Senior Manager - Forensic Accounting and Royalties

Alternatively, Grant Thornton

At Grant Thornton we do things differently - looking to the future, driving ambitious growth and pioneering positive change in our industry. Providing audit, tax and advisory services, we empower clients through strategic insight, curiosity, and genuine partnership. And we empower our people with real opportunity, an inclusive culture and work life balance. A true alternative.

With over 5,000 people in the UK, and a presence in 150 global markets, we're on an ambitious journey, from great to exceptional, and we need the best people to help us achieve our potential. And with that comes the opportunity to help redefine what our industry looks like, and what you want from your career.

Job Description:

Are you interested in an exciting opportunity to apply your problem solving, data analytics expertise and sceptical forensic mindset to a commercially focused situation, providing real time added value to our clients and providing you with an opportunity to take on that next challenge in your career.

As a Senior Manager - Forensic Accounting & Royalties, you will be directly responsible for the commercial and operational performance of our team. Your role will involve working primarily with the industries mentioned below, dealing directly with stakeholders responsible for operations and strategy, finance, and legal functions at both our clients and the third parties that we review.

The role will require you to work across different global territories and languages, providing our forensically focused and data enabled, tailored third-party contract reviews.  And there’s opportunity for international travel as well.

As a Senior Manager - Forensic Accounting & Royalties, you would operate across three core areas:

1: We work with some of the largest Global Film & TV Producers and Studios in a variety of areas including, theatrical licensee reviews, royalty audits and production cost grant certifications.

2: We work with internationally recognised Brands and Intellectual Property Owners, ensuring they maximise value from their IP from either their core business model or in their merchandising programmes. Our clients include many household names you will recognise.

3: Finally, we support multinational Pharmaceutical and Tech companies with what can be complex and technical commercial agreements, reviewing that our client is receiving what they are contractually due from third parties .

The work involves reviewing licensees and partners on behalf of the IP owners to ensure our clients are maximising commercial value, receiving all monies due to them and assisting our client manage commercial and operational risks.

A look into the role

As a Senior Manager - Forensic Accounting & Royalties, you will:

• Oversee and project manage the operational execution and risk management of third-party reviews
• Manage a diverse portfolio of clients and be responsible for stakeholder management across clients, third parties, their advisors and internal leadership alike. Establishing and developing trusted working relationship is an essential part of the role
• Be a proactive, self-driven, independent thinker and operate with a problem solvers mindset. This includes solve complex technical matters for our clients and developing tailored review strategies incl. contract risk assessments
• Responsible for driving operational strategy, embracing change (particularly technological advancements) to continually improve the high-quality service we offer clients, and the effectiveness of our operational execution
• Own various aspect of wider department responsibilities including, commercial performance, risk management, operational efficiency, business development execution and driving a culture of continual development
• Oversee and develop your team to the highest standard, motivating and coaching team members and providing feedback through regular communication and timely appraisals whilst being familiar with relevant training and development options
• Take responsibility for your own personal development Constantly strive to push yourself and the business further, knowing you’re supported through every stage

Knowing you’re right for us

Joining us as a Senior Manager, the minimum criteria you’ll need is:

• A professional qualification (ACA, ICAS, CA, ACCA or CIPFA)
• Experience overseeing professional service teams of a similar nature and can demonstrate a track record of managing teams of 3+ direct reports
• Project management experience, including providing both verbal and written status updates to client and third parties, (ideally related to complex forensically focused projects although this industry specialism is not essential)
• An ability to demonstrate how you have contributed to delivering commercial success in your prior roles, including contributing to team strategy, delivering operational enhancement and how you have embraced technology change in your role
• Experience developing work plans and testing approaches independently to deal with complex challenges, ideally having worked in a forensically focused environment or experience in commercially focused contract compliance
• Experience in applying your business acumen (staying up to date with our clients’ operations) and commercial awareness to understand the implications of complex contractual terms, and the impact these have on the associated risks for our clients
• Risk management responsibility, ensuring our clients focus risk are sufficiently scrutinised, reviewing working papers and reports to ensure our quality standards are met and finally identifying complex review issues that require further assessment with the senior leadership team
• A track record of adherence to your firm and respective teams risk management policies and procedures, including being the responsible individual for advising junior staff on the application of these policies and ensuring they remain up to date, in an ever-adapting business environment
• Experience preparing reports and the ability to succinctly articulate findings related to complex matters in a format suitable for c-suite stakeholders
• Extensive experience of using Microsoft packages (particularly Microsoft Excel)

It would be great if you had some of the following skills, but don’t worry if you don’t tick every box, we’ll help you develop along the way.

• 3+ years focused experience working within the intellectual property and licensing industry including detailed knowledge of royalty structures, licensing agreements, and common intellectual property rights clauses
• 3+ years’ experience in forensically challenging third parties’ evidence and a track record of demonstrating professional scepticism and risk management in your managerial role
• Extensive experience and working knowledge of how your teams can utilise advanced data analysis tools (for example Alteryx, Python, SQL etc), data visualisation tools (for example Power BI and Tableau) and a working knowledge of how Generative AI can be implemented within the teams day to day activities
• Directly contributed to engagement economics, managed commercial discussions with clients and can demonstrate how you operated in a manner that provided both high quality work and commercial excellence in these situations
• Involvement in Business Development activities, which may include; production and presentation of proposal and marketing material, new from new targeting activities in the market, internally focused X-LoS business development in professional services setting or growing existing client relationships

• Has operated as an 'ambassador' of the firm, with a working knowledge of the wide range of services the firm offers

• Multi-lingual to a level of fluency that enables you to operate entirely in a different language

Knowing we’re right for you

Embracing uniqueness, the culture at Grant Thornton thrives on the contributions of all our people, we never settle for what is easy, we look beyond to deliver the right thing, for everyone.  Building an inclusive culture, where we value difference and respect our colleagues helps our people to perform at the best of their ability and realise their potential.

Our open and accessible culture means you’ll interact with leaders who are interested in you and everything you bring to our firm. The things that set you apart, we value them. That’s why we give you the freedom to bring your whole self to work and pursue your passions inside and outside of work.

Beyond the job 

Life is more than work. The things you do, and the people you’re with outside of work matter, that’s why we’re happy to look at flexible working options for all our roles, and we’ll always do our best to keep your work and life in balance.

The impact you can make here will go far beyond your day job. From secondments, to fundraising for local charities, or investing in entrepreneurs in the developing world, you’ll be giving back to society.

It’s that drive to do the right thing that runs through our every move, grounded in our firm’s values – purposefully driven, actively curious and candid but kind.

We’re looking for people who want to contribute, spark fresh ideas and go beyond expectations. People who want to be able to proudly do what’s right, for the firm, our clients, our people and themselves. It’s how it should be.

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