Documentary Producer

University of Washington • Seattle, WA

13d • Hybrid

About The Position

KUOW has an outstanding opportunity for a Documentary Producer [Producer 4 (NE S SAG-AFTRA)] to join their team. Reporting to the Director of New Content and Innovation, the Documentary Producer is responsible for producing a minimum of one longform narrative series per year, including all pitching, researching, reporting, scripting, and post-production, plus occasionally hosting. A successful documentary producer will thrive in a fast-paced, constantly changing environment. They will have outstanding communication and project management skills and the ability to balance overlapping deadlines. A successful producer in this role will lead the overall direction and execution of complex, multistakeholder editorial projects, from pre-production through post-production. They will also have a keen eye for stories that can translate into distinctive documentary series that align with our overall content vision. This position is team oriented: maintaining positive relationships internally, and supporting fellow producers, editors, and hosts with production needs is essential.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism or similar field, and four years of professional journalism experience of increasing responsibility, with a background in writing for talk programming and radio production; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Requires knowledge of professional broadcast and journalistic standards and practices.

Nice To Haves

• Strong writing, editing, and production for investigative, narrative, long form podcast series.
• Ability to execute complex podcast projects, including serving in multiple roles and capacities.

Responsibilities

• Conduct original reporting, research, investigation and fact-checking.
• Identify, research and develop story ideas using in-depth investigation to support long-form, documentary-style storytelling.
• Cultivate and maintain a wide variety of sources.
• Identify unique and distinct voices and perspectives to add context and depth to reporting.
• Write and edit scripts, develop multi-episode storylines.
• Adapt stories, scripts, and mixes to conform to the needs of both broadcast and podcast shows.
• May serve as host or lead reporter, as needed, conducting interviews with experts, officials, and other relevant individuals, and narrating scripts.
• Execute sound-rich, multi-track mixes, requiring knowledge of software and production equipment.
• Partner with newsroom leadership to strategically plan podcast series.
• Create and execute production plans for complex, multi-stakeholder projects including coordination with the Senior Editor, Director of New Content, News Director, and Chief Content Officer to address release schedules, staffing needs, and backfill.
• Proactively communicate and manage interlocking deadlines, ensuring successful completion of projects.
• Serve as primary project lead and show runner for developing new narrative documentary projects for podcast and broadcast.
• Create scratch audio pilots for potential projects.
• Edit and rewrite scripts and help shape the audio storytelling of contributing investigative journalists.
• Monitor diverse news and information sources to identify strong topics and story ideas and pitch them through established greenlight processes.
• Assess submissions from KUOW news personnel and from external sources.
• Assist or step in for producers; or contribute to team production efforts or other podcasts, when necessary.

Benefits

• Benefits: For information about benefits for this position, visit https://www.washington.edu/jobs/benefits-for-uw-staff/

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level