Group Director, Business Affairs

WPP Production•New York, NY

9d•$125,000 - $295,000•Hybrid

About The Position

WPP Production is seeking a Group Director of Business Affairs to serve as a senior leadership partner within WPP Production. In this role, you will lead a large, multi-disciplinary group of business affairs, talent, and traffic managers in support of a key agency creative group within WPP. You will work in lockstep with the Head of Production and senior agency leadership, acting as a trusted commercial partner on all production-related matters. As a strategic head of a Business Affairs group within WPP Production, you will lead all commercial, legal, and operational aspects of client engagements and production. This role ensures that all business dealings—contracts, negotiations, talent agreements, and compliance—are handled strategically, efficiently, and in alignment with the company’s financial and creative goals. The Group Director is the ultimate gatekeeper for outward-facing work, ensuring that production has all appropriate checks and balances in place prior to creative IP being distributed for public consumption. To be successful in this role, you must be a recognized industry expert on SAG-AFTRA Commercials contracts, anticipate union moves and industry trends, and provide swift, pragmatic commercial advice. The ideal candidate has a proven track record of negotiating high-profile talent contracts, complex production agreements, and major music licensing deals. You have your finger on the pulse of emerging media and trends as they relate to content production, while understanding the risks and rights management associated with modern, multi-platform execution. Above all, you must strike a balance between risk mitigation and enabling great creative work, ensuring that our business runs as effectively and courageously as possible.

Requirements

Minimum of 15 years of experience at an advertising agency, with a significant portion 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, knowing exactly when to pull in agency legal counsel or executive stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Direct, mentor, and inspire a highly-skilled Business Affairs team within the WPP Production North American network.
Foster an inclusive, growth-minded, and collaborative environment. Establish clear career pathing, training programs, and performance standards to elevate the group’s capabilities.
Oversee group resourcing and staffing models. Partner with executive leadership to assess workload, optimize team bandwidth, and strategically assign Business Affairs resources to client accounts and production hubs.
Lead scoping and staffing discussions for Business Affairs services, ensuring 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 in production.
Lead dispute resolutions, including union claims, audits, vendor defaults, and challenging contract negotiations.
Provide decisive, executive-level counsel to production leadership, creative directors and account leaders when navigating high-risk, speculative, or highly unconventional creative concepts.
Partner with discipline leads and producers across the group to evaluate the feasibility of innovative, complex creative ideas prior to execution.
Oversee intellectual property rights management and clearances in tandem with agency legal counsel.
Lead and negotiate celebrity, influencer, and over-scale talent agreements, as well as 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, experienced estimates for talent session fees, residuals, music licensing, and all other production-related business costs.
Advise agency teams and clients on union rules (SAG/AFTRA/AFM/ACTRA), regulations, and emerging industry trends.
Partner with Producers to review AICP, AICE, animation, and music bids. Work alongside internal Finance from pre-bill and scoping through job closure and cost actualization.