Distribution Operations Billing Manager-Mastering

Distribution Operations Billing Manager – Mastering

On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we're reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world's most beloved stories while also transforming Disney's media business for the future. Whether that's evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to maximize flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney's unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

The Distribution Operations Mastering department are responsible for the mastering of all titles produced by 20th Television, ABC Signature Studios, Freeform, FX Productions, Disney Branded Television, Hulu, and other production entities, including content acquired for Disney+ and Hotstar. The Distribution Operations Mastering department liaise with studios, production companies, post-production, third party audio and QC vendors to acquire, QC, prepare and transform both preliminary and final materials for localization, servicing, and global archival purposes.

The Mastering department are the gateway between production and consumption of over 300 television series enjoyed by global audiences on multiple platforms including Disney+, Hulu, Hotstar, FX, ABC Network, Disney Channels, and Freeform.

The Distribution Ops Billing Manager – Mastering is responsible for overseeing the financial operations of the mastering workflow, including budget tracking, forecasting and development and maintenance of the Estimated Final Cost (EFC) projections across a portfolio of titles. This role partners with the Director of Mastering, Finance, Production and vendor teams to ensure accurate cost planning, real time visibility into spend and alignment between operational delivery and financial commitments.

The role manages the full lifecycle spend, including third party purchase orders, reconciliation and closeout, while proactively identifying risks, variances and opportunities for cost efficiency. Through consistent tracking and reporting, this position ensures financial accountability across mastering activities and supports executive-level reporting and decision making.

This individual will also support process improvements related to billing workflows, reporting accuracy and financial systems, helping scale operations in a high-volume, fast paced environment. They'll need to have a core understanding of the mastering workflow, provide insight into efficiencies and over all tracking of the health of a title in current systems.

• Create, update, and close mastering third-party purchase orders, ensuring services, rates, deliverables, and title-specific mastering requirements are accurately reflected and aligned with post-production delivery schedules and operational milestones.
• Manage budgeting, forecasting, and Estimated Final Cost (EFC) projections for mastering activities, providing visibility into title-level costs, workflow risks, and resource requirements throughout the content lifecycle
• Develop and maintain Estimated Final Cost (EFC) reports for assigned titles, ensuring financial data accurately reflects mastering progress, vendor commitments, and evolving production and delivery schedules.
• Create, update, and close mastering third party purchase orders, ensuring services, rates, and deliverables are accurately reflected and aligned with approved schedules.
• Partner with Finance, post-production teams, and third-party vendors to resolve billing discrepancies, address workflow impacts, and support accurate financial, operational, and executive reporting.
• Monitor vendor performance, milestone completion, and mastering deliverables to ensure work is completed on schedule, approved for payment, and aligned with title launch and distribution requirements.
• Ensure third party billing transaction status's are captured accurately at all times to ensure real time dashboarding for Executive level view.
• Lead or support cross-functional initiatives focused on improving mastering workflows, vendor management processes, financial controls, operational efficiency, and reporting accuracy.
• Process Improvement & Innovation: perform ad hoc Mastering administrative tasks, including, but not limited to SOP documentation, metrics gathering, weekly report, creation of presentations
• Oversee applicable workflows, ensuring all deliveries have been completed and material has been received in Disney's archival inventory.
• Communicate deadlines and delivery expectations across functional teams for downstream workflow needs.
• Escalate delivery delays to appropriate teams, inclusive of contingency plan(s).
• Partner with other stakeholders to ensure accurate readiness of assets (rights, plans, components, artwork, metadata, etc. depending on specific vertical).
• Documenting, troubleshooting, and escalating issues - ultimately driving to resolution through…