International Production Manager
Locations: Kings Cross, London
Time type: Full time
Music is Universal
It’s the passionate and dedicated team at Universal Music who help make us the world’s leading music company. From A&R to finance, legal to digital, sales to marketing, Universal Music is the place to grow and develop your career within a truly commercial and innovative business that leads in everything it does.
Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, age, marital status, background, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities. We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought within our teams and are fully committed to embracing the talents of people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and other forms of neurocognitive variation.
We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to recruitment, workplaces, and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles. If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments for you from application onwards, including alternatives to the online form or to disclose a neurocognitive condition, please email UniversalMusicCareers@umusic.com.
The A Side: A Day in The Life
The Virgin Music Production department manages product planning and production across an array of formats, strategies, and deal types for a variety of artist & label clients by way of VMG & UMG supply chains. Working in collaboration with the wider Virgin Music teams, this role will drive the team culture and “white glove” ethos of how we work with artists, managers and teams through the start and end of a campaign. This role will execute across all production aspects relating to VMG’s “For Artist”, Affiliate and Store Front repertoire & release schedules, managing product setup and milestone tracking from the onset of campaigns, planning, scheduling, and catalog management.
The B Side: Skills & Experience
Be Organised:
- Directly create and submit releases into VMG and UMG digital supply chain systems, ensuring VMG and UMG metadata and asset standards are met.
- Master the VMG and UMG style guides and their relation to delivery systems and DSP requirements.
- Ensure submission lead time requirements are met given a project’s timeline
- Manage physical pricing and costs to be used by commercial and manufacturing teams.
- Oversee delivery of physical release elements to manufacturing vendors.
Be Collaborative:
- Communicate within the production team, with clients and across relevant internal teams and stakeholders regarding project status, key operational activities, and issue resolution.
- Work with production teammates and leaders to develop processes that improve results, efficiency, client experience and relations, and coordination with other VMG teams.
- Help manage client and interdepartmental expectations on feasibility of requests, system capabilities and standard operating procedures.
- Work in coordination with the supply chain and operations teams to address technical and DSP issues on critical projects.
- Manage physical planning, production and timelines in coordination with clients and relevant internal teams.
- Work closely with the catalog migration team on incoming artist catalogs that you will ultimately handle.
- Provide backup coverage for other team members and contribute to special projects and wider business initiatives
Be Innovative:
- Act as an invested, expert stakeholder in ongoing system development and process improvement efforts.
Be Strategic:
- Anticipate technical and operational issues around projects and work with clients, operational teams and other stakeholders to mitigate risk
Be Analytical:
- Receive and review raw metadata and assets delivered by clients prior to submission into supply chain systems
- Understand and advise when and where special exceptions can be reasonably deployed for greatest impact and minimal risk
Personal Specification
Essential:
- Solid technical and operational expertise in production related areas.
- Proven track record of music industry experience – preferably in a label management, metadata or supply chain capacity.
- Proven track record with label copy.
- Stellar organizational, administrative, and analytical skills.
- Experience working in complex operational environments and software systems.
- Legendary attention to detail and tireless drive to solve problems.
- Strong organizational, administrative, and analytical skills.
- Strong ability to follow through and a desire to see even minor issues through to resolution.
- Strong relationship building skills, creativity and resourcefulness in getting projects to the finish line.
- Excellent client service capability — always with a professional demeanor.
- Keen interpersonal and client service skills, including an ability to manage finely balanced client and internal relationships while maintaining an understanding, professional and friendly manner, is required.
- Meticulous data entry and proofreading skills a must.
- Articulate in written and oral communication.
- Ability to maintain multiple project timelines while being accountable and responsive.
- Experience with top digital music service interfaces, social media applications, and digital music best practices a major plus.
- Knowledge of and relationships within the independent music community a major plus
- Understanding of audio, video and image formats a major plus.
- Some expertise in physical operations and production, keeping up to date with current trends, a plus.
- Experience handling physical assets and project managing their quick delivery and approval.
- Familiarity with technical language relating to physical and manufacturing.
- Understanding of music operations in a social media context (e.g.., Instagram Stickers, TikTok Sounds, etc.).
- Knowledge on specific partner operations (i.e., Apple Music, Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch) a plus.
- Experience with Monday, Slack, Airtable and similar tools a plus.
Bonus Tracks: Your Benefits
- Group Personal Pension Scheme (between 3% and 9%)
- Private Medical Insurance
- 25 paid days of annual leave
- Interest Free Season Ticket Loan
- Holiday Purchase scheme
- Dental and Travel Insurance options
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Salary Sacrifice Cars
- Subsidised Gym Membership
- Employee Discounts (Reward Gateway)
Just So You Know…
The company presents this job description as a guide to the major areas and duties for which the jobholder is accountable. However, the business operates in an environment that demands change and the jobholder’s specific responsibilities and activities will vary and develop. Therefore, the job description should be seen as indicative and not as a permanent, definitive, and exhaustive statement.
