Executive General Manager

Universities of Wisconsin; Alabama; Hybrid; USD 185,000 - 226,000; Full time

Job summary

The Executive General Manager (EGM) will lead PBS Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio within Wisconsin Public Media, guiding a major transformation and unifying radio and television under a shared vision. The role oversees content, audience development, technology, and operations to ensure innovation and sustainability.

The senior leader must be mission-driven, strategic, and collaborative, with strong experience in budgeting, stakeholder engagement, and maintaining editorial integrity across

Qualifications

• Executive leadership experience in a complex media enterprise.
• Deep understanding of audience trends, technology, regulatory compliance, and public media structures.
• Experience managing budgets and resources thoughtfully.
• Experience leading teams through significant change.
• Experience building high level strategic vision and aligning decision making across the organization.
• Comfort working across dual-reporting lines with boards and university/state governance.

Responsibilities

• Lead WPM’s evolution by unifying radio and television under a shared vision.
• Align content, audience development, technology, operations and service delivery to stay innovative and financially sustainable.
• Guide leadership through change while upholding editorial integrity and public trust.
• Ensure regulatory compliance and high-quality service to audiences.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholder groups to advance partnerships and fundraising.

Skills

Executive Leadership

Media Savvy

Resource Management

Change Management

Strategic Vision

Operational Excellence

Stakeholder Diplomacy

Philanthropic Disposition

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Job description

Hybrid - Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Jul 21, 2026

From $205,000/year

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.

Job Category:

Limited

Employment Type:

Regular

Job Profile:

Director of Television

Job Summary:

PBS Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio seek an exceptional, visionary leader for a new Executive General Manager (EGM) position. The EGM will help lead Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) and PBS Wisconsin, two of our nation’s most respected public media brands, through a period of significant transformation into an even more successful future. WPR and PBS Wisconsin are services of Wisconsin Public Media (WPM), a division of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the Educational Communications Board (ECB), an independent State of Wisconsin agency. Our award-winning services reach communities throughout Wisconsin with trusted journalism, educational resources, history and cultural programming, community events, and public service.

A central responsibility of the Executive General Manager is leading WPM’s ongoing evolution integrating distinct radio and television structures under a shared vision and leadership framework. The EGM leads the alignment and collaboration across content, audience development, technology, operations, and service delivery, ensuring WPM remains innovative, responsive, and financially sustainable in a rapidly evolving media environment. The EGM ensures WPM sets clear priorities centering the needs and interests of Wisconsin audiences.

The EGM champions a culture of accountability, transparency, innovation, and continuous improvement. They guide their leadership team through change while maintaining WPM’s commitment to editorial integrity, public trust, regulatory compliance, and exceptional service to audiences.

The EGM operates within a complex public-service environment reporting jointly to the Executive Director of WPM and the Executive Director of ECB to leverage the strengths of both institutions and advance public media service throughout the state.

Successful candidates for the position will be proven transformational leaders with experience driving decisive organizational change and building a unified culture to evolve a public service mission. They will be mission-driven, committed to stewardship, innovation, editorial integrity, and meeting community needs. They will be adaptive, transparent, and skilled at fostering accountability, continuous improvement, and agility amid changing media and audience landscapes.

This position is full-time, 100%

Donor and outreach events will require statewide travel on a semi-regular basis, including weekends/evenings.

The expectation for this position will be onsite on the University of Wisconsin Madison campus in Madison, WI, though there will be an opportunity for occasional remote work.

Remote work requires an approved flexible work arrangement (FWA). A FWA requires successful candidates to possess their own high-speed internet and phone to perform the work on a university provided computer. Per University policy, transportation between home and assigned work location is not payable/reimbursable and will be at the expense of the employee.

It is expected that employees will make individual arrangements for transportation adequate to meet position responsibilities and essential job functions. Learn more atUW-Madison Driver Authorization .

For more information see our licensees’ and services’ websites.

Communicates and sustains editorial guidelines and protects the unit's reputation, sustains editorial integrity and editorial independence, advances plans to enhance the unit's public profile and community support

Collaborates with leadership on content delivery, public safety, and emergency alert systems for the state's communication infrastructure

Ensures compliance with broadcast/digital standards, institutional policies, and relevant federal and state laws and regulations including broadcasting rules and regulations

Serves as a liaison to internal and external stakeholder groups representing interests of the unit and fostering community and educational partnerships

Exercises supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees

Drives strategic planning, aligns operational priorities with strategic vision, evaluates programs against the unit mission, vision, and values, and builds a sustainable and relevant unit and service

Develops the unit's budget for licensee review and approval, driving strategic investment in facilities, personnel, projects, and new initiatives

Supports revenue goals and drives revenue generation across platforms, including priority development activities, solicits support, and stewards relationships with high impact funders, supports advocacy efforts, collaborates with donation and gifts board on budgeting, compliance, strategic investments, advocacy and community engagement

Department:

Wisconsin Public Media, Director’s Office, Administration

PBS Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio are services of Wisconsin Public Media and the Educational Communications Board. The person in this position will be required to comply with the Wisconsin Public Media Code of Ethics: https://wpm.wisc.edu/policies/ , in addition to the UW-Madison code of ethics.

Compensation:

The minimum salary for this position is $205,000. Actual pay will depend on experience and qualifications.

This position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid time off, competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance, tax-advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund. For a summary of benefits, please see https://www.wisconsin.edu/ohrwd/benefits/download/fasl.pdf .

Required Qualifications:

Executive Leadership: Experience leading in a complex media enterprise, preferably a public media organization.*

Media Savvy: Deep understanding of audience trends, technology, regulatory compliance, and public media structures.*

Resource Management: Experience developing and working within budgets, managing human, financial and other resources thoughtfully.*

Change Management: Experience successfully leading teams through significant change.

Strategic Vision: Experience building high level strategic vision and aligning decision making across the organization to best serve audiences.

Operational Excellence: Experience aligning systems, workflows and talent across a complex media organization.

Stakeholder Diplomacy: Comfort working across dual-reporting lines, with boards and within university and state governance structures.

Philanthropic Disposition: Proven success representing the philanthropic needs of an organization and stewarding donors.

*The required qualifications marked with an asterisk will be assessed through your narrative submitted with your application.

Education:

Bachelor's Degree Preferred Minimum

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal OpportunityEmployer.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgroundsand encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website .

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment.
The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7).
The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies, crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years, and on-campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW-Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department .

13 universities. 1 mission. To make Wisconsin...Future Ready. For All.

The Universities of Wisconsin, comprising 13 institutions, unite to advance education and innovation, empowering students and communities to be Future Ready for all.