Commercial Production Director

About TEGNA TEGNA Inc. helps people thrive in their local communities by providing the trusted local news and services that matter most. With 64 television stations in 51 U.S. markets, TEGNA reaches more than 100 million people monthly across the web, mobile apps, streaming, and linear television. Together, we are building a sustainable future for local news. We are looking for an experienced Director, Commercial Production to lead and evolve TEGNA’s commercial production organization across our local markets. This role will lead a team of approximately 5 Commercial Production Managers, who collectively oversee a distributed team of commercial producers, and will have responsibility for the broader operating model that enables the team to deliver high-quality commercial creative efficiently and consistently at scale. The Director will set the strategy, standards, workflows, and tools for commercial production, with a focus on consistent creative quality, operational efficiency, resource optimization, and an exceptional experience for our sales teams and clients. This role will also oversee TEGNA’s network of freelance production resources, ensuring we have the right talent and capacity available to support changing business needs across markets. The ideal candidate is an experienced people and operational leader who understands commercial video production but also knows how to build and improve systems at scale. This person will be a strong cross-functional partner to sales and other key stakeholders, a pragmatic problem solver, and an effective change leader who can bring teams along as workflows, technology, and expectations evolve. This position can be located at any TEGNA station location. Responsibilities - Leadership and Team Development: Lead, coach, and develop a team of approximately 5 Commercial Production Managers, establishing clear expectations and accountability while building strong, consistent leadership practices across the organization. Create a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, accountability, and high performance. - Commercial Production Strategy: Establish and execute the strategy and operating model for commercial production across TEGNA markets. Translate business priorities into clear production standards, processes, resource strategies, and team priorities. - Quality and Creative Standards: Establish clear standards for commercial creative and production quality across markets. Build mechanisms for sharing best practices, reviewing work, providing feedback, and increasing consistency while preserving the ability to meet individual client and market needs. - Operational Excellence and Efficiency: Continuously evaluate how work moves through the organization and identify opportunities to simplify processes, reduce unnecessary work, improve turnaround times, increase capacity, and make better use of internal and external resources. - Resource and Capacity Management: Develop a holistic view of production demand and capacity across markets. Partner with Commercial Production Managers to balance workloads, deploy resources effectively, identify capacity constraints, and determine when work should be handled locally, shared across markets, or supported by freelance resources. - Freelance Network Strategy and Management: Own the strategy and operating model for TEGNA’s commercial production freelance network. Develop and maintain a strong bench of qualified creative and production partners, establish consistent standards and processes for engaging freelance talent, and ensure external resources deliver the expected quality, value, and reliability. - Production Technology and Tooling: Own the strategy, adoption, and optimization of tools and technologies that support commercial production. Evaluate opportunities to improve workflows through technology, automation, and AI-enabled capabilities, ensuring investments deliver measurable improvements in quality, speed, capacity, or cost. - Sales Partnership: Build strong relationships with sales leadership and serve as a senior partner in improving how sales and production work together. Ensure production processes support revenue goals, client needs, and a strong customer experience while establishing realistic expectations around timelines, resources, and production capabilities. - Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with sales, marketing, technology, finance, procurement, legal, station leadership, and other stakeholders to ensure commercial production priorities and processes align with broader business objectives. - Change Leadership: Lead the organization through changes in workflows, technology, team structure, and production practices. Clearly communicate the rationale and expected outcomes of change, engage managers and producers in implementation, and create the structure and accountability needed to drive sustained adoption. - Performance Management and Measurement: Establish meaningful performance measures for the commercial production organization, including quality, productivity, turnaround time, capacity, resource utilization, client and sales experience, and freelance performance. Use data and feedback to identify opportunities and drive continuous improvement. Requirements - Bachelor’s degree in Film Production, Media Studies, Communications, Business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience. - 8+ years of experience in commercial production, creative operations, media, or a related field, with progressive leadership responsibility. - Demonstrated experience leading leaders and managing distributed teams, preferably across multiple markets or locations. - Strong understanding of commercial video production, including creative development, pre-production, production, post-production, and delivery. - Proven experience building and improving operational processes at scale, with demonstrated success increasing efficiency, consistency, or organizational capacity. - Experience developing and managing freelance, contractor, or external production networks, including resource planning, quality standards, and cost management. - Experience evaluating, implementing, or optimizing production technology and tools, with an interest in emerging AI-enabled creative and production capabilities. - Strong track record of partnering with sales organizations and other cross-functional business leaders, with the ability to balance creative, client, operational, and revenue priorities. - Demonstrated change management experience, including successfully leading teams through new processes, technologies, structures, or ways of working. - Strong business judgment and a pragmatic, solutions-oriented approach to decision-making. - Excellent leadership, communication, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence across functions and organizational levels. - Strong analytical and operational skills, including the ability to use data to evaluate performance, identify opportunities, and make resource decisions. - Experience managing budgets, vendors, and external partners. #LI-MS1 Pay Range $120,000—$140,000 USD Benefits: TEGNA offers comprehensive benefits designed to safeguard the physical, mental and financial health of our employees and their families. TEGNA offers two medical plan options for full and part-time employees through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, as well as access to dental and eye care coverage; fertility, surrogacy and adoption assistance; disability and life insurance. Our 401(k) program offers full, part-time and temporary employees the opportunity to contribute 1% - 80% of their pay on a pre-tax basis to TEGNA’s 401(k). Contributions made up to the first 4% of pay are eligible for a 100% match from the company and are 100% vested from day one. Regardless of participation in TEGNA medical plans, ALL employees and their eligible family members receive nine free virtual doctor’s appointments with a physician through Teladoc, and 12 free annual therapy sessions with a licensed clinician through Spring Health. TEGNA offers a generous Paid Time Off (PTO) benefit as well as nine paid holidays per year. * Some jobs are covered by a collective bargaining agreement and thus some or all of the benefits described herein may not apply. For example, some newsroom bargaining unit employees receive health and retirement benefits under plans administered by the union. EEO statement: TEGNA Inc. is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, hiring and developing individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences to add to our collaborative culture. We value and consider applications from all qualified candidates without regard to actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, family responsibilities, disability, medical condition, enrollment in college or vocational school, political affiliation, military or veteran status, citizenship status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law. TEGNA will reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with applicable law. If you are in need of an accommodation in order to submit your application, please email [email protected] Recruiting Fraud Alert: To all candidates: your personal information and online safety are important to us. Only TEGNA Recruiters or Hiring Managers will reach out to you regarding consideration of your application or background. 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