Specialist, Financial Operations

The Advanced Specialist, Global Contract Operations is a senior individual contributor within the Global Rights & Royalties Contract Processing Hub. The role provides expert oversight of complex agreement review, approval, contract and product administration, operational suspense resolution, vendor-related contract data and author or Portfolio queries across supported geographies and lines of business. 

Operating with a high degree of autonomy, you will review and approve high-profile and non-standard author agreements, make standard and non-standard operational recommendations, protect contractual and financial data integrity, and ensure that turnaround time, service-level and internal-control commitments are achieved. You will understand how contract operations connects to royalty calculations, product structures, author payments and the wider business. 

You will act as a trusted subject-matter expert, lead contract-related improvement initiatives, provide clear performance insights to stakeholders, and strengthen team capability through peer review, mentoring and technical guidance. This is an advanced specialist role and does not carry formal line-management accountability. 

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE 

• High-profile, complex and non-standard agreements are reviewed and approved accurately, within SLA and with complete supporting evidence. 

• Contract and product data is complete, current and reliable across relevant systems, enabling accurate downstream royalty calculations and author payouts. 

• Contract-related suspense items are researched and resolved accurately, with sales allocated to the correct product, author and agreement. 

• Peer audits, quality reviews and controls identify risk before it affects financial results, royalty statements or author experience. 

• Backlogs, turnaround time and service levels are actively managed, with priorities and dependencies made visible to the Manager and stakeholders. 

• Author, Portfolio and business queries receive clear, timely and evidence-based responses. 

• Dashboards and reporting provide meaningful insight into volumes, SLA, quality, exceptions, trends and improvement opportunities. 

• Junior colleagues receive effective mentoring and feedback that improves quality, judgement and consistency. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES 

1. Complex Agreement Review and Approval 

• Perform comprehensive review and approval of executed publishing agreements, amendments, addenda and related documentation, with particular focus on high-profile authors and complex or non-standard terms. 

• Validate key contractual, financial, rights, territory, format, product, royalty-rate, advance and payment attributes before approval or release for downstream use. 

• Assess the completeness and operational usability of documentation and coordinate clarification with Portfolio, Editorial, Legal or other accountable owners. 

• Make evidence-based standard and non-standard operational recommendations within delegated authority and escalate legal, policy or commercial interpretation when required. 

• Maintain a clear audit trail of the agreement review, exceptions, clarification, approval and correction process. 

2. Peer Audit, Quality Assurance and Controls 

• Conduct risk-based peer audits of approved agreements to confirm contractual, financial and system accuracy. 

• Review work completed by junior colleagues and provide clear corrective guidance, coaching and quality feedback. 

• Ensure segregation of duties, delegated authority, approval evidence and other internal controls are consistently applied. 

• Analyse defects and repeat errors, identify root causes and implement preventive actions, targeted reviews or knowledge interventions. 

• Protect the quality of tasks and advice provided by self and others while maintaining accountability with the original process owner. 

3. Contract and Product Administration 

• Oversee accurate contract and product setup, maintenance, indexing, archival and linkage across approved contract, rights and royalty administration systems. 

• Ensure product and agreement relationships are correctly structured to support royalty processing, reporting and author payments. 

• Validate approved changes and corrections across relevant records and confirm that downstream impacts are addressed. 

• Maintain reliable operational records, trackers, repositories and supporting documentation in line with retention and data-privacy requirements. 

• Provide expert operational advice on product structures, agreement setups and processing dependencies. 

4. Contract-Related Suspense Management 

• Lead the investigation of complex sales held in suspense, particularly items affecting high-profile authors or material royalty outcomes. 

• Research executed agreements, amendments, product records, system data and supporting evidence to identify the correct product, author and agreement allocation. 

• Coordinate required clarification with Contracts, Portfolio, Editorial, Rights, Royalties or Legal and document the approved treatment. 

• Enable accurate clearance or allocation of suspense items and maintain a complete evidence trail for the operational decision. 

• Analyse recurring suspense causes and recommend preventive improvements to contract setup, product administration, data quality or upstream processes. 

5. SLA, Turnaround Time and Workflow Oversight 

• Monitor agreement-processing volumes, turnaround time, service levels, ageing, exceptions and priority commitments across assigned geographies or lines of business. 

• Work with the Manager to organise and assign work, rebalance priorities and address capacity or dependency risks according to business demand. 

• Meet or exceed individual agreement-review and approval commitments and support consistent team achievement of agreed SLAs. 

• Escalate material backlog, control, system or stakeholder risks early, supported by impact analysis and recovery actions. 

• Keep standard operating procedures, job aids, checklists and control documentation aligned with current processes and service expectations. 

6. Data Governance, Analytics and Reporting 

• Promote strong data governance within Contract Operations and ensure contract and product information remains accurate, complete, consistent and current. 

• Perform data maintenance and validation exercises and coordinate remediation of identified gaps or anomalies. 

• Use analytics and reporting tools to produce dashboards and management information covering key performance indicators, quality, SLA, volumes, ageing, trends and exceptions. 

• Turn operational data into clear insights and recommendations for the Manager and business stakeholders. 

• Present team performance, risk and value-delivery updates through clear, data-led business presentations. 

7. Stakeholder, Author and Portfolio Support 

• Act as a subject-matter expert for assigned geographies or business areas and build trusted relationships across multiple lines of business. 

• Respond to complex author, agent, Portfolio and internal stakeholder queries with timely, accurate and evidence-based communication. 

• Collaborate with Royalties and connected functions to support accurate contractual treatment and timely author payouts. 

• Explain contract-processing requirements, risks, dependencies and recommended options to technical and non-technical audiences. 

• Influence resolution through subject expertise and constructive challenge, without relying on formal authority. 

8. Projects, Technology and Continuous Improvement 

• Lead or provide senior specialist support for strategic initiatives, contract migrations, new business onboarding and process transformation. 

• Partner with technology teams to investigate system or data defects, define operational requirements and validate sustainable solutions. 

• Support user acceptance testing, implementation readiness, defect validation and post-implementation review. 

• Identify opportunities to simplify, standardise and automate agreement review, product administration, quality assurance and reporting. 

• Manage competing project and operational priorities with clear planning, accountability and progress reporting. 

9. Mentoring and Technical Leadership 

• Provide day-to-day technical guidance, coaching and mentoring to junior team members and peers. 

• Support colleagues in developing agreement-review, product-setup, analytical, control and stakeholder-management capability. 

• Lead case reviews, knowledge sessions and quality discussions that strengthen consistency and judgement. 

• Model ownership, attention to detail, customer focus and sound risk management. 

• Support the Manager in prioritising complex work and building resilient operational capability, without formal people-management accountability.