Job title: Digital Release Support Manager – Onboarding (Maternity Cover – 12 Month Fixed Term Contract)
Responsible to: Director, Digital Operations EMEA
Department: Digital Operations
Location of work: 4 Pancras Square
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
UMG’s Digital Operations team globally facilitates the setup and delivery of digital products to Universal’s commercial digital business partners. The team works closely with, and supports, UMG labels and licensees to ensure the timely delivery of metadata and assets using global digital supply chain systems and processes. The focus of this role is to work with the labels that are being onboarded to UMG’s supply chain and to ensure they are aware of the relevant processes, timelines and best practices that facilitate the successful delivery of content to digital business partners.
The Digital Release Support Manager – Onboarding works with UMG owned & 3rd Party labels and territories, to ensure the successful onboarding of content into the UMG supply chain and the timely availability of label product on digital retail stores globally; this individual will monitor from setup to delivery, investigate and resolve product issues ideally before delivery to Business Partners and where necessary, facilitate, track or fix issues in UMG’s global systems and with partners. The individual must be capable of assessing and understanding issues and prioritising their resolution, as well as feeding back information to the label appropriately.
A key objective of the role will be to ensure that the digital products delivered to business partners meet a high quality (data and assets) consistently; as such, the individual is the key point of contact for both internal and external stakeholders regarding any issues pertaining to setup and delivery of digital releases.
The individual will help to identify knowledge gaps, train and advise onboarded labels and territory contacts on global digital release management, monitor source system due diligence and best practice and, where applicable, communicate changes to support new requirements to the Digital Ops and tech teams to enhance global systems.
The B Side: Skills & Experience
Be Operational
- Key contact for UMG owned & onboarding labels for thorough guidance with digital product set up and delivery to business partners globally
- To be able to work closely with all relevant label personnel to communicate all necessary onboarding requirements, including timelines, asset file types and qualities, scheduling processes, UMG internal label mappings, and any specific partner requirements
- To be able to successfully execute an onboarding plan and process, from start to finish, ensuring the successful go live of all content with UMG business partners, content mapping, and takedowns from previous distributors
- Where necessary, utilise UMG tools to upload both audio and graphic assets into the UMG supply chain
- Communication and resolution of missing or incorrect data and assets, as well as change management of data and assets accordingly
- Support business critical issue resolution for key products, as well as timed releases
- Facilitate the scheduling of onboarded labels releases, together with the population of marketing restrictions for accurate delivery to partners
- To ensure the onboarded label is fully aware of the digital initiation process, and that all necessary information is communicated accurately to UMG Ops in a timely manner
- Able to confidently assist the onboarded labels with ongoing global release plan execution, including thorough knowledge of all Universal markets and related digital product requirements and processes
Be Organised
- End-to-end priority release monitoring of digital products through the supply chain systems and processes until delivery to digital business partners
- Awareness of new developments in the global supply chain, and to work with Digital Ops Training and Communications to ensure onboarded labels Production staff are fully briefed when new features are launched
- To have a thorough knowledge of UMG’s global business partners and how they operate, and to be able to guide product set up by the labels accordingly
- Ability to collaborate on multiple projects at the same time
- Manage the timely resolution of Apple requests and iTunes tickets in line with label and territory wishes where Apple specifications are adhered to
- Ensure that complex onboarding issues are acknowledged, and progress updates are provided to line manager
- To gain a thorough knowledge of UMG’s global business partners and how they operate, and to be able to guide product set up by the labels accordingly
- Raise, prioritise and track any issues with Universal’s chosen issue tracking software and Service team
Be Collaborative
- Work closely with UMG Legal & Business Affairs to fully understand the contracts and commitments for the onboarded labels and how this may affect operational processes and delivery execution
- Work closely with the Onboarding Metadata Manager to ensure that product metadata is set up accordingly to adhere to UMG and business partner standards, as well as the capturing and delivery of any necessary localizations
- Ability to instil best practise with digital release management within the labels and territories, ensuring that product setup is optimum and to question with confidence where necessary. Ensure any relevant product takedowns are executed accordingly for catalogue management
- Attend all relevant meetings in relation to the onboarding process, as well as ongoing onboarded labels production meetings
- Attend all relevant Digital Operations meetings, ensuring collaboration and key learnings are shared throughout the group and in turn passed back into the labels
- Provide technical and “best practice” expertise regarding UMG’s global digital supply chain processes and systems and be able to communicate these to the appropriate audience
- Run and analyse any relevant reporting / KPI’s and feedback to Digital Operations Director on onboarded labels / territory performance, helping to identify areas for improvement
- Awareness of new developments in the global supply chain, and to work with Digital Ops Training and Communications to ensure onboarded labels Production staff are fully briefed when new features are launched
- Escalate any issues to Director, Digital Operations EMEA appropriately
Person Specification
Necessary
- Strong attention to detail and excellent communication skills
- Excellent organisation and time-management skills
- Experience working in digital supply chain and /or digital production / operations
- Knowledge of key digital formats and digital distribution systems
- Knowledge of the global music market and key global partners
- Excellent attention to detail, and the ability to manage key data across multiple systems
- Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate effectively, often regarding complex issues with people at all levels
- Experience working with high profile digital projects and senior management
- Good IT skills: Microsoft Office Excel proficiency would be an advantage
- Solutions and results driven, conscientious, with a desire to see a job through to conclusion
- Ability to identify improvements to current working methods and systems and implement change
- Ability to work effectively under pressure, and maintain a professional manner
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.
