Associate Director Licensing

Job description

Pocket FM is the world’s largest audio-series platform, where powerful stories travel effortlessly across languages, cultures, and continents. From India and the US to Europe and beyond, we are redefining how stories are created, discovered, and experienced globally—without screens. At our core, we are an AI-powered entertainment company with a deeply human-first philosophy. We believe technology should amplify creativity. Our proprietary AI systems work alongside writers, voice artists, and creative teams to help stories scale globally—faster, smarter, and with cultural depth and emotional integrity intact. Today, Pocket FM is home to 250M+ listeners, 300,000+ creators, and 100,000+ audio series, with over 140 billion minutes streamed annually. We operate at massive global scale, but with a startup mindset: curious, fast-moving, and deeply owner-driven. ### About the role **About the Role** This is a deal-closing role at its core. As an Account Executive on our IP Acquisitions team, you will own the acquisition and licensing of Romantasy IP that powers Pocket FM’s slate—turning leads into signed agreements and building the relationships that keep our pipeline full. Our commissioning team surfaces opportunities; your job is to convert them. You’ll take leads from first conversation through to closed deal, negotiating rights, terms, and economics that work for both the rights holder and Pocket FM. You’ll also cultivate your own relationships across the Romantasy ecosystem—authors, agents, publishers, platforms, and communities—so that Pocket FM becomes the obvious home for the genre’s best stories. We’re looking for a persuasive, commercially sharp dealmaker who either knows this genre from the inside (licensing/publishing) or knows how to sell and happens to love the space. Either way, you close. ### Key Responsibilities **Key Responsibilities** - Convert leads from the commissioning team into signed licensing agreements, owning negotiations end-to-end: rights scope, territories, formats, exclusivity, and commercial terms. - Drive deals forward with urgency—managing objections, structuring creative terms, and getting to “yes” without losing favorable economics. - Consistently hit acquisition targets and deal-velocity goals. - Develop and own relationships with authors, agents, publishers, and platform partners across the Romantasy space. - Be a credible, enthusiastic ambassador for Pocket FM—articulating why creators should bring their IP to our platform. - Cultivate repeat and referral pipeline so that relationships compound into future deals. - Assess the commercial and creative potential of opportunities, developing a sharp point of view on what’s worth acquiring and at what price. - Use genre knowledge and market signals to prioritize the highest-value targets. - Manage your deal pipeline in CRM with accurate, real-time visibility into every active and signed deal. - Track conversion, velocity, and pipeline health, and report clearly to leadership. - Manage deal documentation—contracts, amendments, renewals, expirations—cleanly from close through handoff. - Partner with Legal, Editorial, Creative Development, Production, and Finance to move signed deals into production smoothly. - Onboard newly signed rights holders and give internal teams the creative, legal, and commercial context they need. ### Qualifications **About You** - 3–7+ years closing deals in licensing, content acquisition, rights sales, business development, or partnerships. - A proven track record of independently negotiating and closing deals—you can point to specific wins. - Genre fit is essential. Either: (a) a licensing/publishing background in romantasy, fantasy romance, romance, fantasy, web novels, or serialized fiction, or (b) a strong sales/BD background paired with genuine fandom and fluency in the space (BookTok, romantasy, web serials, key authors, popular tropes, and what makes a story adaptable). - Strong negotiation and persuasion skills; comfortable owning commercial terms and holding the line on economics. - Solid understanding of IP rights, contract structures, and licensing frameworks—or the ability to ramp fast. - Disciplined pipeline and CRM management; you keep deals moving and nothing slips. - Thrives in a fast-paced, high-volume, ambiguous environment. - Experience with creator-first or fast-growing content platforms (Wattpad, Royal Road, Substack, Radish, Inkitt, Webnovel, microdrama, or audio) is a strong plus.