Pearson India | Specialist, Financial Operations

Key responsibilities

• The role owns complex royalty data analysis, supplier and royalty reconciliations, database integrity, advance and earnings payments, and the accurate application of agreement and product structures across multiple geographies.
• You will also work closely with the Manager to monitor critical deliverables, maintain transparent progress reporting, lead quality and validation activities, prepare preliminary transaction reporting, and improve the capability of the wider team through mentoring and technical guidance.
• Promote strong ownership, customer focus, control discipline and continuous improvement across the team.
• Working with a high degree of autonomy, you will lead payout-based projects, make standard and non-standard operational recommendations, and provide trusted advice on royalty processing, product structures and payment setups.
• You will partner with business and technology stakeholders to resolve complex issues, strengthen data quality and ensure that royalty outcomes align with contractual requirements and business objectives.
• Analyse complex royalty data and validate the integrity of the royalty calculations database and connected operational records.
• Ensure royalty calculations, statement outputs, advances and earnings payments reflect approved agreement terms, product structures and payment setups.
• Conduct routine and risk-based quality checks, control reviews and data validation exercises across high-value or complex royalty activity.
• Identify data gaps, anomalous results and processing risks; assess root causes and coordinate corrective action before release or payment.
• Maintain clear, audit-ready evidence of analysis, validation, decisions, approvals and adjustments.
• Reconciliations, Supplier Accounts and Payments.
• Lead the reconciliation of royalty supplier accounts, statements, advances, earnings and related balances, identifying and resolving discrepancies promptly.
• Maintain supplier and payment-related records and ensure accurate, authorised and complete system entries.
• Oversee complex royalty statement and payment processing, ensuring compliance with contractual terms, operating procedures and relevant controls.
• Review unusual, high-value or non-standard payment scenarios and make recommendations within delegated authority.
• Lead or provide senior specialist support for payout-based projects across multiple geographies, from analysis and planning through validation and controlled delivery.
• Monitor milestones, exceptions and actions, communicating progress and decision requirements clearly and early.
• Coordinate cross-functional inputs to ensure project outcomes align with business objectives, contractual requirements and operational readiness.
• Conduct post-implementation review and translate lessons learned into stronger processes, controls and documentation.
• Advisory Support on Agreements and Product Structures.
• Provide expert operational advice on royalty payouts, product structures, agreement terms and payment setups to support accurate processing and informed business decisions.
• Assess the operational impact of proposed or existing structures and highlight dependencies, limitations, risks and downstream consequences.
• Partner with Portfolio, Editorial, Rights, Royalties, Finance, Legal and other owners to clarify requirements and support correct system treatment.
• Provide timely, clear and evidence-based responses to complex stakeholder, author and agent inquiries.
• Ensure prompt and high-quality action on OneCRM tickets, prioritising material, aged or recurring escalations and driving them to resolution.
• Analyse escalation trends to identify systemic issues, control weaknesses and opportunities to improve author experience.
• Build trusted relationships across internal and external stakeholder groups and influence resolution of complex operational matters.
• Communicate risks, trade-offs and recommendations in a way that enables timely decisions.
• Partner with technical teams and business stakeholders to investigate data inquiries, system defects, interface issues and processing anomalies.
• Support root-cause analysis, solution design, testing and implementation validation to ensure issues are resolved sustainably.
• Contribute to automation, reporting-tool development, data governance and process standardisation initiatives.
• Reporting, Controls and Audit Readiness.
• Prepare preliminary reports, summaries and analysis of royalty transactions, reconciliations, exceptions and payout activity for team and management review.
• Work with the Manager to monitor key tasks, service levels, risks, backlogs and project progress, ensuring accurate and transparent reporting.
• Prepare complete documentation and work papers for author audits, internal reviews, external audits and control testing.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Commerce, Business Administration or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Substantial relevant experience in royalty operations, financial operations, publishing, rights administration or a comparable complex transaction environment.
• Experience in publishing, rights or royalties is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated expertise in royalty or financial data analysis, reconciliations, payment processing, database validation and complex discrepancy resolution.
• Experience leading projects, workstreams or material operational deliverables across multiple stakeholders or geographies.
• Experience providing technical guidance or mentoring to colleagues and improving the quality of team outputs.
• Strong experience managing internal and external stakeholders and communicating complex information, risks and recommendations.
• Knowledge of royalty calculations, author agreements, product structures, advances, earnings payments and intellectual property management tools.
• Experience with supplier account maintenance, OneCRM or comparable case-management workflows, author inquiries and escalations.
• Experience supporting audits, control testing, system implementation, data migration, automation or reporting-tool development.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills and experience with royalty, ERP, workflow, database or business intelligence tools.

Pearson plc

Samuel Pearson joined a small Huddersfield firm in 1844, and the business grew into S. Pearson & Son, a building and civil engineering contractor that moved its headquarters to London in 1884. It became a public company in 1969 and later turned to publishing and, more recently, education. Pearson trades on the London Stock Exchange and has American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange. It now describes itself as an education and assessment company, with businesses in assessment and qualifications, virtual learning, English language learning, higher education, and enterprise learning and skills. Its Indian offices are in Noida, Bengaluru and Chennai.

Its finance openings in India have included specialist roles in payroll in Bengaluru and in financial operations in Noida.

• Industry: Education and assessment: qualifications, assessment, English language learning, higher education and workforce learning
• Headquarters: London, United Kingdom (listed on the London Stock Exchange, with American depositary receipts on the NYSE)
• In India: Pearson India Education Services Private Limited, with offices in Noida, Bengaluru and Chennai