Director, Sales Planning & Administration

The Director, Sales Planning & Administration is responsible for leading title lifecycle management, deal administration, rights governance, and operational execution across assigned international territories. This role serves as a strategic operational partner to Commercial Sales, Account Management, Legal, Finance, Distribution, and Strategy, ensuring contractual compliance, inventory accuracy, and executional readiness throughout the licensing lifecycle. 

The ideal candidate is a seasoned distribution operations leader with deep expertise in rights management, window management, title availability, and enterprise system governance. This individual will possess a comprehensive understanding of the international television distribution business, including output and volume licensing structures, first-run title commitments, product qualification processes, and the end-to-end workflow from deal negotiation through operational execution. The successful candidate must demonstrate strong people leadership, operational rigor, strategic thinking, and cross-functional influence while ensuring accountability, data integrity, and executional excellence across the organization. 

Key Responsibilities:

Contract Governance & Rights Compliance 

• Oversee all licensing activities in strict accordance with executed agreements, approved deal terms, distribution policy, and corporate SLAs. 

• Conduct regular contract and rights audits to validate that system data matches active executed legal terms and mitigate operational exposure. 

• Partner with Legal and Commercial Sales to evaluate amendments, waivers, title substitutions, and contract revisions prior to execution. 

• Maintain official territory rules governing window structures, holdbacks, and commercial restrictions across transactional, output volume, and linear business models. 

Database Integrity, Pre-Submission QA & System Controls 

• Oversee system setups in enterprise databases (SAFE) to ensure accurate configuration of rate cards, pricing, rights, and territory parameters prior to downstream release. 

• Execute rigorous quality control over all outgoing tracking grids, budget files, and system setups to prevent fulfillment errors, data gaps, or feed disruptions. 

• Manage database title blocking, pending order statuses, and configuration rules to ensure smooth supply chain feeds and eliminate artificial product availability blocks. 

• Implement workflow improvements, automation initiatives, and reporting controls to enhance operational scalability and data accuracy. 

Strategic Operations & Cross-Functional Governance 

• Manage day-to-day operational support and title volume commitments across assigned international territories, ensuring full launch readiness and customer fulfillment. 

• Drive end-to-end visibility into active deal pipelines, rights availability constraints, and market-specific operational risks. 

• Act as the primary Sales Administration lead to Commercial Sales, Legal, Account Management, and Distribution Strategy on deal execution, windowing strategy, and title prioritization. 

• Partner with Finance to audit revenue recognition assumptions, billing readiness, and forecasting impacts prior to deal finalization. 

• Foster a culture of transparency, collaboration, and operational rigor across all internal stakeholder groups. 

Team Leadership & Organizational Management 

• Provide leadership and oversight for Managers and Assistant Managers, including second-line management responsibilities where applicable. 

• Establish clear expectations around ownership, accountability, prioritization, and service delivery standards. 

• Coach people leaders on issue resolution, workload management, stakeholder engagement, and employee development. 

• Conduct performance management, talent development, and organizational capability building. 

• Lead onboarding, training, knowledge transfer, and territory transition activities to ensure business continuity and operational consistency.