Sr Manager, Rights Management - Legal & Business Affairs

About the role

The Opportunity: We're seeking a talented individual to lead and manage the implementation and management of Mattel's first comprehensive intellectual property rights management system and team, partnering cross-functionally with key stakeholders and varied teams throughout the company.

Responsibilities

• Develop an expertise in Mattel's intellectual property portfolio and rights
• Advise and manage Mattel's intellectual property portfolio with respect to rights management administration
• Analyze complex ownership and licensing arrangements and participations, royalties, and other rights-related payment structures
• Collaborate with key stakeholders to provide guidance to inquiries regarding rights and ensure that they are accurately reflected in the rights management system
• Analyze and provide guidance on complex licensing, entertainment, gaming, and IP agreements and other documents
• Manage escalations of rights management issues, with a knowledge of when to further escalate inquiries to deal leads and attorneys
• Responsible for being a super user of the rights management system
• Process Management: In advance of the full-scale launch of Mattel’s rights management system, join project team and work closely with the law department, IT, finance, and outside project consultants to assist in the design and implementation of the rights management system and system launch
• Create and drive new processes and find efficiencies for rights management
• Develop strong relationships with key stakeholders from business, legal, finance and accounting teams
• Collaborate with Mattel’s rights management platform owner for system changes and enhancements
• Interface with Mattel’s IP, entertainment, gaming, licensing, and inventor relations legal teams
• Create and implement process and advise and onboard team and stakeholders in the execution of such processes
• Drive user adoption of rights management tool
• Team Management: Lead and manage a team of 9+ legal professionals, comprised of individuals located in Los Angeles and India
• Responsible for managing and supervising day-to-day activities of the rights management team
• Provide leadership, guidance, and mentorship to the rights management team
• Monitor team productivity, analyze trending issues, and identify recurring issues and areas for improvement
• Work in collaboration and partnership with Mattel’s law department operations and IT teams

Requirements

Our ideal candidate will have relevant substantive experience, with a minimum of [10] years’ experience in rights management as a transactional attorney, paralegal, and/or rights/legal operations manager, with the following attributes, skills, and experience:

• Strong knowledge of intellectual property laws, including copyrights and licensing
• Strong experience with market leading enterprise rights management systems, preferably with RightsLogic
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively with internal and external stakeholders
• In depth knowledge and hands-on experience building or developing digital rights management tools; experience in database creation and management
• Tech savviness with knowledge and expertise in Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and other tools such as Tableau and PowerBI
• Solution- and client-oriented leader and team player
• Self-starter who works independently but knows when to elevate issues and seek advice from colleagues
• Intellectually curious and eager to develop
• Attention to detail in all areas, particularly as to contract review and analysis

Qualifications

• An undergraduate degree and if an attorney, a law degree, with strong academic performance at a highly-rated law school
• If an attorney, good standing with at least one state bar and, if not licensed to practice in California, then a commitment to register to practice in California pursuant to California’s in-house counsel registration requirements