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About the Role

WPP Production is seeking a Group Director of Business Affairs to serve as a senior leadership partner. This role leads a multi-disciplinary group supporting a key agency creative group, acting as a trusted commercial partner on all production-related matters. The Group Director oversees commercial, legal, and operational aspects of client engagements and production, ensuring strategic and efficient dealings, and acts as the gatekeeper for outward-facing work.

Responsibilities

Direct, mentor, and inspire a highly-skilled Business Affairs team.
Foster an inclusive, growth-minded, and collaborative environment.
Establish clear career pathing, training programs, and performance standards.
Oversee group resourcing and staffing models.
Partner with executive leadership to assess workload and optimize team bandwidth.
Strategically assign Business Affairs resources to client accounts and production hubs.
Lead scoping and staffing discussions for Business Affairs services.
Ensure proper commercial coverage is budgeted across agency SOWs.
Define, implement, and continuously optimize standardized Business Affairs workflows, templates, and best practices.
Act as the final group authority and escalation point for complex commercial, legal, and operational challenges.
Lead dispute resolutions, including union claims, audits, vendor defaults, and challenging contract negotiations.
Provide decisive, executive-level counsel on high-risk, speculative, or highly unconventional creative concepts.
Partner with discipline leads and producers to evaluate the feasibility of innovative creative ideas.
Oversee intellectual property rights management and clearances.
Lead and negotiate celebrity, influencer, and over-scale talent agreements.
Negotiate complex music and third-party licensing deals.
Partner closely with agency legal counsel on template updates, risk assessments, and indemnifications.
Coordinate with the risk management team to evaluate high-risk production concerns.
Participate in early-stage project discussions, providing accurate estimates for production-related business costs.
Advise agency teams and clients on union rules, regulations, and emerging industry trends.
Review AICP, AICE, animation, and music bids.
Work alongside internal Finance from pre-bill and scoping through job closure and cost actualization.

Requirements

Minimum of 15 years of experience at an advertising agency.
Significant portion of experience spent in an Associate Director Business Affairs, Director of Business Affairs, or equivalent executive-level Business Affairs role.
Deep knowledge of all production disciplines, including live-action, stills, print, out-of-home, digital, experiential, user-generated content, speculative executions, podcasts, and emerging technology platforms.
Proven track record of navigating complex music licensing, stock footage, celebrity/influencer agreements, and intellectual property acquisitions.
Comprehensive understanding of copyright, trademark, network clearance, and advertising standards/guidelines.
Expert, up-to-date knowledge of SAG-AFTRA, AFM, and other relevant union commercial contracts.
Outstanding ability to make independent, high-risk decisions under pressure.
Ability to know exactly when to pull in agency legal counsel or executive stakeholders.
Recognized industry expert on SAG-AFTRA Commercials contracts.
Ability to anticipate union moves and industry trends.
Ability to provide swift, pragmatic commercial advice.
Proven track record of negotiating high-profile talent contracts, complex production agreements, and major music licensing deals.
Understanding of the risks and rights management associated with modern, multi-platform execution.
Ability to strike a balance between risk mitigation and enabling great creative work.
Passionate about building high-performing teams, mentoring talent, and designing operational structures that scale.
Analytical problem solver who enjoys diving deep into complex union rules or contract details.
Able to wear many hats and seamlessly transition from high-level strategy to hands-on support.
Exceptional communicator who builds strong relationships across departments.
Resilient and solution-oriented, adept at navigating ambiguity.
Ego-less, ready to roll up sleeves alongside the team.

Skills

Business Affairs
Talent Management
Traffic Management
Commercial Negotiation
Legal Compliance
Operational Management
Contract Negotiation
SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contracts
Union Rules and Trends
Risk Management
Intellectual Property Rights
Music Licensing
Production Estimating
Scoping
Financial Oversight
Team Leadership
Mentoring
Problem-Solving
Communication
Collaboration

Location

Remote
Hybrid

Work Type

Hybrid
Full-time

Experience Level

Senior Leadership
Executive-level
15+ years

Salary/Compensations

$125,000—$295,000 USD

Benefits

Competitive benefits package

About the Company

WPP Production is the unified global production company that brings together all of WPP's content producers, studios and craft experts into one connected organisation. We combine world-class human craft with next generation technology to originate, design, and deliver multi-channel content systems at scale.
WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth.

Equal Opportunity

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics.
We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.