Publishing Onboarding Manager

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Publishing Onboarding Manager based in United States.

This role manages the end-to-end transition of music publishing catalogs from deal handoff through registration, rights administration, and steady-state collection. You will turn acquisition and deal diligence information into structured onboarding plans and ensure catalogs are accurately ingested, registered, and delivered across relevant rights organizations and digital endpoints. The position combines music publishing expertise, catalog data management, partner communication, and cross-functional project coordination. You’ll work closely with partners, sellers, M&A, Royalties, Business Affairs, Legal, Finance, and other teams to keep transitions on schedule and prevent revenue leakage. Success requires strong attention to detail and a practical understanding of publishing identifiers, ownership splits, chain of title, CWR workflows, and royalty collection pathways. You’ll manage multiple catalog transitions simultaneously while tracking risks, registration completeness, and income capture. This is an opportunity to play a critical operational role in bringing acquired publishing rights into accurate, efficient, and scalable administration.

Accountabilities:

• Own the operational onboarding of assigned publishing catalogs from deal handoff through absorption into steady-state administration and collection, following the established onboarding playbook.
• Convert deal diligence materials into detailed transition plans with clear owners and deadlines within five business days of handoff, maintaining alignment across internal and external stakeholders.
• Serve as the primary day-to-day operational contact for partners and sellers, leading onboarding calls, establishing documentation expectations, and escalating missing information or administrative issues when necessary.
• Execute catalog ingestion by validating works, writers, ownership splits, and identifiers such as ISRC, IPI, and ISWC against deal schedules.
• Identify and resolve metadata gaps, ownership discrepancies, and chain-of-title conflicts before works are registered or delivered.
• Manage registration and works delivery to performance rights organizations, mechanical societies, sub-publishers, and digital endpoints, including YouTube.
• Execute CWR submissions, process acknowledgements, diagnose rejected or non-accepted works, and coordinate remediation through completion.
• Identify, transfer, and redirect rights and royalty streams across assigned catalogs, including U.S. and Canadian PROs, mechanical and digital collections, and international collection channels.
• Coordinate with M&A on prior-administrator wind-down activities to support a smooth handover, capture pipeline income, and minimize revenue leakage.
• Partner with Royalties, Business Affairs, and Legal on third-party payment obligations, payee changes, and account setup to ensure required actions are completed on schedule.
• Manage multiple concurrent catalog transitions, maintaining accurate deal status in Atlas and proactively communicating with stakeholders between formal reviews.
• Provide deal-level updates covering status, risks, registration completeness, and pipeline income capture for monthly reporting.
• Track and attribute recovered or pipeline income to the onboarding actions that generated it.
• Follow the standard onboarding playbook while identifying exceptions, gaps, and deal-specific variances for escalation and improvement.
• Document new procedures as standard operating procedures and identify manual processes, workflow gaps, and data quality risks for prioritization.
• Support pre-closing diligence by applying established checklists and helping ensure incoming deals are ready for onboarding.
• Keep Business Affairs, M&A, Legal, Finance, Royalties, Digital Rights, and Data & Analytics teams informed of relevant transition progress, risks, and decisions.
• Stay current on society delivery requirements, CWR versions, identifier standards, and other technical requirements affecting catalog administration.
• Support the Publishing Onboarding Director with special projects, deal-related analysis, and other responsibilities as needed.

Requirements:

• 4+ years of experience in music publishing administration, including direct responsibility for taking catalogs from acquisition or agreement through registration and delivery.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience, combined with relevant music publishing administration experience.
• Hands-on experience ingesting catalogs and validating works, writers, ownership splits, and identifiers against deal documentation.
• Practical experience registering and delivering works to PROs, mechanical societies, sub-publishers, and digital endpoints.
• Strong knowledge of CWR delivery and acknowledgement processing, including diagnosing and remediating non-accepted works.
• Working knowledge of publishing identifier standards, including ISWC, IPI, and ISRC, and how these identifiers operate across systems.
• Experience with U.S. and Canadian PRO workflows, including ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and SOCAN, as well as mechanical and digital collection pathways.
• Strong understanding of chain-of-title issues and the ability to investigate and resolve ownership or split conflicts.
• Advanced spreadsheet skills and comfort working with large music catalog datasets and publishing administration systems.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent catalog transitions or publishing projects involving external partners and counterparties.
• Strong partner- and seller-facing communication skills, including the ability to establish expectations and hold counterparties accountable to documentation deadlines.
• Excellent organization, attention to detail, follow-through, and ability to manage competing priorities.
• Ability to work collaboratively across M&A, Royalties, Business Affairs, Legal, Finance, Digital Rights, Data & Analytics, and other cross-functional teams.
• Ability to identify workflow gaps, data quality risks, and process improvements while maintaining operational accuracy.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience onboarding joint venture, co-publishing, or acquired publishing catalogs.
• Experience with international sub-publishing and foreign collection.
• Familiarity with SoundExchange, YouTube, and other digital rights administration processes.
• Experience documenting operational procedures and creating clear SOPs.

Benefits:

• Fully remote position within the United States.
• Full-time opportunity in music publishing administration.
• Annual salary of $65,000-$75,000 USD.
• Final compensation within the range will be based on experience, skills, and overall fit for the role.
• Opportunity to work on complex music publishing catalog transitions spanning rights registration, royalty administration, and digital delivery.
• Cross-functional exposure to M&A, Royalties, Business Affairs, Legal, Finance, Digital Rights, and Data & Analytics.
• Opportunity to contribute to process improvement, operational efficiency, and scalable publishing administration practices.
• Consideration of qualified applicants with criminal histories in accordance with applicable Los Angeles County Fair Chance requirements.