Manager / Senior Manager, Artist Budget & Expense Management in San Francisco, California at EMPIRE

Manager / Senior Manager, Artist Budget & Expense Management

EMPIRE is a premier and dynamic music company that prides itself on the development and support of independent artists. We are a rapidly growing firm that has been making waves in the music industry, with an extensive portfolio that spans multiple genres and reaches audiences worldwide. We have become the largest independent record label in the U.S., with a significant global presence covering Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and North and South America. We keep ourselves busy with a large range of music-related services from original content and marketing to distribution and recordings.

Our commitment to artistic creativity, innovation, and progressive business solutions forms the foundation of our corporate culture. We believe in fostering talent, not just in our artists but also within our professional teams. As we continue to expand, we invite you to join us on this exciting journey.

The Role Remix: We are seeking a collaborative, highly vigilant, and hands-on Manager / Senior Manager, Artist Budget & Expense Management to lead our budget control, internal expense audit, and travel operations functions. Reporting directly to the VP of Finance, this inward-facing operational leader will act as a primary gatekeeper for financial governance—building robust internal controls, evaluating expense workflows for vulnerabilities, and preventing unauthorized spending or fraud.

This position balances strategic control-building with daily operational execution. You will manage a small direct team while actively reviewing invoices, auditing BREX credit card activity, and ensuring all expenses fall strictly within approved artist and label budgets.

• Manager of Travel Operations: Oversees corporate and artist travel workflows, staff travel, and vendor relationships with our Travel Management Company (TMC).
• Travel & Artist Budget Coordinator: Manages day-to-day expense reconciliations, BREX auditing, and recoupable expense tracking.

• Control Architecture: Design, implement, and maintain internal control frameworks across accounts payable, BREX corporate cards, and travel operations to prevent fraud, waste, and unauthorized label spending.
• Control Gap Identification: Continuously evaluate existing expense workflows, technology platforms, and approval chains to identify control deficiencies, operational risks, or governance loopholes.
• Preventative Audit & Forensic Review: Conduct spot-audits and pre-payment reviews of high-risk expense categories (e.g., video shoots, live events, touring advances) to catch duplicate billings, inflated costs, or altered vendor documents.
• Fraud Mitigation & Policy Enforcement: Establish automated "red-flag" metrics within BREX and AP systems to detect unusual spending patterns; partner with the VP of Finance and Legal to address compliance breaches.

• Invoice Review & Approval: Maintain direct involvement in daily financial workflows by actively reviewing and approving invoices and expense submissions against pre-approved artist budgets.
• Scope & Recoupability Verification: Rigorously verify that incoming invoices match approved artist scopes and ensure accurate tracking and coding of recoupable expenses.

• Travel Governance: Direct the strategic oversight of staff and artist travel via the Manager of Travel Operations, ensuring strict adherence to travel policies and budget caps.
• BREX & Expense Reconciliation: Oversee the auditing and reconciliation of all BREX transactions, ensuring all charges are properly documented, audited, and charged back to the appropriate label accounts.

• Team Management: Lead, mentor, and empower the Budget and Travel Operations team to maintain high standards of expense governance.
• Finance Team Integration: Act as an approachable, open-minded partner within the broader Finance team (FP&A, Accounting, Accounts Payable), fostering a culture of collaboration while upholding strict compliance standards.
• Scalability & Governance - Ensure scalability of processes and resources commensurate with business growth and complexity while building governance infrastructure to promote anti-fraud protections.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, or a related field; CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) or CIA (Certified Internal Auditor) coursework/certification is a strong plus.
• Professional Experience: 5–8+ years of progressive experience in finance operations, internal audit, budget control, or financial governance, with 2+ years of direct people management experience.
• Control-Minded Expertise: Strong background in internal controls, forensic accounting principles, expense auditing, and fraud risk assessment.
• Technical Proficiency: Expert proficiency in Microsoft Excel; hands-on experience with BREX administration, corporate travel tools, and modern ERP/AP systems.
• Soft Skills & Culture Fit:
  • High ethical standards, objectivity, and keen attention to detail.
  • Solution-oriented team player who can enforce policy gently but directly.
  • Openness to feedback, change management, and continuous process optimization.
• Industry Context: Experience in music, entertainment, or media—specifically managing artist production budgets and recoupable expenses—is highly preferred.

Pay Range: $115,000 - $135,000/annual salary + benefits + discretionary bonus + profit sharing program

The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements dependent on the position offered. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

At EMPIRE, we value diversity and always treat all employees and job applicants based on merit, qualifications, competence, and talent. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

If you are passionate about the music industry, and looking for a challenging role in a fast-paced, innovative environment, apply today. We look forward to hearing from you.

Perks Playlist:

• Competitive Compensation Package
• Competitive Benefits Package
• Company Paid Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, and Long-Term Disability Insurance
• Company Paid Health Savings Account (HSA) Contribution
• Healthcare Spending Account (FSA)
• Paid Time Off (Holidays, Vacation, and Sick)
• Company 401(k) Plan
• Wellness Resources
• Commuter Allowance
• Cell Phone Allowance

About EMPIRE: Founded in 2010 by Bay Area native Ghazi, EMPIRE is currently leading through its innovative and progressive approach to the digital music era across its label, distribution and publishing arms.

With its focus on early stage artist development, the San Francisco based company has been instrumental in identifying future icons and launching the careers of both Multi-platinum and Grammy Award winning artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Fireboy DML, Yung Bleu, Migos, Asake, XXXtentacion, and Anderson .Paak to name a few. After this early success, EMPIRE was quickly regarded as a tastemaker in the industry and premier independent record label.

More than a decade in, EMPIRE continues to grow – expanding the Publishing division with a partnership with superproducer Hit-Boy and his Surf Club collective and acquiring Dirtybird Records in 2022 to amplify the Dance arm. EMPIRE has expanded the team throughout the globe on the African continent, Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. With the company and roster excelling at a breakneck pace, EMPIRE has effectively disrupted a stale business model by bringing its energy, expertise, and acumen to its artists and labels.

Through crafting bespoke deals that are always in favor of the artist, EMPIRE is able to form a true partnership with each artist and label on its roster. Coupled with their unique software for analytics, recoupment, and royalties, which is available to every partner, the company offers a level of transparency unprecedented in the music industry.

We use E-Verify to confirm the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.