Manager, Production Finance Reporting & Analytics

The successful applicant will be responsible for providing high-level industry support of original content production, along with broader content creation through development of our financial accounting and reporting process for original owned productions. This role will have a high degree of interaction with the company's finance leadership, production and executive teams. The candidate must be hands-on, entrepreneurial, passionate about content and physical production, quick-thinking, elastic, able to pivot when necessary, systematic, has impeccable ethics, and is able to juggle multiple and diverse projects with a strong emphasis on organization and an unwavering attention to detail. The candidate will execute on a vision to develop a world class Production Finance operations team, comprising of its people, systems and policies.
This individual should demonstrate a high aptitude for critical thinking and analysis, tax credit, financial systems and labor/union foundational knowledge. You will be a part of a dynamic and creative SPT Production Finance team working directly with our production business units. The successful candidate will be a strategic partner to management teams enterprise wide. He/she should be extremely comfortable counseling business partners and influencing them towards decisions that have a valued business impact. The successful will work closely with freelance accountants during the course of production to provide compliance support.
Essential Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary administrator for the Summary of Picture Cost (SOPC) platform, ensuring efficient consolidation of cost reports from various productions into a centralized database, while maintaining operational functionality and data integrity.
• Guarantee accuracy and timeliness in financial reporting, including regular quality checks and managing deadlines for information submissions from production units. Prepare and distribute an executive summary of financial reports to Sony Pictures Television (SPT) executive stakeholders.
• Maintain effective communication with Production Finance teams, executive management, and other stakeholders, ensuring alignment and providing critical financial insights for strategic decision-making.
• Constantly seek opportunities to improve the SOPC platform and the overall financial reporting and analytics process. Stay abreast of industry trends and technological advancements to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and the value of financial insights provided.
• Develop deep partnerships with studio technology and research teams to deliver on major cross-functional measurements, testing, and modeling efforts with studio's Data Warehouse.
• Build out a "best in class" production data support models.
• Develop new data management techniques to improve production cost forecasting.
• Liaise with corporate tax, production audit, controllership, production and government relations teams to ensure proper compliance, including refreshing studio documentation and desktop procedures.
• Identify and leverage production financial and operations data to develop standardize metrics, data tools and methods to enhance production decision support.
• Research and become a subject matter expert all domestic and international production centers.
• Participate with Director of Tax Credits and Incentives for C&I planning, production metrics and production data consolidation in support of future initiatives.
• Coordinate with production accountants, estimators, finance and legal teams on all tax and incentive matters facing our productions
• Maintain knowledge of current industry trends pertaining to television and film production.
• Develop and manage production accountant hiring/ recruiting database.
• Ensure that the SPT financial controllership and production policies and procedures are uniformly implemented operationally and that payroll/AP/Reporting are in accordance with standards established by SPT.
• Support projects pertaining to union MOA updates, rate increases and compliance issues.
• Perform ad-hoc projects as required.

Technical Skills:

• Advanced experience with Excel and other Microsoft / Apple products.
• Intermediate/Advanced experience with Tableau/PowerBi/MicroStrategy VI tools.
• Intermediate/Advanced knowledge of Global Vista, Movie Magic, PSL, and Smart Accounting products.
• SAP experience required.

Basic Qualifications:

• Education: BA/BS required (Finance, Quantitative Field or Accounting preferred. CPA, MBA or JD/LLM, a plus)
• Candidate must have 4+ years of film and/or television industry Production Finance or entertainment tax, or management audit experience.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Willingness to travel (domestic and international) and work extended hours if needed.
• Must be willing to submit to background check.
• Must have work authorization to work in the United States.
• Must be 18 years or older.
• Must be willing to work in Culver City, CA.
• Interested candidates must submit a resume/CV online to be considered.

Desired Characteristics:

• Strong communication skills, written / verbal, and ability to interact with employees at all levels, including upper management.
• Robust understanding of payroll process, union labor agreements and tax requirements.
• Proven ability to lead and manage.
• Candidates are required to be highly analytical, as well as strong effective communicators.
• High aptitude and enthusiasm for complex problem solving and analysis utilizing financial applications, including great Excel skills.
• He/she must thrive in a fast-paced environment, possess a high level of academic curiosity, focus on generating results and exhibit the highest personal and professional standards of integrity and ethics.

The anticipated base salary for this position is $88,600-$121,700. This role may also qualify for annual incentive and/or comprehensive benefits. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location of the position.
Sony Pictures Entertainment is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other protected characteristics.
To request an accommodation for purposes of participating in the hiring process, you may contact us at SPE_Accommodation_Assistance@spe.sony.com.