Lead, Business Development & Licensing - Sureel AI

Warner Music Group; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 145,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Sureel AI, acquired by Warner Music Group, seeks a Director of Business Development & Licensing to own the commercial function across AI companies, DSPs, and rights holders. You will shape licensing terms, pricing, and revenue models, and lead negotiations from first conversations to signature in a fast-paced, startup-paced environment.

You will collaborate with product and client relations to define scalable frameworks, drive platform adoption, and ensure strategic alignment with music and

Qualifications

• Deep experience structuring and negotiating commercial agreements in music, media, or technology.
• Ownership of business negotiations with platforms, DSPs, or rights holders.
• Strong understanding of how licensing frameworks drive platform adoption and value.

Responsibilities

• Own the business function for negotiations across AI companies, DSPs, and rights holders.
• Negotiate economics of platform integrations, licensing models, and revenue structures.
• Develop business use cases for integrating Sureel's infrastructure with partners.
• Create scalable licensing and economic frameworks for multiple markets.
• Structure multi-stakeholder commercial arrangements with rights holders and industry participants.
• Lead commercial terms with Client Relations and collaborate with Warner Music Group on priorities.
• Provide market intelligence on AI licensing and deal dynamics.

Skills

Commercial negotiations

Music industry economics

Platform integrations

Revenue modeling

Job description

A little bit about our team

Sureel AI is building the standards and infrastructure for AI rights, licensing, attribution, protection, and intelligence, starting in music and expanding across media.

We are building the infrastructure that enables creators and rights holders to control how their work is used by AI, protect their rights, understand its use and value, and participate in new AI licensing models. We also provide AI companies and digital platforms with the systems they need to access rights, permissions, attribution, guardrails, reporting, and licensing infrastructure programmatically.

Acquired by Warner Music Group, Sureel operates as an independent, federated company, combining startup speed with the reach of a global music company.

Our commercial relationships sit at the heart of what we're building: with the AI companies and digital service providers (DSPs) who integrate our attribution infrastructure into their platforms, and with the rights holders whose works and interests that infrastructure protects. As Director, Business Development & Licensing, you'll own the business function across both sides of that equation, working closely with senior leadership, cross-functional teams, and external partners across the music, technology, and legal worlds. Your work will directly shape the commercial architecture of AI attribution at scale.

Your role

You will lead Sureel's business function, reporting to the CEO and two Co-Presidents. This is a senior, commercially focused role. When Sureel is negotiating with a service provider or a rights holder, you will own the business function of that negotiation.

You will also serve as Sureel's primary liaison with industry bodies such as DDEX and regulatory bodies such as WIPO where their activities relate to Sureel's business.

A key part of the role will be developing business models and modeling outcomes for charging clients, including DSPs and AI companies. A strong understanding of economics and music rights will be important.

Your objective is to structure agreements that increase adoption of Sureel's infrastructure, create repeatable commercial models, and establish frameworks that can scale across multiple rights holders, AI companies, and markets.

You will negotiate licensing models, revenue structures, payment flows, and the economic frameworks that determine how permissions through Sureel's technology translate into compensation. You will also oversee the business use cases for integrating Sureel's infrastructure with AI companies and DSPs, defining what a commercially viable integration looks like and structuring the terms around it.

You'll work closely with Product and Client Relations. They will bring the product and partner perspectives, while you will lead the commercial structure and economics that support the business.

This is an opportunity to help define the business function of a company working in a new and evolving area, and to help shape how creators are compensated in the age of AI.

What you'll do:

• Own the business function for Sureel's negotiations, whether with AI companies, DSPs, other digital service providers, or rights holders, leading commercial strategy, deal structure, and terms from first conversation through signature.

• Negotiate the economics of platform integrations, including licensing models, revenue structures, payment flows, and frameworks that reflect the value of Sureel's technology alongside rights holders' catalog and distribution positions.

• Develop the business use cases for integrating Sureel's infrastructure with AI companies and DSPs, defining commercial success and prioritizing opportunities based on enterprise value.

• Develop licensing and economic frameworks for an emerging category, using relevant AI and rights-technology transactions to inform agreements that can work across different partners and markets.

• Structure multi-stakeholder commercial arrangements among rights holders and industry participants, positioning Sureel's infrastructure as the mechanism for executing those agreements.

• Partner with Client Relations on rights-holder relationships, owning the commercial terms and deal economics while they lead the broader relationship and delivery.

• Work closely with Warner Music Group counterparts on commercial terms, licensing structures, and strategic priorities.

• Provide market intelligence on emerging technologies, competitive developments, licensing innovation, and deal dynamics across the AI and DSP landscape.

• Represent Sureel with industry and standards organizations, including DDEX, WIPO, and other initiatives shaping AI rights and licensing.

• Develop pricing and packaging for Sureel's platform, including enterprise fees, API and usage-based pricing, transaction fees, revenue share, licensing administration, analytics, and hybrid structures.

• Create repeatable commercial and licensing frameworks that can scale across partners rather than requiring every agreement to be built from scratch.

• Help structure how Sureel infrastructure is used in commercial agreements, including rights, permissions, guardrails, attribution, reporting, and economic obligations between rights holders and AI companies.

• Handle confidential and proprietary information, including deal terms, partner economics, and negotiations with discretion and integrity.

• Help shape emerging industry standards and licensing frameworks so they can be implemented programmatically and work with Sureel's architecture.

Who you are:

• You have deep experience structuring and negotiating commercial agreements in music, media, or technology, including licensing deals, platform integrations, revenue-share structures, or rights-technology transactions.

• You've owned the business side of negotiations with platforms, DSPs, technology companies, or rights holders and carried complex deals from term sheet through signature.

• You understand the economics of the music industry: how rights generate revenue, how licensing frameworks are built, and how value flows between platforms, intermediaries, and rights holders.

• You're comfortable with data and financial detail. You can model a revenue structure, pressure-test assumptions, and explain the business logic clearly to technical teams and senior counterparties.

• You can structure complex deals and find approaches that work for the different parties involved.

• You build trust quickly and can represent leadership in high-stakes negotiations, make judgment calls on terms, and know when to escalation.

• You communicate clearly in writing and in person and can stay calm in a fast-moving environment.

• You understand how pricing, licensing structures, technical standards, and ecosystem incentives can support platform adoption and durable commercial outcomes.

• You are interested in the music industry and enjoy working in a small, collaborative, startup-paced team.

We'd love it if you also had:

• Direct experience negotiating with AI companies, DSPs, or other digital service providers on licensing, integration, or commercial partnership terms.

• Experience working with artists, labels, publishers, or CMOs/PROs on the commercial side, or serving as a senior deal advisor to them.

• Experience across deal structuring and licensing, business development, commercial strategy, or partnerships.

• Involvement in industry licensing, standards, or policy initiatives shaping how AI and rights interact.

• Experience working directly with C-level executives on commercial strategy, negotiation preparation, and translating senior conversations into agreements.

• Experience developing commercial models for infrastructure, APIs, marketplaces, payments, rights technology, or other platforms where value is monetized across multiple layers of a transaction.

• Curiosity about the music and entertainment landscape and AI's impact on creators.

$145,000 - $185,000 a year

Salary ranges are included for job postings where required by law. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as work experience and business needs. The pay range is subject to change at any time dependent on a variety of internal and external factors.

Sureel AI is an independent, federated company within Warner Music Group. We're committed to building a diverse team and to fair recognition for creators everywhere.