News Operations Manager, MS NOW

Versant•New York, NY

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

We’re looking for a New York-based Operations Manager to help build the future of MS NOW. This is not a traditional operations role. This person will have an explicit mandate to help MS NOW become the most modern live media organization in the world, while supporting, sustaining and scaling the tremendous growth the brand has already seen as part of Versant. We’re looking for a rare combination: someone who understands how live news actually gets made, loves being close to the people doing the work, and is equally excited about building what comes next. You might spend one morning helping solve a live production problem, the afternoon prototyping a new newsroom tool using Codex, and the next day working with editorial, product, engineering, or production teams to turn that idea into something people can actually use. The right person is curious, creative, hands-on, and comfortable experimenting. You should want to roll up your sleeves, try things, build things, fix things, and occasionally break things in a controlled environment so we can make them better. Just as important, we want someone who brings energy into the room, builds trust quickly, has a low ego, and understands that changing how people work is as much about relationships and culture as it is about technology. This position is based in New York with regular opportunities to travel to MS NOW and Versant facilities, productions, bureaus, and major events.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in newsroom operations, television production, digital media, production management, live events, product operations, or a related field.
Strong understanding of how live news and media organizations operate.
Experience working in fast-moving editorial, production, control room, digital, or field environments.
Demonstrated ability to identify problems, simplify complicated workflows, and turn ideas into practical solutions.
Hands-on interest in AI tools, including Codex or similar AI-assisted development platforms, and a willingness to use them regularly to prototype solutions.
Comfort experimenting with new technology without waiting for every answer to be known in advance.
Strong operational instincts and the ability to distinguish between an interesting technology and something that will actually help people do their jobs.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with an ability to build trust across editorial, creative, technical, and executive teams.
Ability to move comfortably between strategic conversations and hands-on execution.
Strong judgment under pressure and the ability to manage multiple priorities during breaking news and major productions.
Willingness to travel and occasionally work nights or weekends around breaking news, major events, launches, and live productions.

Nice To Haves

Experience working across both linear television and digital-first media.
Experience with newsroom and production systems such as iNews, Avid, Adobe Creative Cloud, LiveU, MAM platforms, CMS platforms, or similar tools.
Experience building prototypes, automations, internal tools, dashboards, or lightweight applications, either traditionally or using AI-assisted development tools.
Familiarity with AI-enabled production, transcription, search, metadata, content management, or newsroom automation.
Experience helping teams adopt new technologies or significantly change existing workflows.
Experience working across multiple locations, bureaus, studios, or field productions.

Responsibilities

Serve as a dedicated operational partner to MS NOW editorial, production, digital, and technical teams.
Work directly with journalists, producers, editors, control rooms, field teams, and leadership to understand how work actually gets done and where it can be improved.
Identify recurring pain points, outdated workflows, manual processes, and opportunities to make teams faster, smarter, and more creative.
Translate between editorial needs and technical teams
Build strong relationships across editorial, production, engineering, product, facilities, and technology teams.
Develop simple documentation, playbooks, training, and onboarding materials so successful workflows can scale.
Help teams adopt new tools and ways of working, recognizing that successful transformation depends on people, not just technology.
Create lightweight applications, dashboards, automations, workflow tools, and proof-of-concepts that allow teams to test ideas quickly before committing to larger development efforts.
Experiment with AI-enabled workflows across areas such as news gathering, production, transcription, metadata, research, clipping, publishing, planning, and live television.
Support the day-to-day operational needs of MS NOW, including live productions, breaking news, digital video, remote productions, special coverage, field operations, and major events.
Help modernize workflows across linear television, streaming, digital, social, and emerging platforms.
Test new technologies in real production environments and gather direct feedback from the people using them.
Travel to MS NOW and Versant locations as needed to understand workflows firsthand and support productions, pilots, and major initiatives.
Jump in wherever necessary. If something needs to get done, this person should be comfortable helping figure it out.