Manager, Rights & IP

Job Purpose -

• Responsible for end-to-end contract management, rights validation and strategy support, and ISBN administration, ensuring effective risk management, compliance, and governance across the publishing lifecycle.

Key Accountabilities & Relationships – what I need to do and who I need to engage

• Provide end-to-end contract support, including pre-contract guidance, contract execution, document retention, archival, retrieval, and tracking of contract expiries and renewals.
• Advise stakeholders on appropriate contracting requirements and facilitate efficient contract management processes across the business.
• Identify and manage IP-related risks, escalating non-standard or complex matters to Group Legal and collaborating closely to ensure compliant outcomes.
• Maintain accurate contract metadata within Rights Management Systems and related databases.
• Analyse publishing agreements, licensing arrangements, and royalty provisions to ensure accurate rights administration and financial processing.
• Ensure titles and contributors are correctly mapped within systems to facilitate accurate revenue-sharing and royalty disbursements.
• Support Finance by providing author and rights-holder revenue allocation details for sublicensing income and related rights transactions.
• Assess and validate rights ownership and permissions for OUP content, ensuring the necessary rights are in place before entering licensing or commercial arrangements.
• Manage and respond to third-party requests relating to the licensing of copyrighted content.
• Administer ISBN allocation and management processes, ensuring compliance with publishing and metadata standards.
• Build effective working relationships with Editorial, Product, Sales, Finance, Operations, Rights, and Group Legal teams to support business objectives and ensure strong governance.

Success Measures – how I succeed

• Risk mitigation and IP governance
• Implementing and managing the Rights Management System efficiently
• Cost effective sourcing of third-party assets and promoting re-use of existing IP
• Increased IP awareness across division

Knowledge, Skills & Attributes – what I need to know

• Good understanding of copyright law and rights and permissions best practices
• Well versed with legal terms
• Excellent communication, interpersonal skills, experienced with communicating at all levels of an organisation and across different cultures.
• Capable of professionally managing confidential information
• Exemplify a strong attention to detail