Manager, Production Finance and Analytics

Job Description

Manager, Production Finance and Analytics

The successful candidate will be responsible for providing high-level industry support of original content production, along with broader content creation through development of our financial accounting and reporting process for original owned productions. This role will have a high degree of interaction with the company's finance leadership, production and executive teams. The candidate must be hands-on, entrepreneurial, passionate about content and physical production, quick-thinking, elastic, able to pivot when necessary, systematic, has impeccable ethics, and is able to juggle multiple and diverse projects with a strong emphasis on organization and an unwavering attention to detail. The candidate will execute on a vision to develop a world class production finance operations team, comprising of its people, systems and policies.

This individual should demonstrate a high aptitude for critical thinking and analysis, tax credit, financial systems and labor/union foundational knowledge. You will be a part of a dynamic and creative SPT Production Finance team working directly with our production business units. The successful candidate will be a strategic partner to management teams enterprise wide. He/she should be extremely comfortable counseling business partners and influencing them towards decisions that have a valued business impact. The successful will work closely with freelance accountants during the course of production to provide compliance support.

Essential Responsibilities:
• Develop deep partnerships with studio technology and research teams to deliver on major cross-functional measurements, testing, and modeling efforts with studio's Data Warehouse.
• Build out a ''best in class'' production data support models.
• Perform ledger coding compliance assessments during the course of production, as well as pre-audit reviews of the production's general ledgers.
• Develop new data management techniques to improve production cost forecasting.
• Liaise with corporate tax, production audit, controllership, production and government relations teams to ensure proper compliance, including refreshing studio documentation and desktop procedures.
• Identify and leverage production financial and operations data to develop standardize metrics, data tools and methods to enhance production decision support.
• Research and become a subject matter expert all domestic and international production centers.
• Participate and partner with Director of Tax Credits and Incentives for C&I planning, production metrics, guild audits and studies in support of future production planning initiatives.
• Coordinate with production accountants, estimators, finance and legal teams on all tax and incentive matters facing our productions
• Maintain knowledge of current industry trends pertaining to television and film production.
• Develop and manage production accountant hiring/recruiting database.
• Ensure that the SPT financial controllership and production policies and procedures are uniformly implemented operationally and that payroll/AP/Reporting are in accordance with standards established by SPT.
• Identify problem and/or issues as quickly as possible including breakdown in communication between departments, UPMs, producers and accountants.
• Maintain knowledge of current industry trends pertaining to union MOA updates, rate increases and compliance issues.
• Perform ad-hoc projects as required.

Technical Skills:
• Advanced experience with Excel and other Microsoft / Apple products.
• Intermediate/Advanced experience with Tableau/PowerBi/MicroStrategy VI tools.
• Intermediate/Advanced knowledge of Global Vista, Movie Magic, PSL, and Smart Accounting products.
• SAP experience required.

Basic Qualifications:
• Education: BA/BS required (Finance, Quantitative Field or Accounting preferred. CPA, MBA or JD/LLM, a plus)
• Candidate must have 5+ years of film and/or television industry finance or entertainment tax, or management audit experience.

Eligibility Requirements:
• Willingness to travel (domestic and international) and work extended hours if needed.
• Must be willing to submit to background check.
• Must have work authorization to work in the United States.
• Must be 18 years or older.
• Must be willing to work in Culver City, CA.
• Interested candidates must submit a resume/CV online to be considered.

Desired Characteristics:
• Strong communication skills, written / verbal, and ability to interact with employees at all levels, including upper management.
• Robust understanding of payroll process, union labor agreements and tax requirements.
• Proven ability to lead and manage.
• Candidates are required to be highly analytical, as well as strong effective communicators.
• High aptitude and enthusiasm for complex problem solving and analysis utilizing financial applications, including great Excel skills.
• He/she must thrive in a fast-paced environment, possess a high level of academic curiosity, focus on generating results and exhibit the highest personal and professional standards of integrity and ethics.

* Sony Pictures - CA - Culver City Area & Studios

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gm5pj2-3-145-56-150-42 in your application.