About the role 

Reporting to the Business Affairs Director, Business Affairs Senior Manager is a key member of the Original Productions and Acquisitions teams. His/her objective is to successfully conclude a significant volume of complex negotiations within short deadlines for our Disney+/Hulu streaming platform. 

The Business Affairs Senior Manager acts as a experienced negotiator of commercial agreements with production companies and external content providers in connection with The Walt Disney Company's original local French productions and film pre-purchases. To this end, he/she is responsible for managing complex negotiations with executive producers, line producers, co-producers, and licensors for original productions, co-productions, and pre-purchases, as well as supervising negotiations with talent (screenwriters, producers, directors, actors) managed by production companies, with an emphasis on implementing best practices in line with those of The Walt Disney Company EMEA. He/she is also involved in negotiating contracts with voice actors and supporting the launch of Disney animated movies. 

He/she is also responsible for adapting or creating procedures and designing competitive, agile agreements that are consistent with Disney brand values. He/she acts as a liaison between production companies, distributors, and Disney's internal teams on locally and internationally produced and pre-purchased programs. To do this, he/she is required to negotiate deal memos with producers, contracts with talent, and coordinate the flow of information with the company's internal departments: Creative Services, Finance, Production, Legal, Marketing, Ad Sales, etc. 

He/she ensures compliance with the company's standard terms and conditions in production and pre-purchase agreements in order to guarantee consistent conditions in program production and to comply with investment obligations relating to local regulations. 

What will you do 

• Collaborating with creative and production managers during negotiations and during the greenlight stages of projects in development and production 

• Conducting negotiations with producers and their legal and commercial affairs departments with a view to concluding agreements in accordance with creative requirements, deadlines, budgetary constraints, and company standards  

• Facilitate communication between creative, legal, and commercial departments, as well as other relevant departments and production companies, to ensure clear communication and effective translation of production and creative requirement 

• Create and update standard deal memos for original productions 

• Manage exchanges with international legal and business affairs teams with a view to continuously developing best practices and establishing acceptable precedents. 

• Monitoring the delivery of legal documents: communicating with partners to ensure that all documents are processed in a timely manner (including legal deliveries and payment of royalties to rights holders). 

• Responsible for reporting to OGCs. 

What will you bring 

• 15+ years of professional experience in negotiating original audiovisual production agreements and in-depth knowledge of the market and commercial agreements, including comparison of the terms and conditions applied by broadcasters 

• Very good knowledge of the French legal framework, media chronology, quota management. 

• Graduate level or equivalent experience 

• Media or entertainment brand experience is beneficial, as is familiarity with processes and policies of a multinational corporation 

What you need to know 

• Knowledge of the main contractual terms and conditions of production, co-production, and pre-purchase agreements, talent agreements, and rights chains 

• Ability to anticipate potential problems at each stage 

• Excellent communication skills 

• Ability to establish strong collaboration with producers and production studios, as well as a very good in-depth understanding of the European and French regulatory environment, including broadcasting quotas and investment obligations, particularly for SVOD and linear services. 

• In-depth understanding of French public funding and tax credits, and the various possible production structures. Ability to work in both French and English. 

• Interest in Disney+ content: films, series and documentaries, and consume them regularly.