Senior Director, Operations Finance
Live Nation Entertainment · Toronto, ON, Canada
Job Summary:
WHO ARE WE?
Live Nation Entertainment is the world’s leading live entertainment company, comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Media & Sponsorship. Ticketmaster is the global leader in event ticketing with over 620 million tickets sold annually and approximately 10,000 clients worldwide. Live Nation Concerts is the largest provider of live entertainment in the world promoting more than 50,000 events annually for nearly 7,000 artists in 40+ countries. These businesses allow Live Nation Media & Sponsorship to create strategic music marketing programs that connect more than 1,200 sponsors with the 145 million fans that attend Live Nation Entertainment events each year. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com.
WHO ARE YOU?
Passionate and motivated. Driven, with an entrepreneurial spirit. Resourceful, innovative, forward thinking and committed. At Live Nation Entertainment, our people embrace these qualities, so if this sounds like you then please read on!
THE ROLE
Reporting to the Vice President, Operations Finance, the Senior Director, Operations Finance owns operational accounting for Live Nation Canada. This is the senior operating leader of a function that accounts for every show, venue and festival we run in this country; tens of thousands of transactions a year, settled under contract in a fast-paced environment where the work is visible and the stakes are real.
The Senior Director’s mission will be to elevate the function by building a high-performing team and setting standards nationally for how shows and venues are accounted for. They will be responsible to evolve current processes toward greater automation, control and scale. Success in the first 12 months will be clear and measurable: a functioning management layer that consistently delivers on deadlines; a faster, cleaner close with a defensible timetable and fewer post-close adjustments; one written national process standard in use across all markets; an automated end-to-end workflow that is live, adopted and measurably reducing manual effort or error; and a strong control environment where audit findings are closed promptly and none repeat. Working in close partnership with the Vice President, the Senior Director will help shape the direction and priorities of the function. They will be the trusted go-to partner for the business on all matters of operational accounting.
This is a great opportunity to own a national function, build a team around it, and elevate how Live Nation Canada does its accounting.
WHAT THIS ROLE WILL DO
Leadership
- Own the structure, capability and performance of a ~12-person operational accounting team spanning show settlement, venue accounting and financial close
- Lead through managers: develop the management layer, set clear ownership accountabilities, establish performance standards and hold managers accountable for their teams' deadlines and quality
- Own talent strategy for the function: hiring standards, onboarding, development plans, succession depth, and a coverage model that holds through peak season, festival periods and major tours
Event Reporting and Operational Accounting
- Accountable for the completeness, accuracy and timeliness of all events, venues and festivals accounting nationally (including the integrity of reported contribution margin by show, venue and market)
- Own the close calendar end to end and commit to the timetable; ensure corporate reporting deadlines are consistently met
- Own the accounting treatment of show settlement: from artist final settlements against contract, withholding tax, charity and merchandise/bundle recognition, co-promoted events, joint venture splits, venue expense settlement and shared ancillary revenue
- Own accounting for owned and operated venues, including inventory, labour costs and cash handling
- Own balance sheet integrity for the function: reconciliation quality, accrual adequacy, deferred revenue, AR aging and collections performance for event-related balances
- Develop and recommend accounting positions on complex deal structures such as co-promoted events, joint ventures, festival vehicles, rental versus promoted, international artist withholding, multi-year ancillary agreements
- Partner with regional controllers to ensure consistent application of policy across markets, and resolve differences rather than reporting them
- Partner with VP, Operational Accounting and Corporate for all technical accounting approval
- Accountable for the day-to-day operation of internal controls over settlement, cash floats, AP approval and wire release, including SOX-relevant controls in scope
- Play a critical role in internal and external audits; owning remediation of findings to closure while ensuring every settlement is audit-ready with proper documentation backup
- Proactively identify control gaps as volume, venues and deal structures change, and implement corrective action
National Responsibilities
- Develop, implement and sustain a national operational accounting playbook: settlement process, documentation standards, close process and checklist, reconciliation methodology, escalation path.
- Identify and improve workstreams end to end; from business case through delivery to adoption and measured benefit
- Define and report the function's operating metrics: days to close, settlement cycle time, restatement and error rates, aged AR, control exception volume. Use them to drive decisions and continuous improvement
- Own the data standards that allow event economics to be reported consistently
Partner with the business
- Provide the actuals, trend data and event-level insight that Strategic Finance and FP&A build the budget and forecast on; accountable for the reliability of what they plan from
- Support due diligence, integration planning and post-close financial integration
- Deputize for the VP, Operational Accounting on function matters with senior leadership to set priorities for the function, and act as their delegate with senior leadership when needed
WHAT THIS PERSON WILL BRING
- CPA designation required; Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance or related field
- 10–12 years of progressive accounting and finance experience, including experience leading managers and building a management layer, not only managing individual contributors
- Demonstrated ownership of a close and control environment across multiple sites, markets or entities within a larger corporate finance organization
- A track record of leading a process or systems improvement end to end, from business case through delivery and adoption to measured result
- Live entertainment, hospitality, venue, sports or comparable high-volume, deal-driven, contract-settled environment strongly preferred; comfort with a pace where revenue is earned in a single night and settled quickly
- Strong Oracle and/or Salesforce capability; advanced Excel; practical use of Claude, AI platforms, BI and automation tooling to reduce manual work
- Ability to hold an accounting position under commercial pressure while keeping the relationship intact
- Credibility and presence with senior commercial leadership; able to explain complex financial outcomes clearly to non-financial stakeholders and earn their trust
- Resourceful and hands-on when it matters; this is a senior role embedded in an operating business
- Availability for travel and on-site support for major shows and festival properties, including evenings and weekends during peak season
BENEFITS & PERKS
Our motto is ‘Taking Care of Our Own’ through 6 pillars of benefits:
- HEALTH: Medical, Dental and Vision benefits for you and your family, along with Employee Assistance Programs through Modern Health and ComPsych
- YOURSELF: Generous paid time off policy including holiday closures, and sick time for you and dependents, along with free concert tickets
- WEALTH: RRSP program with company m