Manager, Artist Relations Operations

We are UMG the Universal Music Group. We are the worlds leading music everything we do we are committed to artistry innovation and entrepreneurship. We own and operate a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music music publishing merchandising and audiovisual content in more than 60 countries. We identify and develop recording artists and songwriters and we produce distribute and promote the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music to delight and entertain fans around the world.

How We Lead:

Merchandise and commerce are a part of the fabric of music culture. For artists its a way to develop and further articulate their brand. For fans its another pathway to connecting with an artist and the culture they represent.

The Manager Artist Relations Operations will play a central role in driving operational excellence across our deal flow pipeline. Reporting to the VP Artist Relations this role will project-manage the end-to-end workflow that supports new business opportunitiesfrom early intake and internal alignment through pitch development and approvalsensuring every deliverable stakeholder and status update is tracked and moving forward in close partnership with Business Affairs.

This role requires a highly organized proactive operator who thrives in fast-moving artist-driven environments and can bring structure visibility and momentum to complex cross-functional work. The Manager will help support the broader operational needs of the Artist Relations team enabling the group to stay focused on relationships storytelling and high-impact pitches. This position is designed to complement and extend the VPs external-facing leadership by strengthening the internal systems that power the teams success in line with the Artist Relations functions mission and working style.

How Youll Create

• Manage the rights acquisition pipeline: Project-manage the acquisition workflow in close collaboration with Leadership and Business Affairs maintaining clear timelines owners dependencies and status across all active opportunities and pitches through handoff to BA.

• Run deal flow rigor: Manage trackers and dashboards ensuring opportunities are up to date risks are flagged early and leadership has accurate weekly visibility.
• Drive cross-functional coordination: Schedule and facilitate key meetings (discovery internal approvals pitch prep decision points) capture next steps and ensure follow-through across Artist Relations Artist Strategy Creative BA Commercial and Account teams.
• Manage pitch readiness and deliverables: Coordinate the creation of pitch materials and internal approvals ensuring decks narratives research projections and pitch packages are complete accurate and delivered on time.
• Partner closely with Artist Strategy and Creative teams to build & manage a library of case studies and custom capabilities decks for various artist relations needs.
• Standardize and improve process: Maintain templates intake forms checklists and handoff packages; identify bottlenecks and continuously refine workflows to increase speed clarity and quality.
• Ensure clean handoff to Business Affairs: Prepare and validate BA-ready deal packages (terms context stakeholder notes materials approvals deal history) to enable smooth negotiation and contracting.
• Support Artist Relations team operations: Help run team rhythms (weekly pipeline reviews priorities meeting prep) manage light administrative needs and keep the team organized for high-volume periods.
• Act as a calm center of gravity: Bring clarity and momentum to ambiguous situations communicate updates clearly and create structure that allows artist-facing leaders to stay focused on relationship-building and storytelling.
  

Bring Your Vibe

• 3-5 years of experience in project management operations partnerships or deal/pipeline managementideally within music merch entertainment media or a similarly fast-paced client environment.

• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent workstreams with many stakeholders shifting priorities and tight timelines.

• Strong systems thinker with experience building and maintaining trackers dashboards and repeatable processes (CRM comfort a plus).
• Clear confident communicatorable to run meetings capture decisions and drive accountability without heavy-handedness.
• Detail-oriented highly organized and proactive; you naturally anticipate whats needed and prevent issues before they escalate.
• Collaborative and culturally fluent; comfortable working with creative teams and client-facing leaders in artist-driven environments.
• Discretion and good judgment handling sensitive deal information and relationship dynamics.
• Bachelors degree preferred (or equivalent experience).
  

Perks Playlist:

Join an entrepreneurial global organization where authenticity boldness creativity connection drive and insight arent just valuestheyre how we work every day. Here are some of the ways we support you along the way (and just a few of the benefits we offer):

• Comprehensive medical dental and vision coverage

• Including 100% coverage for out-patient in-network mental health services

• Fertility coverage for eligible medical plan participants

• Wellbeing reimbursements for fitness classes spa treatments meal services travel and so much more (up to $720/year)

• Student Loan Repayment Assistance and Tuition Reimbursement

• 401(k) with 100% immediate vesting on the first 5% of your contributions plus an additional UMG contribution

A variety of ways to prioritize much-needed time away from work including:

• Flexible Paid Time Off (PTO) for exempt employees

• 3-weeks PTO for non-exempt employees

• 2-weeks paid Winter Break

• 10 Company Holidays (including Juneteenth and Wellbeing Day)

• Summer Fridays (between Memorial Day and Labor Day)

• Generous paid parental leave for every type of parent

Check out our full overview of benefits on the Perks Playlist page of the career site.

Disclaimer: This job description only provides an overview of job responsibilities that are subject to change.

Universal Music Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer

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Salary Range:

The actual base salary offered depends on a variety of factors which may include as applicable the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position years of relevant experience specific and unique skills level of education attained certifications or other professional licenses held and the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job. All candidates are encouraged to apply.