Royalty Audit Assistant (12-month FTC)

Bertelsmann-Jobs; Colchester; Hybrid; GBP 26,000 - 31,000; Full time

Job summary

Penguin Random House UK is seeking a Royalty Audit Assistant to join the Royalties team in Frating, Essex. You will review third‑party royalty reporting, identify discrepancies, and analyse data to inform audit planning in a collaborative environment.

The role supports the Royalty Audit Analyst, handling tax recovery with overseas stakeholders and reconciling data across multiple sources. Hybrid working is available with one day per week in the Frating office.

Qualifications

• Good numerical and analytical skills with a high level of accuracy.
• Good Excel skills and experience reconciling large datasets.
• Experience working with financial, royalty or other transactional data.
• Ability to identify discrepancies and clearly document findings.
• Strong written and verbal communication with internal and external stakeholders.
• Curious and questioning approach to investigations.

Responsibilities

• Lead the recovery of excess tax deducted from German sublicensees and complete refund applications.
• Support analysis and recovery of tax deducted on Ventures income from overseas sub‑agents.
• Support royalty audits through analysis and reconciliation of data from third‑party licensees.
• Analyse high‑value author and brand royalty statements, identify anomalies, support audit planning.
• Perform quality assurance checks on cash and royalty statements, escalate errors.
• Track improvements from royalty audit reviews and follow up on actions.

Skills

Numerical analysis

Excel skills

Royalty data experience

Attention to detail

Communication skills

Curious mindset

Job description

Job Description

We have an exciting opportunity for a Royalty Audit Assistant to join our Royalties team in Frating, Essex. If you enjoy working with data, investigating discrepancies and using analysis to get to the bottom of financial information, this could be a great opportunity to develop your experience in a supportive team.

The Role

Supporting the Royalty Audit Analyst, you'll review third-party royalty reporting, undertake audit and quality assurance activities, and analyse and reconcile data to help identify potential discrepancies. Your analysis will help inform audit planning and investigations, while you'll also take ownership of recovering income arising from overseas tax deductions, liaising with both internal colleagues and external stakeholders.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the recovery of excess tax deducted from German sublicensees, including obtaining appropriate documentation from third parties and completing refund applications through overseas tax portals.
• Support the analysis and recovery of tax deducted on Ventures income from overseas sub-agents, liaising with internal and external stakeholders as required.
• Support royalty audits through the analysis and reconciliation of data provided by third-party licensees, including recalculating royalty figures and comparing sales data to royalty statements.
• Analyse selected high-value author and brand royalty statements, identifying anomalies and providing analysis to support the Royalty Audit Analyst's risk-based audit planning.
• Undertake quality assurance checks on cash and royalty statements processed within the system, identifying and escalating errors or anomalies to the Royalty Audit Analyst.
• Track and monitor agreed improvements arising from royalty audit reviews, following up actions and escalating outstanding items where appropriate.

What you'll bring

Essential criteria:

• Good numerical and analytical skills, with a high level of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Good Excel skills and confidence working with and reconciling large datasets.
• Experience of working with financial, royalty or other transactional data.
• Ability to identify discrepancies and anomalies and clearly document findings.
• Good written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to liaise effectively with internal and external stakeholders.
• Takes a curious and questioning approach, investigating differences and seeking guidance where appropriate.

Preferred criteria:

• Experience of royalty calculations or royalty-based contracts would be desirable but is not essential.

Salary

The salary for this opportunity will be £28,500, plus bonus and benefits.

AI

Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team.

We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you.

Disability Confident

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we offer interviews to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role, and opt‑in on their application form. The essential criteria for this role are listed as part of the 'What you'll bring' section. There may be times when the volume of applications means we cannot take all eligible candidates to interview.

We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing [e-mail]. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable with, for us to support your request.

Hybrid working

While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect that you will work from our office in Frating, Essex, at least one day per week.

Disclosure requirements pertaining to the collection of your personal data:

Responsible for processing the information provided in your application is the company specified in the job advertisement, with its registered office as indicated. The company processes your data for the purpose of establishing an employment relationship on the basis of Art. 6 (1) b GDPR / Section 26 (1) sentence 1 BDSG.

The retention period for your data is determined by the statutory time limits applicable in the respective country, beginning upon completion of the recruitment process. You can find these here.

You can contact the company's Data Protection Officer at the above-mentioned postal address.

Further information on data protection and your rights can be found here.