Director, AI Licensing at The Nielsen Company

Company Description

At Nielsen, we are passionate about powering a better media future for all people by providing powerful, essential insights that drive client decisions and deliver extraordinary results. Our talented, global workforce is dedicated to capturing audience engagement with content—wherever and whenever it’s consumed.

Gracenote, a Nielsen Company, is the world’s leading provider of entertainment metadata and content IDs. We sit at the intersection of media, technology, and data, helping the world's largest brands connect people to the content they love.

When you join Nielsen and Gracenote, you will be part of a dynamic team committed to excellence, perseverance, and making a significant impact together. We champion you, because when you succeed, we do too. We enable your best to power our future..

Job Description

We are seeking an experienced, visionary executive leader to join our dynamic team at Gracenote to lead our commercial engagements for the Artificial Intelligence ecosystem. As the Direct / Senior Director of AI Licensing, you will be the driving force responsible for establishing Gracenote as the premier entertainment data partner for leading AI models and associated ecosystems. You will develop a pipeline, close deals and secure revenue.  You will execute world-class client and partnership strategies, and ensure Gracenote is future-proofed for the AI era.

Responsibilities 

• Develop and lead direct customer engagements, establishing strategic revenue generating deals with native AI companies and  serving as the "tip of the spear" to establish and grow this new customer base.

• Develop and execute a compelling vision for engaging the AI ecosystem, from negotiating landmark licensing deals to driving deep content integrations with leading model developers and relevant ecosystem players

• Design and execute go-to-market strategies and enablement programs to uplevel Gracenote’s commercial organization, empowering them to drive adoption of current and future AI-related offerings to our current and future customer base.

• Act as the commercial counterpart to the Gracenote AI Product Lead, serving as the "voice of the customer" internally to ensure market insights fundamentally shape our product roadmap and innovation.

• Create and deploy new licensing models and valuation frameworks for content and data use in AI grounding, training, retrieval, and other use cases.

• Serve as a high-visibility sponsor for key AI accounts and partnerships, organizing executive activity and ensuring swift and effective resolutions.

• Partner strategically with Product, Engineering, Legal, and Finance teams to support the full partnership lifecycle from initial negotiation to global rollout.

• Represent Gracenote at industry conferences and partner forums, acting as a key evangelist for our AI strategy.

Qualifications

• Proven senior leadership experience (10+ years) leading global content, data, and distribution partnerships for AI and consumer technology products. 

• Current/recent experience driving business development / licensing agreements with AI companies (LLM’s, etc) a large plus

• A self-starter that can operate through the entire deal lifecycle turning prospects into multi-million dollar partnerships with recurring business

• An understanding of the business models of the AI ecosystem and experience structuring deals that generate revenue while protecting core intellectual property

• A distinguished track record of negotiating complex, multi-million-dollar licensing and content acquisition deals with technology partners.

• Deep expertise in the AI ecosystem, with direct experience building partnerships with model developers and rightsholders.

• Exceptional strategic thinking and the ability to act as the voice of the customer, influencing senior leaders across Product, Engineering, and commercial teams.

• Strong executive presence and communication skills, with experience representing a global brand in strategic negotiations and at industry events.

• Experience driving GTM strategy for flagship product features from inception to global rollout.

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Additional Information

Enabling your best to power a better media future. Our comprehensive benefits package (including health & wellness plans, 401(k) retirement coupled with a Nielsen match, a generous paid time off policy, company provided car for those who qualify, and if eligible, a discretionary incentive/bonus) is designed to be inclusive for all employees and families, and we take pride in ensuring that employees are rewarded holistically for the role they are doing and their performance.

A reasonable estimated salary range for a new employee has been provided. It would be adjusted based on each employee's geographic location. The position of each employee within a compensation range at Nielsen is dependent on several individual circumstances, such as experience, training, certifications and other business requirements/needs.

Nielsen makes hiring decisions without regard to disability status, protected veteran status, or membership in any other protected class.

Please be aware that job-seekers may be at risk of targeting by scammers seeking personal data or money. Nielsen recruiters will only contact you through official job boards, LinkedIn, or email with a nielsen.com domain. Be cautious of any outreach claiming to be from Nielsen via other messaging platforms or personal email addresses. Always verify that email communications come from an @nielsen.com address. If you're unsure about the authenticity of a job offer or communication, please contact Nielsen directly through our official website or verified social media channels.