Vice President, Content Strategy & Distribution

LEARFIELD • New York, NY

2d • $165,000 - $200,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Vice President, Content Strategy & Distribution, owns content strategy, creative direction, and content operations across a portfolio of collegiate athletic properties, with a particular focus on leading and growing Learfield’s content capabilities across the Big Ten. This senior leadership role sets the vision for how content is created, distributed, and monetized across the portfolio. The VP leads a team of content professionals embedded within collegiate athletic departments and serves as a trusted strategic partner to school leadership, revenue teams, brand partners, and internal stakeholders.

The role combines content, college sports, media, and business, creating content that strengthens connections between schools and their audiences while creating commercial opportunities. The VP develops stories and high-performing teams and translates audience engagement into business results. The role is based in Dallas, Texas, or New York City and requires regular overnight travel to partner schools, industry events, and key meetings.

Requirements

• At least 15 years of experience in content, media, sports, entertainment, branded content, or a related field.
• Significant experience leading content teams and developing content strategies for major brands, media platforms, sports properties, or entertainment organizations.
• Strong leadership, mentorship, and team-building skills, with a record of developing high-performing distributed teams across multiple properties, markets, or organizations.
• Deep understanding of college athletics and the college sports media landscape, including its culture, audiences, and business dynamics, with meaningful experience working with or around Power Four programs, particularly Big Ten institutions.
• Strong understanding of social platforms, digital video, streaming, and emerging media formats.
• Demonstrated ability to develop content strategies that drive audience growth and commercial results.
• Experience developing branded content and working with sales teams, advertisers, and commercial partners.
• Experience working directly with senior executives, clients, athletic department leadership, and other high-level stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of how content, audience, and commercial strategy intersect.
• Demonstrated ability to use audience and performance data to inform content strategy, investment, and optimization.
• Exceptional communication, writing, and presentation skills.
• Ability to work at both strategic and executional levels, moving between setting broader vision and helping teams solve day-to-day challenges.
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships and operate effectively in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.
• Willingness and ability to travel overnight regularly to partner schools, industry events, and key meetings.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with analytics platforms such as Zoomph, project management systems such as AirTable, and Meta Business Suite, TikTok Analytics, and YouTube Studio.

Responsibilities

• Lead the overall content vision and strategy across a portfolio of collegiate athletic properties, particularly Big Ten schools.
• Partner with NIL, athlete marketing, and school teams to develop student-athlete content strategies and help schools and brands responsibly include athletes and creators in programming and commercial opportunities.
• Lead, develop, and mentor a distributed team of content leaders, producers, creators, and social specialists embedded within partner athletic departments.
• Build relationships with athletic department leadership, school social teams, creators, coaches, athletes, and other stakeholders, serving as a senior content partner.
• Develop property-specific content strategies based on each property's brand, audience, priorities, and commercial objectives.
• Execute strategies to grow audience engagement, content inventory, social performance, and revenue.
• Partner with sales and revenue teams to develop branded content opportunities aligned with the objectives of schools, athletes, and brand partners.
• Identify content products, formats, franchises, and revenue opportunities that can scale across properties.
• Establish content KPIs and measurement frameworks, using audience and performance data to improve content strategy and investment.
• Evaluate performance across schools, platforms, campaigns, and content franchises and provide actionable recommendations.
• Establish best practices for short-form video, social content, branded content, original programming, and emerging formats.
• Ensure content reflects each school's voice, culture, and identity while maintaining portfolio-wide quality standards.
• Create scalable processes and tools that allow successful strategies, formats, insights, and programs to be replicated and tailored to individual schools.
• Collaborate with branded content, production, sales, distribution, marketing, and other internal teams to develop integrated content strategies and maximize business opportunities.
• Help schools increase the value of owned and social platforms through programming, organic distribution, audience development, and content optimization.
• Monitor trends in college sports, social media, digital video, streaming, and the broader media landscape, identifying opportunities for partner schools.
• Provide strategic direction, coaching, and mentorship to property content teams and serve as a senior resource for content strategy, creative development, and execution.
• Establish and maintain storytelling, voice, tone, quality, and brand-alignment standards.
• Lead competitive and industry research to identify opportunities, platforms, formats, and best practices.
• Help shape Learfield’s broader content and owned media strategy, including scalable content platforms and products extending beyond individual school properties.
• Support senior leadership with strategic planning, business reviews, board presentations, and company-wide initiatives.
• Partner with senior leadership on budgets and resource allocation to support team needs and growth opportunities.
• Connect people and resources across the organization to address ongoing challenges and unlock opportunities.
• Build and maintain trusted stakeholder relationships and use sound judgment and communication to navigate complex issues and competing priorities.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Health Savings Account
• Life insurance and other insurance plans
• Flexible Paid Time Off, with a minimum of 10+ days annually
• Parental leave
• 20 paid holidays
• 401(k) with match
• Short- and long-term disability
• Annual discretionary bonus and/or sales compensation may be available based on individual and company performance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed