Manager, Contract Administration

The Role

We are looking for a Manager to join Kobalt's Contract Administration team in Nashville. The team plays a critical role in interpreting, onboarding, and administering client agreements, ensuring contractual terms are accurately reflected across Kobalt's systems and downstream operations.

This is a critical leadership position focused on the strategic oversight, accuracy, and scalability of our contract administration and onboarding operations. You will be responsible for ensuring that our client agreements are translated into Kobalt's systems with precision and operational efficiency.

This role is suited to a leader who combines technical expertise in music publishing with a passion for departmental governance, process optimization, and team development. You will set the standard for how we ingest and interpret complex agreements, acting as the primary business partner to our stakeholders in Business Affairs. Your mandate is to elevate the team's performance, drive efficiency in our workflows, and ensure our data integrity remains the gold standard for transparency and accuracy.
What You'll Do

• Lead, manage, and develop a high performing team, fostering a culture of excellence and professional growth.
• Own end-to-end documentation for key departmental workflows and support training to ensure consistency across the team.
• Act as the primary point of escalation for complex contract interpretations and cross-departmental operational challenges.
• Work closely with Director, Contract Administration and Director, Client Onboarding to assess the operational feasibility of proposed contractual terms and data requirements for new and existing clients.
• Drive strategic initiatives to optimize contract administration workflows, system architecture, and team productivity.
• Partner with the Product team to identify, test, and implement technical enhancements that scale operational capacity and throughput, while ensuring effective adoption and usage across the team.
• Effectively delegate work across the team, monitoring progress to ensure timely completion and escalating complex issues or bottlenecks appropriately.
• Interpret and onboard key commercial and contractual terms for publishing agreements into Kobalt's internal systems.
• Ingest copyrights as part of new client signings and ongoing song deliveries, ensuring data accuracy and completeness.
• Other team responsibilities as assigned.

What You'll Bring

Preferred:

• At least five years of experience within music publishing.
• Proven experience in people management, including performance coaching, performance management, and team development.
• Strong leadership and influencing skills, with the ability to translate complex contractual data into actionable insights for stakeholders and communicate effectively across all levels of the organization.
• Demonstrated ability to drive operational change and manage projects from inception to completion.
• Strong analytical skills, with a proven ability to assess operational feasibility, identify trends, and leverage data to make informed decisions and process improvements.
• Strong ability to build and maintain relationships with internal stakeholders (e.g., Dealmakers, Business Affairs, Royalties, W&PR, Copyright).
• Proven expertise reading and interpreting music publishing contracts.
• A strong understanding of the global music publishing landscape, including experience working with PROs and CMOs.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to adapt messaging for different audiences.
• Technical fluency and a forward-thinking mindset, with the ability to bridge the gap between operational needs and system requirements to drive process automation.

Additional Skills That Could Add Value:

• Experience with large-scale data ingestion standards (e.g., CWR, CIF, or .csv formats).
• Familiarity with data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker, or Power BI) to track KPIs and operational trends.
• Prior experience leading departmental change management or system migration projects.

What Success Looks Like

By Month 3: Transition from initial onboarding to full team integration and deep system and process mastery.
By Month 6: Focus on driving process improvements and elevating team performance.
By Year 1: Focus on departmental strategy and developing talent.
Key Behaviors for Success

• People Development: Invests time in coaching and empowering team members to reach their full potential.
• Strategic Thinking: Looks beyond day to day tasks to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for the business.
• Ownership & Accountability: Takes responsibility for work end-to-end, following issues through to resolution and escalating thoughtfully when needed.
• Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing: Works closely with Business Affairs, Operations, and junior team members to ensure shared understanding and consistent execution.

Interview Process

• Introductory call with a member of our Recruitment Team
• Interview with the hiring manager
• Final interview with team, including onsite activity

We aim to complete the process within three working weeks. If timelines shift, our Recruitment Team will keep you informed throughout.