Director, Media Operations & Distribution

Versant Media is seeking a highly experienced and strategic Director, Media Operations & Distribution to lead all operational aspects of content delivery for our premium News, Sports, and Entertainment programming across linear channels, affiliate partners, and Direct to Consumer (DTC) OTT platforms. This role is responsible for ensuring the accuracy, timing, and readiness of our content from signal acquisition through final distribution, with a focus on maximizing reliability, compliance, and operational efficiency in high stakes live and on demand environments. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Distribution Operations & Reliability Live Event Execution: Lead broadcast and streaming operations for high-profile live news, sports, and entertainment programming, overseeing critical distribution packages (e.g., major sports league content) to ensure uninterrupted broadcast delivery. Signal Acquisition & Transmission: Oversee technical feed acquisition and management, leading the adoption of modern transmission workflows (e.g., satellite, SRT, and ZIXI) and implementing integrated backup systems to minimize risk and manual intervention. Disaster Recovery: Own the ongoing operational readiness and management of the disaster recovery system and associated content operations to maintain high-availability broadcast and streaming services. Technical Compliance: Direct the implementation and technical alignment for broadcast and digital triggers, including SCTE-35 and SCTE-224, and coordinate with engineering teams on platform rollouts (e.g., EVERTZ). Content Workflow & Compliance End-to-End Content Flow: Manage the complete content lifecycle, from signal acquisition and scheduling to content formatting and final delivery for linear channels, VOD, and international partners. Affiliate & Vendor Liaison: Serve as the primary operational liaison with affiliates and vendors, swiftly resolving delivery issues, blackout enforcement, and scheduling discrepancies for high-profile content. Compliance & Documentation: Lead the creation and publication of essential documentation, including SOPs, technical specifications, and blackout policy guidelines, ensuring all staff, vendors, and affiliates adhere to strict operational standards. Content Formatting: Oversee the proper formatting of outbound content for VOD and international partners, managing requirements around file transcoding and technical specifications. Strategic & Operational Leadership Workflow Optimization: Continuously assess and lead major efficiency initiatives to improve team performance, reduce redundancies, and transition legacy operations (e.g., physical tape stock elimination) to fully digital workflows using tools like Aspera, Signiant, and SFTP. Strategic Planning & Development: Convert high-volume, dynamic requirements (e.g., converting live event channels into scheduled linear content during major industry shifts) into new, functional workflows and schedules, driving strategic content retention and reuse policies. Revenue Generation: Identify and execute opportunities to utilize available inventory (e.g., schedule blocks for advertising) to generate new revenue streams with no additional operational cost. Team Leadership: Lead and mentor the Operations team, ensuring precise execution and a deep understanding of technical and platform needs.