilling company standard deal key terms and policies in production, co-production and pre-acquisition deals in order to guarantee consistent conditions in the content business and compliance with Disney standards and procedures.

The Opportunity & Responsibilities
• Partners with Creative and Production Executives on projects, both in negotiating and greenlighting development and production projects.
• Manages negotiations or supports line managers in deal making with producers and their relevant legal and business affairs departments with the aim to deliver deals on time, on budget and within company standards and creative parameters.
• Facilitates business process between Creative, Legal Affairs as well as other relevant executives and the production company to ensure clear communication and effective translation of vision to production on basis of creative greenlight.
• Creates and revises deal templates for all types of deal making for original productions and acquisitions.
• Carries out deal management, including data input in Disney deal management systems, maintenance and update of deal data and polices deal timelines.
• Facilitates development and production greenlights and approvals.
• Vets processes working closely with Production Management and Legal Affairs to ensure that Company policies & standards are met.
• Ability to supervise and track progress on multiple deal negotiations on and off system (incl. deal trackers).
• Manages delivery and approval of all underlying paperwork, including communication with the production partners to ensure all paperwork is turned around timely.
• Attends and presents at Production, Development, Programming, Finance and Legal meetings.

The Experience We Require From You
• Television production deal making within original programming.
• Current commercial deal-making market.
• Contract drafting.
• Contractual key terms and conditions for production, co-production and pre-acquisition deals, talent deals, and chain of title assessment.
• Ability to anticipate potential issues of each step for deal making in production and budgetary issues.
• Ability to inspire and enthuse producers and build strong collaboration with producers and with production studios worldwide.
• Thorough understanding of European regulatory environment including content and investment quota obligations, in particular for SVOD services.
• Excellent negotiation skills, especially in resolving production problems with producers and co-producers, and maintaining Disney's priority requirement in each production.

The Perks
• 25 days annual leave
• Private medical insurance & dental care
• Free Park Entry: You will have the opportunity to enter any of our parks with your family and friends for free
• Disney Discounts: you are entitled to discounts on designated Disney products, resort F&B and ticketing
• Disney+ Subscription
• Excellent parental and guardian leave
• Employee Resource Groups – WOMEN @ Disney, Disney DIVERSITY, Disney PRIDE, our new disability & neurodiversity focused group - ENABLED, and our Mental Health & Wellbeing Group, TRUST.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gxj1vz-18-117-229-13-42 in your application.