Director, Income Tracking & Business Intelligence

Director, Income Tracking & Business Intelligence

Department: Royalties & Income Tracking
Location: London, UK
Hybrid Working: 3 days per week in the office
Employment Type: Full-time | Permanent

The Role

We are looking for a Director of Income Tracking & Business Intelligence to join our Royalties & BI team in London. In this role, you will lead a cross-territorial team responsible for maximizing global publishing collections, identifying and fixing underperforming tracking and revenue assurance processes, and delivering business intelligence to key stakeholders across Kobalt Publishing and the Kobalt Group.

You will manage five analysts who develop and refine workflows based on complex internal and external big data sets, identify gaps in royalty collections, and design automated mitigation processes to recover revenue as efficiently as possible. You will also lead cross-functional projects and translate findings into clear, actionable insights for our Executive Board to drive data-informed decision-making across Kobalt.

Working closely with the VP of Income Tracking & Business Intelligence, you will oversee relationships with third-party data providers to ensure our tools and services deliver value and support Kobalt's evolving business intelligence needs. This includes collaborating with colleagues across Royalties, Copyright, Technology, Writer & Publisher Relations, and Finance to ensure our processes remain efficient, accurate, properly resourced, and best-in-class in light of industry developments.

This position requires a combination of strong analytical expertise, deep music publishing knowledge, commercial acumen, and people leadership. The ideal candidate will have the ability to coach a high-performing team, manage and report ROI on structured operational processes, and foster creative analytical investigation.

What You'll Do

Income Tracking & Royalty Collections

• Develop and maintain processes to identify gaps in global publishing collections, investigate under-collections and support the recovery of outstanding revenue across all income streams.
• Develop and maintain forecasting methodologies to proactively prioritise income tracking activities and improve collection performance.
• Work closely with Copyright and Royalties teams to assess changes in royalty reporting, catalogue information and deal structures, ensuring tracking and analysis remain accurate and relevant.
• Monitor deal economics, including the recoupment of advances and minimum guarantee payments.
• Establish and maintain service level agreements (SLAs) for incoming requests, ensuring appropriate prioritisation and efficient turnaround times.

Business Intelligence & Reporting

• Develop and maintain internal business intelligence reporting tools, providing stakeholders with accurate, timely and actionable insights.
• Maintain KPI reporting, ensuring methods of data retrieval, analysis and presentation remain efficient and up to date.
• Produce regular reports to help stakeholders assess operational performance, identify risks and evaluate potential impacts on client royalty statements.
• Deliver ad hoc business intelligence analysis and reporting for internal and external stakeholders.
• Translate complex datasets into clear findings and recommendations to support commercial, operational and strategic decision-making.

Operational Leadership & Process Improvement

• Lead and develop a cross-territorial team, coordinating operational priorities and ensuring objectives are delivered within agreed timeframes.
• Document, review and improve operational processes, ensuring colleagues have clear guidance to complete tasks and resolve queries efficiently.
• Balance structured, recurring data-processing activities with more complex analytical investigations.
• Partner with the SVP, Royalties, to evaluate technology solutions, assessing effort, cost and potential impact to improve analytical efficiency.
• Identify opportunities to enhance existing tools, workflows and reporting processes in response to changing business requirements and industry standards.

Data Partnerships & Stakeholder Management

• Manage relationships with third-party data providers, including vendor evaluation, selection, performance reviews and contract renewals.
• Assess the return on investment of external data services, identifying opportunities to improve value and exploring alternative providers where appropriate.
• Work cross-functionally with Royalties, Copyright, Technology, Writer & Publisher Relations and Finance to understand requirements and develop practical solutions.
• Provide clear recommendations and communicate complex analytical findings to stakeholders with varying levels of technical knowledge and seniority.

What You'll Bring

Preferred

• Significant music industry experience with a strong understanding of music publishing, copyright and royalty administration processes.
• Experience managing, supervising and motivating teams, including colleagues working across different territories and time zones.
• Proven experience in income tracking, royalty analysis, business intelligence or a related analytical function, with a track record of reviewing and improving processes, reporting tools and analytical workflows.
• Knowledge of SQL or analytical programming languages such as Python or R for large-scale data processing and analysis.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage workload distribution, competing deadlines and under pressure deliveries.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience presenting complex information, recommendations and trade-offs to stakeholders across different functions and levels of seniority.

Additional Skills That Could Add Value

• Experience working with commercial KPIs and OKRs to monitor performance and drive operational improvements.
• Hands on experience developing business intelligence visualization dashboards such as Tableau.
• Experience managing third-party data providers, vendor relationships or commercial agreements.
• Familiarity with best-in-class Snowflake data platform and other emerging analytical technologies, automation and AI-enabled tools.

What Success Looks Like

By Month 3: You'll have developed a strong understanding of Kobalt's income tracking processes, reporting tools, third-party data partnerships and operational priorities. You'll have established relationships with key stakeholders, assessed existing workflows and identified opportunities for improvement.

By Month 6: You'll be confidently leading the team's operational activities, ensuring consistent KPI reporting, effective prioritisation of income tracking initiatives and timely delivery of business intelligence requests. You'll have begun implementing improvements to processes, reporting and analytical capabilities.

By Year 1: You'll have delivered measurable improvements in income tracking effectiveness, reporting quality and operational efficiency. Your team will have established reliable processes for identifying under-collections, supporting revenue recovery and delivering actionable business intelligence that informs decision-making across Kobalt.

Key Behaviours for Success

Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving – Interprets complex data, identifies trends and collection gaps, and develops practical solutions supported by evidence.

Ownership & Accountability – Takes responsibility for operational performance, follows through on commitments and ensures priorities are delivered accurately and on time.

Continuous Improvement & Innovation – Challenges existing processes, explores new technologies and identifies opportunities to improve efficiency, reporting and income tracking.

Leadership & Development – Provides clear direction, supports team development and model high-quality structured operational delivery based on analytical investigation.

Interview Process

• Introductory call with our Recruitment Team
• Hiring manager interview
• In person case study presentation
• Final stage interview

We aim to complete the full interview process from initial application to offer within three working weeks. While we do our best to meet this timeline, there may be occasional delays. If that happens, our Recruitment Team will keep you updated every step of the way.

Why Choose Us

At Kobalt, we've championed creators since 2000. Our technology and music services are built to make the industry more transparent, fair and rewarding for artists, songwriters and rights holders. We're proud to work with some of the world's most influential talents including Phoebe Bridgers, Sam Fender, Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, Karol G, Young Thug, Kali Uchis and Andrew Watt, as well as acclaimed writers like Simon Aldred (Rag'n'Bone Man, Liam Gallagher, Celeste) and Clarence Coffee Jr. (Dua Lipa, Lizzo, The Snuts).

We're a company that thrives on creativity, collaboration and progress. Our values — Music First, Transparent, Tech Powered and Transformative — shape how we work, build and grow together. We are a community of people who care deeply about making a meaningful impact in music and technology.

Kobalt is an equal opportunity employer. We believe in equitable access to opportunities and are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and supportive workplace. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and identities. If you need any adjustments during the hiring process, please let us know — we're happy to help.

If this sounds like you, then please share your story by filling out the application below.

Important Notice

Applicants must be eligible to work in the United Kingdom. A full DBS check will be conducted on acceptance of the offer. Kobalt is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any status or characteristic protected by law.