Director, Contract Administration

** This role sits in Burbank, CA, and this person is required to be on-site, 4 days/ week**

Role Summary

The Director, Contract Administration, is the leader of the Contract Administration team, and oversees all aspects of contract administration and development payment processes for Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and Walt Disney Animation Studios.  This role reports to the Deputy Chief Counsel, Production Legal, Administration & Operations.

The Team

The Contract Administration team manages contracts, facilitates development payments, tracks producing overall deals and rights expirations, and ensures that our writers, directors, producers, and rightsholders are timely and properly paid in accordance with their contracts and all guild and union requirements.  The team works closely with Business Affairs, Legal Affairs, Creative, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Production Finance, Labor Relations, and Physical Production across Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and Walt Disney Animation Studios.  The team is currently composed of a Manager, five Contract Administrators and one Contract Administration Coordinator.

Responsibilities          

• Contract Analysis – review talent agreements to identify rights and financial obligations, summarize key terms, conduct rights research, and generate reports as needed.

• Payments and Contract Administration – stay current on payroll systems, guild and tax rules; advise Business Affairs and Legal Affairs on compliance; coordinate with external reps; support payment processing from development through production; and manage turnaround/abandonment workflows.

• Calendaring/Notices – monitor and update critical development and production dates; send weekly reminders to studio executives; and ensure rights-related deadlines are included in department agendas.

• Database Consultation/Testing – collaborate with IT to improve internal contract database, define best practices, and lead testing of system updates. 

• Reporting – provide deal precedent data to Business Affairs and Legal Affairs; create and refine reports from internal database; and analyze contracts for scheduled and ad-hoc reporting. 

• Labor Matters – partner with Labor Relations to address WGA late payment claims and support union negotiations with ad-hoc reporting.

• Legal Matters – advise Legal Affairs on payroll, accounts payable, and tax policy compliance.

• Team Leadership and Strategic Planning – lead and develop a team of contract administrators, providing strategic oversight, ensuring compliance with organizational policies, and driving process improvements to support business objectives.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience

• 8 –10 years of experience in contract administration, legal operations, or business affairs within the entertainment industry.

• Minimum 5 years of experience managing a team

• Knowledge of payroll processes and applicable guild and union requirements, procedures, terminology, policies and standards.

• Strong analytical, organization, time-management and prioritization skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, multi-task and prioritize deadlines and deliverables.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills

• Detail-oriented mindset with exceptional proofreading skills

• Ability to interact, collaborate and communicate with personnel of various levels throughout the studio.

• Must be able to read and interpret legal contracts and guild and union collective bargaining agreements

• Prior work experience at a major studio

• Tech savvy mindset, with strong proficiency with the Microsoft Office Suite (e.g., Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams), and familiarity with document management systems (e.g., NetDocuments) and complex databases used to track deals, key dates and payments. Proven ability to lead the adoption and integration of AI-enabled tools, automation and smart technologies to enhance accuracy, efficiency and strategic insights in contract administration processes.

The hiring range for this position in Burbank, CA is $126,800 to $170,000 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.