Managing Director of Programming and Traffic

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Managing Director of Programming & Traffic provides strategic and operational leadership for TPT’s linear, digital, and streaming program schedules. This role oversees day-to-day schedule management while guiding long-term content programming planning to drive ratings performance, brand alignment, and audience engagement across key demographics. The Managing Director ensures that programming decisions are informed by audience data, community relevance, and organizational priorities, balancing performance outcomes with mission and viewer experience.

This position leads a team responsible for curating, scheduling, and trafficking content across both broadcast and streaming platforms, ensuring flawless execution, FCC and contractual compliance, and operational excellence. Serving as a key cross-functional partner, the Managing Director collaborates closely with Marketing, Membership, Creative, Development, Content, Analytics, Technology, and other stakeholders to align programming strategies with audience growth, fundraising objectives, and platform innovation.  As a senior leader, the Managing Director builds and maintains strong, trusted relationships within the department and across the organization, representing Programming & Traffic in planning, decision-making, and system-wide conversations. This role blends strategic editorial judgment, data-informed decision-making, and systems-level oversight, requiring composure, flexibility, and clarity of leadership in a fast-paced, high-stakes, mission-driven environment.

Compensation: $105,000 to $120,000 annually in addition to company provided benefits.

Hybrid Work Environment: Candidates must live in or be willing to relocate to the Twin Cities Metro area and report to onsite office a minimum of three days per week.

MAJOR AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:

Programming (60% of time)

• Develop and direct research-based programming strategies that optimize schedules across linear, digital, and streaming platforms, advancing audience growth goals while ensuring coordinated windowing, platform alignment, and a cohesive viewer experience.
• Manage strategic relationships with external scheduling and content partners to ensure the delivery of high-performing schedules and maintain alignment with industry best practices.
• Leverage audience insights to guide cross-departmental collaboration, partnering with Marketing to elevate priority programs on-air, the PBS App and on streaming platforms to drive activation and viewing.
• Lead internal processes to maximize visibility and impact for TPT productions, ensuring they are scheduled strategically to reach and engage target audiences.
• Oversee the acquisition and evaluation of programming from independent creators, PBS distributors, and other content sources to ensure alignment with Twin Cities PBS’s mission, strategic priorities, and audience needs.
• Curate the general audience broadcast services to deliver a balanced, compelling, and locally relevant schedule that reflects community interests and enhances viewer engagement.
• Synthesize and communicate critical audience data and trends, including ratings, viewership, and performance metrics, to internal stakeholders to inform programming decisions, schedule optimization, and organizational strategic planning.
• Collaborate with Membership to design revenue-generating fundraising schedules, balancing financial outcomes with audience experience and brand integrity.
• Represent the needs and priorities of Programming and Traffic in cross‑functional planning, ensuring alignment with organizational marketing, creative, content, analytics, and audience growth strategies across platforms.

Traffic (20% of time)

• Provide strategic oversight of the Traffic function, ensuring the team has the systems, tools, and support needed to deliver accurate, compliant, and high-quality schedules across all platforms.
• Lead and support the Traffic team by setting expectations, prioritizing work, removing obstacles, and fostering a culture of accuracy, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Represent Programming and Traffic needs in station-wide operational planning, including the evaluation, selection, and implementation of new technologies, systems, and software.
• Collaborate with engineering, digital, and technology teams as the primary Programming and Traffic partner to anticipate operational impacts, advocate for required functionality, and ensure the smooth integration of systems and tools affecting schedules, metadata, and log delivery.
• Monitor high-level operational performance and risk areas, identifying trends and opportunities for improvement while empowering staff to execute solutions.
• Maintain oversight of compliance-related processes, ensuring staff have the guidance and resources needed to meet FCC, contractual, and station requirements.
• Champion process modernization and workflow evolution to keep TPT aligned with industry best practices and technological advancements that strengthen operational efficiency and viewer experience.

Team/Staff Management (20% of time)

• Provide strategic oversight of the Traffic and Programming functions, ensuring the team has the systems, tools, and support needed to deliver accurate, compliant, and high-quality schedules across all platforms.
• Lead and support the Traffic team by setting expectations, prioritizing work, removing obstacles, and fostering a culture of accuracy, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Represent Programming and Traffic needs in station-wide operational planning, including the evaluation, selection, and implementation of new technologies, systems, and software.
• Serve as the primary advocate for traffic operational requirements in cross-departmental discussions, ensuring system changes and workflow adaptations maintain schedule reliability and meet operational standards.
• Collaborate with engineering, digital, and technology teams to anticipate operational impacts, advocate for necessary functionality, and ensure smooth integration of tools and processes that affect logs, metadata, and schedule delivery.
• Monitor high-level operational performance and risk areas, identifying trends and opportunities for improvement while empowering staff to execute solutions.
• Maintain oversight of compliance-related processes, ensuring staff have the guidance and resources needed to meet FCC, contractual, and station requirements.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Experience

• 5 years in broadcast/digital programming, content and audience strategy, or traffic-related work.
• 3 years managing staff or leading teams.
• Demonstrated use of audience data to guide programming or content decisions, including the ability to interpret ratings, viewership, and performance data to inform scheduling and programming strategy.
• Experience collaborating across departments in a complex or mission-driven environment.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with content acquisition or broadcast curation.
• Public media or nonprofit media experience
• Experience participating in or leading system and software transitions.
• Familiarity with media scheduling broadcast traffic systems.

Knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Strong editorial judgment and strategic decision-making skills.
• Ability to apply local interests, cultural knowledge, and community awareness to programming decisions.
• Ability to maintain composure, focus, and sound judgment in a fast‑paced, high‑stakes environment.
• An inquisitive, flexible mindset with the ability to adapt strategies as audience behaviors, platforms, and organizational priorities evolve.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills.
• Ability to lead teams through change and maintain operational stability.
• Commitment to advancing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) priorities across the department and organization.

Salary : $105,000 - $120,000