Bully Pulpit International is an outcomes agency made up of strategists, data scientists, and artists. We come from politics, brands, and government and we communicate without barriers and measure what matters. We have more than 400 team members in six countries and thirteen offices - Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, D.C., London, Los Angeles, New York, Oslo, San Francisco, and Zürich. We apply our unique expertise across strategic communications, public affairs, research, and digital marketing to create sophisticated and customized strategies that make change possible for both American and European clients.
The Impact You Will Make
Bully Pulpit International is looking for an Associate Director of Business Affairs to lead the business affairs work supporting our integrated productions across film, photography, digital, social, audio and experiential content.
This is a hands-on role for someone who can navigate complex production needs, negotiate commercial terms, anticipate rights and clearance issues, and help teams move quickly with clear approvals and documentation.
As our production volume grows, this person will also help establish how Business Affairs, Production, Client Services, Finance, Operations and Legal work together. They will bring structure to those handoffs, clarify responsibilities and build practical processes that support the work from initial scope through delivery and usage renewal.
- Starting Salary Range: $125,000 - $150,000 (+ annual bonus)
- Expectation to work from one of our offices (Chicago, DC, NYC, SF, LA) at least 3 days a week
What the Day-to-Day Looks Like
Lead Production Business Affairs
- Partner with producers early in creative development and estimating to identify talent, licensing, clearance, contractual and usage requirements.
- Review production scopes, estimates and agreements for alignment on deliverables, rights, payment terms, assumptions and responsibilities.
- Negotiate commercial terms with production companies, photographers, directors, creators, talent representatives and other production partners within approved authority.
- Coordinate agreement review and execution, ensuring outstanding requirements are resolved or escalated before work begins.
- Manage external business affairs support and specialist partners as needed.
Manage Talent and Usage
- Oversee union and nonunion talent contracting, releases, usage terms, renewals and associated cost tracking.
- Apply working knowledge of SAG-AFTRA commercial production requirements and coordinate with signatory and payroll partners.
- Manage rights for music, stock footage, photography, fonts and other licensed materials.
- Maintain a central record of rights, territories, media, usage periods, restrictions and renewal deadlines.
- Help teams assess creator agreements and permissions relating to AI-assisted production, in partnership with Legal.
Connect Production and Finance
- Establish a clear workflow for approved scopes, vendor agreements, job numbers, purchase orders where required, invoices and payment milestones.
- Work with producers and Finance to reconcile contracted commitments, actual costs and changes in scope.
- Ensure BA costs and rights obligations are documented by job and reflected in production estimates and client scopes where applicable.
- Flag discrepancies between approved budgets, contracted terms and invoices, and coordinate their resolution.
- Support job closeout with complete contractual, rights and cost documentation.
Build the Workflow
- Create a consistent intake and prioritization process for BA requests across active projects.
- Develop standard agreements, checklists and escalation paths with Legal, Production, Finance and Operations.
- Clarify who reviews, approves and signs agreements, and document the handoffs between teams.
- Provide concise guidance and training so producers and client teams can identify BA needs earlier.
- Track open agreements, clearance issues, upcoming renewals and decisions that could affect delivery.
Partner with Legal and Client Teams
- Translate contractual and rights requirements into practical guidance for producers and Client Services.
- Identify matters requiring counsel, including complex intellectual property, indemnification, privacy or reputational concerns.
- Coordinate with internal counsel and outside specialists on escalated matters.
- Recommend workable options when a proposed approach creates cost, rights or contractual challenges.