Director, Business Affairs

VaynerX VaynerX is a family of companies building brands for the now. Founded by Chairman Gary Vaynerchuk in January 2017, the modern-day parent company i s home to relevance-driving businesses including VaynerMedia, ChukMedia, Tamara Group, Gallery Media Group, Tingley Lane Trading, and VaynerSpeakers. Role Overview: The Director of Business Affairs will lead a team within the BA department and oversee the business, financial, and legal aspects of content production across broadcast, social, digital, and experiential projects. This person is a strategic leader with an entrepreneurial spirit, capable of working in a fast-paced creative environment. Moving beyond day-to-day administration, this role focuses on high-level production support, complex deal structuring, agency-wide process implementation, and the active mentorship and development of Business Affairs team members. The Director is expected to be a hands-on practitioner, actively involved in the daily work of productions alongside the team. Key Responsibilities: Leadership & Team Management: • Manage, lead, and build a team with empathy, directness, and humility. • Cultivate an inclusive and equitable environment and always apply a solutions-oriented approach to leadership. • Guide team members on how to communicate legal issues, timeline hurdles, and potential challenges in a way the creative and business teams will understand. • Balance high-level strategy with hands-on, daily execution. Ensure the team is operating with an understanding of modern social media practices and trends. Production Support & Content Review: • Actively join calls with clients and vendors to support complex productions. • Collaborate directly with producers to build and manage comprehensive budgets and timelines for productions. • Review ideas, scripts and content with a network Standards & Practices lens, ensuring content will comply with network rules, claim substantiation requirements, and regulatory standards (FTC, CARU, etc.) before produced. • Advise creative and production teams on evolving legal and business risks surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), likeness rights, voice cloning, and digital platform terms of service. • Oversee production insurance coverage (including general liability, equipment, and Errors & Omissions), reviewing shoot-specific risks and securing necessary certificates of insurance (COIs). • Develop and align on complex production processes that fit within client requirements (marketing, legal, and procurement), agency capabilities, and agreed-upon deliverables. • Build production-specific templates and actively educate the production teams on how and when to use them. Continuously identify areas for improvement in forms and draft updates. Deal Negotiations & Business Relationships: • Review client Master Services Agreements (MSAs) with the legal department, advising specifically on the talent, music, and general production provisions. • Review and negotiate production company, director, photographer, and post-production vendor agreements utilizing AICP, AICE, and agency-standard templates. • Oversee talent payment operations via third-party paymasters (e.g., Extreme Reach), managing union residuals, session reporting, and SAG-AFTRA claims or audits. • Leverage an understanding of platform capabilities, functionality, usage, and content types to creatively structure deals that maximize client goals. • Take meetings with vendors and social platforms, identifying potential partners that will enhance business operations or be an asset to our clients. Process, Operations & Training: • Identify gaps in agency procedures and help implement improvements to company resources, systems, processes, and tools. • Practice a growth mindset, embracing