Chief Production Officer

American Alchemy; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation support

Hybrid work model

Job summary

American Alchemy seeks a Chief Production Officer to own the production engine end to end, overseeing the producer function, post-production, and the logistics that connect them. You won’t edit; you’ll run the assembly line, managing editors and assistants, ensuring every mini-documentary ships on schedule.

This is a hands-on leadership role with a tight, high-velocity pace, requiring clear priorities, strong judgment, and a proactive, AI-enabled approach to scale the operation.

Qualifications

• You’ve run a production or post-production operation with a focus on quality and timely delivery.
• Operational competence matters over traditional entertainment résumés.
• You enforce deadlines and create structure from scratch.

Responsibilities

• Own post-production pipeline end to end across editors and editors' leads.
• Clear the backlog of unedited episodes while maintaining weekly cadence.
• Produce in the field: prep, guest management, on-set logistics.
• Manage guest logistics: booking, travel, prep for interviews.
• Run the production calendar and enforce deadlines across the team.
• Lead day-to-day production team with clear priorities and feedback.
• Build production systems leveraging AI and automation to remove manual work.

Skills

Production management

Post-production

Team leadership

Project scheduling

Workflow design

AI/Automation

Job description

About American Alchemy

American Alchemy is a fast-growing media company built around Jesse Michels (CEO), producing long-form video content at a rapid, high-intensity pace. Its weekly, long-form interviews explore the frontiers of UAP phenomena, consciousness, and government secrecy, with Jesse engaging scientists, whistleblowers, retired military officials, and researchers to probe the nature of reality, the existence of non-human intelligence, and the bleeding edge of science, national security and spirituality. The show is known for a sympathetic-but-probing approach to disclosure claims, blending insider testimony with more metaphysical speculation.

American Alchemy has become one of the leading voices in the world on UAP and disclosure, with a guest list that increasingly includes senior government and institutional figures.

The Role

American Alchemy produces more than its current structure can keep up with. Production work is spread across several people, which has created a bottleneck, including a backlog of interviews that have been shot but not yet edited. This role exists to fix that.

As Chief Production Officer, you'll own the production engine end to end: the producer function, post-production, and the logistics and processes that connect them. You won't be editing yourself. You'll run the assembly line, managing editors and assistant editors, holding the quality bar on every mini-documentary, and making sure what gets shot gets finished and published on schedule.

This is a hands-on role with a leadership seat. You'll be in the details every day and a direct partner on how the content operation scales.

What You'll Do

• Own post-production. Run the post pipeline end to end (assembly, review, quality control, and delivery) across a team of editors and assistant editors. You set and protect the aesthetic and quality standard for every mini-documentary that ships.
• Clear the backlog. Build and execute a plan to work through the backlog of unedited episodes while keeping the weekly release cadence on track.
• Produce in the field. Act as producer on shoots: prep, guest management, and on-set logistics, so interviews run smoothly and capture what post-production needs.
• Manage guest logistics. Coordinate booking, scheduling, travel, and prep for guests (whistleblowers, retired military officials, researchers, and public figures) so every interview is ready to shoot on time.
• Run the production calendar. Track every episode, deadline, deliverable, and follow-up in flight, and enforce deadlines across the team so nothing slips.
• Lead the production team. Manage day-to-day work across editors, producers, writers, and short-form content leads with clear priorities, accountability, and honest feedback.
• Build the production systems. Stand up the workflows, trackers, and processes that keep a high-volume pipeline running, and use AI and automation tools wherever they can remove manual work.

What Success Looks Like in Year One

• Post-production runs independently, without Jesse managing it day to day.
• The backlog of unedited episodes is cleared.
• You're a trusted field producer Jesse relies on for shoots.
• The weekly publishing cadence is consistent and predictable.

Who You Are

• You've run a production or post-production operation, not just coordinated one. You have a sharp eye for quality and know what it takes to get raw footage to finished, published content on a tight cadence.
• Operational competence matters more here than a traditional entertainment résumé. You might come from documentary, digital media, or TV, or from a high-performance environment like a startup or finance where you learned to run complex work under pressure.
• You enforce deadlines without being asked twice.
• You're comfortable creating structure from scratch. You won't be handed a process manual.
• You're exceptionally sharp and you hustle. Jesse operates with an extreme sense of urgency. You need to match that pace and stay two steps ahead, not catch up.
• You're calm under pressure. High expectations steady you; they don't rattle you.
• You give and take direct feedback, including pushing back on Jesse when it makes the work better. That's welcomed here.
• You're genuinely curious about the subject matter (UAP, consciousness, the edges of science) and can talk about episodes that stuck with you. But you're an operator first, not a fan first.
• You'll have visibility into a founder's full workload, guest relationships, unreleased content, and business matters. This requires real judgment and discretion.
• You reach for AI tools and automation by default to remove manual work.

Hiring Process

A focused, three-step process:

• Intro call with Jesse (15 minutes)
• Panel interview with members of the leadership and creative team
• Post-production deep dive with our chief editor

Location

Austin, TX (hybrid) preferred, with relocation support available. Open to remote for an exceptional candidate.