Manager, Production & Technical Ops

SmartRecruiters, Inc.; Englewood Cliffs, Northern (NJ, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free employee parking

EV charging stations

On-site fitness center

Dry-cleaning drop-off and pick-up

Shuttle service to Englewood Cliffs

Job summary

Versant Media in Englewood Cliffs, NJ is seeking a Manager of Production & Technical Operations to lead day-to-day live production operations across studios and control rooms. You will staff productions, coordinate with Editorial, Engineering, and Facilities, and ensure readiness and smooth execution under tight deadlines.

The role requires 4+ years in live television operations, strong leadership, and the ability to manage staff and freelance crews, including on-site work and occasional travel.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in live television studio, control room, or production operations with leadership.
• Strong knowledge of studio/control room workflows and production roles.
• Ability to make timely operational decisions under pressure.
• Leadership and communication skills to coordinate across teams.
• Willingness to work on-site in Englewood Cliffs, NJ with travel as required.
• Experience with represented labor (NABET and IATSE).

Responsibilities

• Lead live production operations across studios and control rooms to standards.
• Anticipate staffing, workflow, and technical needs for daily programming and events.
• Manage staff and freelance production personnel and adjust coverage in real time.
• Coordinate with Editorial, Engineering, Broadcast Operations, NOC/MOC, Facilities and teams.
• Coach and develop Production Operations personnel and improve processes.

Skills

Live production leadership

Staff management

Cross-functional collaboration

Operational planning

Job description

• Compensation: USD 120,000 - USD 135,000 - yearly

Company Description

VERSANT (Nasdaq: VSNT) is an industry-changing media and entertainment business and home to trusted brands that shape culture, inform audiences, and build lasting connections. It operates across four core markets: political news and opinion, business news and personal finance, golf, and sports and genre entertainment. These markets are served through a powerful portfolio of iconic and innovative brands, including CNBC, MS NOW, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Versant's sports division USA Sports, along with complementary digital assets including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and GolfPass.

Job Description

The Opportunity

The Manager, Production & Technical Operations is a key member of Versant’s Production Operations team, responsible for the day-to-day operational leadership and execution of live productions. Reporting to the Senior Director, Production Operations, this role leads studio and control room operations personnel and helps ensure productions are appropriately staffed, operationally prepared, and successfully executed.

Serving as a primary operational leader during live production, you will coordinate production personnel and work closely with Editorial, Engineering, Broadcast Operations, NOC/MOC, Facilities, and other partners to maintain production readiness and address operational challenges in real time. You will bring strong knowledge of live television workflows, technical production roles, represented and freelance labor, and the demands of a fast-moving broadcast environment.

Why This Role Matters: Reliable live production depends on teams, technology, and workflows coming together at exactly the right moment. This role helps make that happen. Through proactive staffing, operational planning, decisive leadership, and strong cross-functional partnership, the Manager helps protect the quality and continuity of Versant’s live programming while building a high-performing Production Operations team.

This is a required on-site position primarily based in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The role may also require work from Versant’s New York production facilities and periodic travel to other locations based on production needs. Because Versant operates across a dynamic live-production schedule, flexibility is required and assignments may include days, evenings, overnights, weekends, holidays, and short-notice coverage.

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $120,000–$135,000, plus eligibility for a bonus.

What You'll Do

• Lead live production operations: Provide day-to-day operational leadership across assigned studios and control rooms, ensuring productions are appropriately staffed, prepared, and executed to Versant’s production and technical standards.
• Drive operational readiness: Anticipate staffing, workflow, resource, and technical needs for daily programming, breaking news, special events, and high-profile productions, identifying and escalating risks before they affect air.
• Manage crews and production resources: Lead staff and freelance production professionals, partner with scheduling teams on crew assignments, address coverage or skill gaps, and make real-time staffing adjustments as production requirements evolve.
• Coordinate through live-production challenges: Serve as a key operational decision-maker during broadcasts, partnering with Editorial, Engineering, Broadcast Operations, NOC/MOC, Facilities, and production teams to resolve issues quickly and minimize disruption.
• Develop teams and strengthen performance: Coach and develop Production Operations personnel, establish clear expectations, identify training opportunities, support onboarding, and build deeper operational and technical capability across the team.
• Improve how we operate: Partner with the Senior Director, Production Operations and cross-functional stakeholders to strengthen staffing models, workflows, procedures, documentation, training, and the adoption of new production technologies and operating models.

Qualifications

What You Bring

• 4+ years of experience in live television studio, control room, or production operations, including demonstrated leadership experience in a live-production environment.
• Strong working knowledge of studio and control room workflows, technical production roles, and the operational requirements of live television.
• Sound judgment and the ability to make timely operational decisions while managing multiple priorities in high-pressure, rapidly changing situations.
• Strong leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills, with the ability to build productive relationships across editorial, production, technical, and operational teams.
• Ability and willingness to work a flexible production schedule, including days, evenings, overnights, weekends, holidays, and short-notice assignments.
• Willingness to work primarily on-site in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with work from Versant’s New York production facilities and periodic travel as required.
• Experience managing staff and freelance production personnel.
• Experience working with represented labor and contractual requirements, particularly NABET and IATSE.
• Experience supporting live news, sports, entertainment, or special-event programming.
• Working knowledge of production switchers, audio systems, graphics, playback, cameras, communications, routing, and related studio/control room technologies.
• Familiarity with IP-based production environments, automation, cloud production, and evolving broadcast technologies.
• Experience supporting workflow transformation, production staffing, crew assignments, or resource planning.

How We Do It: Success at Versant is grounded in Trust, Teamwork, Transparency, Agility, and Entrepreneurial Spirit. In this role, that means demonstrating Trust through sound judgment and operational reliability; Teamwork through strong partnership with crews and cross-functional teams; Transparency through clear, timely communication about priorities, risks, and changes; Agility by adapting quickly when production needs shift; and Entrepreneurial Spirit by identifying better ways to staff, prepare, and operate our live-production environments.

Why You’ll Love It Here

You’ll play a visible role in the execution of Versant’s live programming, working alongside experienced production, editorial, engineering, and operations teams in an environment where strong leadership and sound decision-making have an immediate impact. You’ll also have the opportunity to develop production professionals, influence operating practices, and help evolve the workflows and technologies supporting Versant’s live-production organization.

This position is based on-site at our Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey office and production facilities.

Employees based in our Englewood Cliffs office have access to a variety of convenient on-site services and amenities.

• free employee parking
• complimentary electric vehicle charging stations
• an on-site fitness center with locker rooms and towel service
• dry-cleaning drop-off and pick-up
• shuttle service to and from the Englewood Cliffs campus, with pickup locations across Manhattan’s East Side and West Side, Brooklyn, Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, and Secaucus.

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $120,000–$135,000, plus eligibility for a bonus. Actual compensation may vary based on relevant experience, skills, and other job-related factors.

Additional Information

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to [e-mail] .

VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc.

VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.

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