Manager, Product (On-Air Scheduling and Distribution) Job at NBCUniversal in Eng

Manager, Product (On-Air Scheduling and Distribution)

Versant Media's Content and Operations group is seeking a Manager, Product (Content and Operations) to lead our On-Air Scheduling and Distribution teams. This role will report to the Director of Content and Operations and will oversee a team of Product Owners and specialists focused on ensuring that scheduled content makes it to air accurately, on time, and in compliance with rights, format, and distribution requirements.

The Manager will serve as a subject matter expert in broadcast and cable scheduling workflows, leading the definition and delivery of product capabilities that bridge strategic scheduling intent with operational execution. This includes tooling for real-time scheduling updates, format compliance, traffic fulfillment, playout readiness, and downstream metadata delivery. In this role, you'll partner closely with engineering, program operations, media logistics, and playout vendors to deliver platforms that are reliable, intelligent, and ready for next-gen automation.

You will own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for your domain and guide a cross-functional team to design, build, and scale solutions that unify workflows, reduce manual effort, and enable on-air scheduling and distribution across Versant's content supply chain.

Core Responsibilities

• People Leadership & Coaching Hire, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of Product Owners; create an environment that fosters collaboration, ownership, and continuous growth.
• Domain Strategy & Vision Define the product strategy and roadmap for on-air scheduling and distribution, aligning platform evolution with business needs and operational goals.
• Workflow Integration Partner with scheduling, traffic, and operations stakeholders to ensure seamless handoffs across planning, formatting, playout triggering, and metadata delivery.
• AI & Automation Enablement Embed intelligent automation into operational workflows, including anomaly detection, predictive playout readiness, and dynamic rules enforcement.
• Delivery Oversight Drive end-to-end delivery across your portfolio, facilitating quarterly planning, sprint execution, and delivery milestones while removing roadblocks.
• Operational Resilience Champion robust instrumentation, alerting, SLAs, and governance controls that ensure broadcast-grade reliability and compliance.
• Stakeholder Communication Provide clear, executive-ready updates on product direction, roadmap progress, and delivery risks; co-lead customer and vendor conversations as needed.
• Legacy Modernization Lead the migration away from legacy traffic tools toward modular, cloud-native solutions; partner with architecture and engineering on system design.

Basic Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in Media, Product Management, Operations, or a related field.
• 8+ years in digital or broadcast media environments, including 3+ years leading product teams or agile squads.
• Hands-on experience with broadcast scheduling, playout workflows, or traffic operations.
• Proven ability to manage products that operate at scale, under SLAs, and with high operational sensitivity.
• Strong communication and facilitation skills, especially across technical and operational stakeholder groups.
• Comfort with Jira/Confluence, broadcast traffic systems and operational analytics tools.

Desired Characteristics:

• Strong technical fluency with the ability to engage deeply with engineering and architecture teamsable to interpret system designs, discuss implementation tradeoffs, and contribute meaningfully to technical planning conversations.
• Familiarity with metadata governance, downstream partner requirements, and dynamic playout rules.
• Experience migrating from legacy traffic or broadcast management systems to modern platforms.
• Certifications such as CSPO, SAFe POPM, or PMP are a plus.
• Deep empathy for operational users and a passion for building tools that reduce complexity at scale.
• Familiarity with AI/ML concepts (e.g., LLMs, embeddings) and curiosity in applying them to enhance product workflows or embed intelligent behaviors into systemssuch as test generation, metadata enrichment, or anomaly detection.

Additional Requirements:

• On-site Expectations: This position has been designated as needing to be in the office 2 - 4 times a month based on business needs.
• This role will require quarterly on-site collaboration weeks in New York City (NY) and Englewood Cliffs (NJ). Limited travel (<10%) to broadcast, vendor, or operations centers may be required.

This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other discounts and perks. Learn more about the benefits offered by NBCUniversal.

We are accepting applications for this position on an ongoing basis.