Licensing and Rights Officer

Posted: 24/02/2025
- Closing Date: 16/03/2025
- Salary: $72,525.00 - $78,001.00
- Job Type: Ongoing / Non-ongoing; Full time
- Location: Sydney
- Job Category: Administration,Arts, Culture,Information Communication Technology (ICT)

**About the National Film and Sound Archive**

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is Australia’s audiovisual archive, telling the national story by collecting, preserving and sharing audiovisual media, the cultural experience platforms of our time. The collection itself dates back to 1935, making it one of the world’s oldest audiovisual collections. It is also one of the country’s most used cultural collections, with around 125 million views of collection content each year. The NFSA is in a period of significant change. Following increased Government investment, the institution is in a process of digital transformation, establishing the NFSA as Australia’s most dynamic and valued cultural organisation. We are rebuilding our curatorial workforce and developing the NFSA’s capacity to digitise our collection at scale - to preserve it for the future, to make sure it can be discovered, and to share it with all Australians.

We continue to work on developing a stable, secure and future-proof workforce across our four physical sites based in Canberra and Mitchell in the ACT as well as in Sydney and Melbourne.

We are also undergoing a program of business improvement for many of our corporate systems to improve efficiency and reduce manual handling.

We are an ambitious organisation, and we aim to be an employer of choice within the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) sector, providing exciting and challenging work, as well as favourable employment conditions and unique development opportunities for our staff.

**About the Team**

The Rights and Distribution team is part of the NFSA Enterprises Branch, that provides access to the national collection through reference services, digital delivery, footage sales, loans, and distribution. Within the team there are two separate sections: Licensing and Rights, and Collection Distribution - with both teams supporting the work of the Enterprises team and the NFSA more broadly in relation to providing access to the NFSA’s collections.

The Rights and Distribution team is continually looking to improve the efficiency of rights management, to enable greater use of the collection.

The Enterprises Branch is an energetic team committed to providing excellent service to our clients and are based in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra.

**The Opportunity**

The Licensing and Rights Officer will support the work of the Rights and Distribution team regarding copyright arrangements of NFSA’s collections.

The position plays a key role in the NFSA Digitisation Strategy by ensuring collection databases and other systems are updated with clear, accurate and current information about copyright and other related arrangement to support access.

The role will also support the NFSA’s collection distribution and licensing work, the verification of the rights status of NFSA titles, including from its Film Australia Collection, and assist with the licensing of NFSA-verified content.

The Licensing and rights Officer will work within a busy and dynamic team, working across all areas of the NFSA, including Enterprises, Curatorial, and Communications, to assist in clearing material published on the NFSA’s websites and used in exhibitions and other engagement activities.

The position requires understanding of the film, sound, broadcast, or digital publishing industries and experience working with copyright material, particularly audio-visual materials. The Licensing and Rights Officer will continue to maintain professional relationships that NFSA has established with its external stakeholders.
- Please note: This recruitment process is intended to fill both current and future vacancies. While the position on offer is ongoing, a merit pool of suitable applicants may be established to fill similar ongoing and non-ongoing positions within the next 18 months._

**Key Responsibilities/Duties**

Under general direction, this position is responsible for delivering the following functions:

- Assist in providing informed advice about licensing and copyright to the NFSA’s Enterprises, Curatorial and Marketing & Communications teams, by investigating the copyright status of titles within the NFSA collection, as well as material sourced from our content partners for NFSA projects and programs.
- Undertake straightforward rights clearances for content in NFSA projects, products, and online platforms, including film and television clips, stills and audio material, ensuring systems and rights documentation are maintained.
- Research, update and maintain rights information and agreements in the collections database and digital rights management systems.
- Build and maintain positive professional relationships within the NFSA and with industry, rights ho