Senior Licensing & Production Manager (APAC)

We are delighted to be recruiting for this exciting role in our busy Theatrical & Live team, starting as soon as possible!

The ideal candidate will be a passionate individual with at least 3+ years of working across the theatre industry, preferably with general manager / producer experience.

The Commercial Department is responsible for driving growth through exploitation of ALW Musicals’ brands through traditional theatre production licensing as well as new categories, including immersive & themed entertainment, and education.  

The Senior Licensing & Production Manager (APAC) will report directly into the Business Development Director, with a dotted line to the Director of Production, working across theatrical and live, and themed entertainment.  They will be responsible for, and will lead, the commercial development and delivery of live experiences in the key markets of Asia-Pacific (APAC).  They require the ability to develop and maintain strong global relationships, devise and implement commercial strategy against the long-term brand and commercial plan for ALW Musicals’ brands.  They must have flexibility in responding to the needs of the business and the ability to multi-task and manage licences at various stages of the life cycle.  There will be travel required, but this will be in line with the individual projects.

MAIN TASKS & RESPONSIBILITIES:

Support the Business Development Director (Theatrical & Live) and the Director of Production to:

• Formulate annual strategy and budget planning across the APAC region.

• Devise and deliver against overarching Commercial strategy, helping to identify areas of growth within existing and prospective partners in the APAC region.

• Plan and map activity in the APAC region to maximise commerciality and manage brands.

• Negotiate contracts and agreements for licensing, always ensuring optimal commercial exploitation of IP.

• Provide recommendations on licence terms and conditions by drawing on industry standards and precedential RUG activity to ensure smooth and successful delivery of projects.

• Ensure the creative calibre of productions and experiences, is consistently high around the world.  

• Draft Board reports as required.

• Draft Deal Approval Memoranda for the RUG Board in collaboration with the Business Development Director (Live & Theatrical).

• Deputise where necessary.

Licensing:

• Oversee the licence approval process in full for licences in the APAC region.

• Obtain relevant financial information from licensee and work with the RUG Finance Analyst team to evaluate feasibility.

• Liaise and coordinate with RUG Legal, Finance and the Business Development Director (Theatrical & Live) to evaluate licence proposals including contractual terms, financial projections, project timelines and budgets.

• Monitor license dates for planned projects, reporting any changes to the Business Development Director (Theatrical & Live) in order to manage changes to forecasts.

• Act as a point person on licences for the RUG marketing team to help facilitate all aspects of marketing including asset approvals, on sale schedules, casting announcements and high-level marketing activity during the term of the licence and or run.

• Track and monitor the progress of licences to ensure contractual obligations are met and liaise with RUG marketing, finance and legal teams as required to facilitate a connected and holistic delivery of the licence.

• Monitor and assess sales and royalty reports, liaising with Finance team and Business Development Director (Theatrical & Live) to make informed decisions to ensure success of the licence.

Production:

• Work with Director of Production on assigned projects liaising with partners to assess and approve all areas of production; not limited to creative team appointment, general concept, set design and casting.  

• Support the Director of Production to develop a formal approval process to enable a smart and accurate way to assess and track approvals across all areas of the production.

• Maintain working knowledge of sets, props and costumes to include ownership, availability and quality.

• Develop a high-level working knowledge of the IP to inform commercial and production recommendations and decision making.

• Coordinate internal team to implement all elements associated with live experience across finance, music, marketing & comms (incl. ticketing), consumer products & merchandise, legal & business affairs and music strategy.  

• Develop meaningful relationships with key partners and creative teams in order to establish holistic creative contribution and guidance.  

• With Director of Production, consider ways to adapt creative formats, ways of working and creative perimeters to meet with the requirements of APAC markets for existing and new productions and experiences.  

• Oversee the Licensing & Production Manager on daily show report analysis and troubleshoot as necessary, acting as central point person for partner and internal teams to formulate response.

• Act as central brand guardian on all creative decisions, utilising key RUG Associates, where appropriate.

• Attend productions at key stages; such as meet and greets, castings, tech periods, dress rehearsals, previews, opening nights and carry out show visits where applicable; to provide feedback to Head of Production in order to ensure partner maintains consistently high quality and identify and work through creative changes, as required.

APAC specific:

• Continually research and assess the APAC landscape to identify potential new opportunities and commercial partners that support RUG’s core values.  

• Continually research and assess the APAC landscape to identify any concerns in relation to upcoming activity and liaise with Business Development Director (Theatrical & Live) to manage accordingly.

• Assess licence proposals in the context of the geo-specificity, reputation, competence of the applicant, as well as cross referencing with other planned ALW/RUG activity and overarching strategy in conjunction with the Business Development Director (Theatrical & Live).

• Develop knowledge of events and conference landscape in APAC and represent RUG, as required.

• Responsibility for P&L management and assessment, across Theatrical & Live & Themed Entertainment within APAC region.

• Travel domestically and internationally as required to develop commercial relationships, explore opportunities and assess live licences.

Stakeholders & Partners:

• Create reports and presentations for key stakeholders as required.

• Gain key stakeholder buy in at initial concept stage and act as key liaison throughout the project.

• Support the Business Development Director in identifying new partners and maintaining existing partners in the APAC region.

• On assigned projects, lead creative onboarding session with creative partners setting out key approvals required and ways of working.

PERSON SPECIFICATION:

• Proven experience of working in licensing and/or production;

• Excellent working knowledge of the theatrical production process

• A commercial thinker with a passion for licensing and new business opportunities;

• Excellent communicator and relationship-builder;

• A strategist and a doer;

• Solid organisational and process management expertise;

• A self-starter with a proactive, autonomous attitude and the ability to multi-task in a busy environment;

• An interest in musical theatre essential.