Job Description
Music is Universal
It’s the passionate and dedicated team at Universal Music who help make us the world’s leading music company. From A&R to finance, legal to digital, sales to marketing, Universal Music is the place to grow and develop your career within a truly commercial and innovative business that leads in everything it does.
Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, age, marital status, background, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities. We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought within our teams and are fully committed to embracing the talents of people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and other forms of neurocognitive variation.
We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to recruitment, workplaces, and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles. If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments for you from application onwards, including alternatives to the online form or to disclose a neurocognitive condition, please email UniversalMusicCareers@umusic.com.
Position Overview: We are looking for a detail-oriented and experienced Financial Controller to manage our financial operations, ensuring timely and accurate financial reporting.
The ideal candidate will have a strong background in financial management, accounting, and compliance, with the ability to work collaboratively across departments.
Key Responsibilities:
Financial Ownership:
Oversee month-end financials within corporate deadlines, including accruals, interface closings, journal entries, balance sheet reconciliations, and variance analysis.
Prepare and submit monthly HFM reports to corporate finance, along with the management pack and variance analysis for cash flow and P&L.
Lead the preparation of the annual budget and quarterly forecasts using BPC, ensuring timely submissions to corporate finance, and preparing board packs and internal analyses.
Provide visibility of performance against KPIs by creating dashboards and delivering monthly presentations.
Track and report on financial information related to investments, evaluating success against KPIs using various BI tools. Manage financial accounting responsibilities, including the preparation of statutory accounts and serving as the liaison with external auditors.
Collaborate with the Production Department and UMG Tax Team to gather information for the BFI and facilitate tax credit submissions to HMRC.
Maintain an effective control framework, including designing and implementing approval mechanisms for key commercial decisions, as well as maintaining robust RTR, PTP, and OTC controls.
Collaborative Engagement:
Manage the Management Accountant, fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture.
Support the Head of Finance with overseeing production finance activities
Ensure compliance with tax legislation and appropriate film tax credit structures for film production.
Support the label CFO with commercial, financial, and internal controls as needed.
Lead projects, as needed by the organisation
Person Specification Essential:
Professionally Qualified Accountant with post-qualification experience (ACA or ACCA).
Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Accounting, or Finance with a strong academic record.
Extensive experience in preparing statutory accounts and audit files. Detailed knowledge of IFRS and UK GAAP.
Ability to operate at both a senior financial level and in a hands-on capacity.
Self-motivated with strong organizational and communication skills, and a keen attention to detail.
Previous experience with SAP, A4O, BPC, and HFM reporting suites.
Proven ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
Advanced knowledge of Excel.
Project management and delivery experience Desirable:
Experience in the media or music business.
Familiarity with database queries
Experience working with outsourced RTR and PTP functions
Just So You Know…
The company presents this job description as a guide to the major areas and duties for which the jobholder is accountable. However, the business operates in an environment that demands change and the jobholder's specific responsibilities and activities will vary and develop. Therefore, the job description should be seen as indicative and not as a permanent, definitive, and exhaustive statement.
Job Category:
Finance & Accounting
We are UMG, the Universal Music Group.
We are the world’s leading music company.
In everything we do, we are committed to artistry, innovation and entrepreneurship.
We own and operate a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising, and audiovisual content in more than 60 countries.
We identify and develop recording artists and songwriters, and we produce, distribute and promote the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music to delight and entertain fans around the world.
Our vast catalog of recordings and songs stretches back over a century and comprises the largest, most diverse and culturally rich collection of music ever assembled.
As digital technology refashions the world, our unmatched commitment to lead in developing new services, platforms and business models for the delivery of music and related content empowers innovators and allows new commercial and artistic opportunities to flourish.
Knowing that music, a powerful force for good in the world, is unique in its ability to inspire people and bring them together, we work with our artists and employees to serve our communities.
We are the home for music’s greatest artists, innovators and entrepreneurs.
Together, we are UMG, the Universal Music Group.