Business Affairs Director

Overview

This role is responsible for senior commercial leadership and independently managing some of the most significant, complex, and strategically important entertainment negotiations for PlayStation Productions, an in-house production team focused on bringing PlayStation game franchises to new audiences through film, television, and other entertainment formats.

This is a senior individual contributor role based in Culver City, CA. The position does not have direct people management responsibility, but operates as a senior leader through expertise, influence, judgment, and functional leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead the organization’s most complex, material, and strategically significant commercial negotiations across film, television, and other entertainment projects, including development, production, licensing, co-production, and related content arrangements.
• Set and drive commercial strategy for assigned transactions, including establishing negotiating positions, identifying value drivers and acceptable trade-offs, and determining paths to successful outcomes.
• Independently negotiate with senior external counterparties, including studios, streaming platforms, production companies, producers, agencies, talent representatives, and other rights holders, representing the organization’s interests with credibility and authority.
• Structure and negotiate key business terms across a range of entertainment agreements, including writer, producer, director, talent, attachment, option/purchase, licensing, co-production, and related deals.
• Serve as a senior advisor to leadership on business affairs matters, providing recommendations on deal structures, commercial models, negotiation strategy, market precedent, business risk, and long-term implications.
• Evaluate when established market or company precedent should be followed, challenged, or evolved, balancing project requirements with potential future implications.
• Partner with Finance to understand project economics, valuations, value drivers, and financial guardrails, translating inputs into commercial strategy and negotiating positions.
• Partner with Legal to ensure negotiated commercial positions are reflected in agreements and to resolve commercial issues during long-form negotiations.
• Work closely with first-party game studios and IP creators to understand franchise priorities, rights considerations, and long-term strategic objectives, ensuring deal structures protect and enhance IP value.
• Develop creative solutions to complex or novel commercial issues, balancing creative ambition, partner objectives, economics, risk, and the organization’s long-term interests.
• Assess broader implications of significant deal terms and structures across the PlayStation Productions portfolio, identifying precedent, opportunities, and risks beyond individual transactions.
• Build and maintain senior relationships across the entertainment ecosystem, including studios, platforms, agencies, producers, representatives, and other strategic partners.
• Maintain strong understanding of entertainment industry economics, market practices, competitive dynamics, emerging business models, and evolving deal structures to inform commercial positions.
• Provide subject matter leadership and expertise across PlayStation Productions and the broader organization as a trusted resource on entertainment deal-making and business affairs.
• Drive cross-functional alignment on deals, synthesizing internal stakeholder perspectives and escalating material commercial decisions when appropriate.

Qualifications & Experience

• 10 to 15 years of progressive experience in entertainment business affairs, deal-making, or a closely related commercial role, ideally within a major studio, streaming platform, television network, production company, agency, or other sophisticated entertainment organization.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience required.
• JD, MBA, or other relevant advanced degrees preferred but not required.
• Extensive experience independently leading complex, high-value, strategically significant entertainment transactions, with a demonstrated track record of successful negotiations with senior executives and sophisticated counterparties.
• Deep expertise in entertainment industry business models, economics, and deal structures, including customs and practices across film and television.
• Strong working knowledge of intellectual property, licensing, development, production, and distribution arrangements and their commercial implications.
• Demonstrated ability to develop commercial and negotiation strategy, evaluate deal economics and value drivers, and structure solutions to complex or novel business issues.
• Exceptional negotiation skills and commercial judgment, including the ability to assess leverage, determine trade-offs, navigate impasses, and recognize when deal terms may create broader precedent.
• Demonstrated ability to operate with significant independence, authority, and discretion in high-stakes or sensitive negotiations involving senior internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong executive presence to establish credibility and influence executives and counterparties at all levels.
• Ability to provide clear, pragmatic recommendations to senior leadership by distilling complex issues into actionable choices and explaining implications of different paths.
• Ability to influence across functions and organizations without relying on reporting-line authority.
• Strong strategic thinking and creative problem-solving skills, especially when navigating ambiguity, novel business models, or precedent-setting transactions.
• Ability to manage multiple sophisticated negotiations and priorities simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience working with video game intellectual property, franchise-based entertainment, or adaptations is a plus.

Preferred Qualifications

• JD, MBA, or other relevant advanced degrees (preferred but not required).
• Experience with video game intellectual property, franchise-based entertainment, or adaptations (plus).

Compensation & Benefits

• Base pay range (example provided for Seattle): $217,000—$325,000 USD
• Base pay range may vary based on hybrid working policy and job-related factors, including knowledge, skills, experience, and location.
• Eligible for a top-tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program, and employee discounts for Sony products.
• This role may be eligible for a bonus package.

Location

• Culver City, CA
• Flexible role that can be remote, with varying pay ranges based on geographic location.