Production Finance Lead

Job Description

The Production Finance Lead will report to the Finance leader at WDAS Vancouver. This individual will be directly involved in the studio's core production business and be cast to projects, helping to provide context for how projects are budgeted, scheduled, tracked and managed. The role will involve working with production to create schedules and helping craft strategic plans to deliver the animated projects within budget and delivery parameters. This is a highly influential role, requiring confidence and a collaborative approach, forging partnerships with production management and the studio's leadership team. This is a regular, full time, staff position that will be located at our Vancouver, BC studio. Please note that relocation eligibility may be determined based on role and individual circumstance.

Responsibilities:

Planning:
• Partner with Production leadership to create and manage production schedules and budgets that deliver quality productions on budget and on time.
• Run production planning scenarios and analyses and present relevant findings to stakeholders
• Understand and report on production progress, collaborating with production department supervisors to understand how production data is captured and managed
• Provide insights to show and studio leadership on key assumptions, levers, and risk, through thorough understanding of drivers of plan, progress against goals, and scenario and metric analyses
• Anticipate problems, adapt to changing scenarios, strategize, and recommend solutions.
• Communicate issues and problem-solve using critical reasoning, active listening, and knowledge of animation production processes.

Production Finance:
• Establish and maintain proper accounting, tracking and reporting of production costs
• Manage the preparation of EFC reports, cash flow and HC projections, and production status reports
• Partner with production management and artist managers to align project staffing assumptions
• Partner with Finance leader to provide and understand all process and production requirements to achieve eligibility for tax incentives and application of the tax incentives
• Collaborate with Production Finance team (across Burbank and Vancouver) to establish best practices, maintain consistency, and elevate team through shared insights
• Assist and advise production and finance management by providing data and highlighting issues with financial implications for relevance
• Partner with Finance leader to understand key assumptions in production cash flows and headcount, and the risks and implications for the studio run-rate
• Help to communicate and execute on studio-wide strategic initiatives

Preferred Qualifications:
• BS degree in Finance or Accounting
• 5-7 years of prior work experience, preferably with a media/entertainment company, consulting firm, entrepreneurial venture,
or other applicable environment/role
• Exceptional analytical, organizational and forecasting skills; strong background in Excel modeling and scenario analysis
• Detail-oriented and ability to make sound cost accounting decisions
• Capacity to thrive and grow in a creative, dynamic, results-oriented environment, and to prioritize and manage multiple projects at once
• Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills
• Collaborative spirit and desire to help and develop professional relationships
• Ability to work independently and to drive projects to timely completion
• Ability to balance big picture issues and detailed analysis
• Passion for the entertainment industry, animation and technology
• SAP experience or knowledge is a plus
• Visual effects, digital animation or any entertainment industry a plus

WDAS continues to build on its rich legacy of innovation and creativity, from the first fully-animated feature film, 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to 2019's Frozen 2, the biggest animated film of all time, to our 60th animated feature, Encanto, releasing November 2021. Among the studio's timeless creations are Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Frozen, Big Hero 6 and Zootopia.

This position is with The Walt Disney Company (Canada) Ltd., which is part of a business segment we call Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d98xwk-3-141-193-158-42 in your application.