The Role
About Us
Powered by one of the largest global newsrooms in sports media, The Athletic brings sports fans the most comprehensive stories about the teams, sports and athletes they love. The Athletic’s newsroom of 450+ full-time staff delivers in-depth coverage of hundreds of professional and college teams across more than 47 North American markets and all 20 football clubs in the English Premier League, as well as many Championship clubs.
About the Role
The Senior Director, UK Series is responsible for the creative leadership, audience growth, and commercial performance of The Athletic’s UK-based series portfolio. This includes flagship football and motorsport properties such as The Athletic FC, The Totally Football Show, The Race, Talk of the Devils, and future series across Premier League, Formula 1, and other global sports.
Collectively, these series reach tens of millions of fans annually across audio, video, written, social, and live platforms.
The Senior Director, UK Series will ensure these brands consistently exceed audience expectations, especially around tentpole moments such as the World Cup, European Championships, transfer windows, F1 pre-season and race weekends, and other major sports and cultural moments. This role sits at the intersection of editorial excellence, production leadership, and commercial strategy.
The Senior Director, UK Series will lead The Athletic’s UK production team, partner closely with UK newsroom leadership, and collaborate with external production companies, publishers, and platforms. They will also work cross-functionally with operations, sales, marketing, product, and finance to set strategy, unlock revenue, and manage resources in alignment with company priorities.
Responsibilities
- Editorial & Creative Leadership
- Team & Production Leadership
- Audience Growth & Performance
- Audience Growth & Performance
Editorial & Creative Leadership
- Set the creative vision and editorial strategy for The Athletic’s UK series slate, ensuring distinct, high-quality storytelling that reflects The Athletic’s journalistic standards and brand voice.
- Own series-level planning across the calendar, including coverage strategies for major moments such as the World Cup, Euros, Premier League seasons, transfer windows, and the F1 calendar.
- Accelerate the expansion of our video programming across YouTube and TikTok.
- Partner with UK newsroom leadership to amplify their world-class reporting across our series’ audio, video, social, and live formats.
- Identify and develop new series, formats, and talent, with a focus on long-term franchises rather than one-off programming.
- Ensure consistency, quality control, and audience relevance across all UK series.
Team & Production Leadership
- Lead and develop The Athletic’s UK-based production team, fostering a culture of editorial ambition, operational excellence, and collaboration.
- Work with series EPs to optimize day-to-day production workflows, ensuring shows are delivered on time, on budget, and at a consistently high standard.
- Manage high-level relationships with external production partners, talent, and distributors, negotiating scopes, timelines, and creative alignment.
- Act as the senior UK series leader, representing The Athletic internally and externally.
Audience Growth & Performance
- Own audience strategy and performance for UK series, working with analytics, marketing, and product teams to drive growth across platforms.
- Use data and audience insights to inform programming decisions, talent development, release strategies, and experimentation.
- Champion a fan-first mindset, ensuring content is accessible, distinctive, and valuable to both core and emerging audiences.
Commercial & Strategic Leadership
- Partner with sales and partnerships teams to develop exciting first-to-market commercial programs, including sponsorships, branded content, and platform partnerships.
- Balance editorial integrity with commercial opportunity, ensuring programs feel authentic to audiences and talent.
- Work with finance and operations to manage budgets, forecast performance, and allocate resources effectively.
- Contribute to broader company strategy, particularly as it relates to international growth, franchise expansion, and new business models.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in media, sports, or entertainment, with a strong track record in content leadership, production, or general management.
- Proven experience running or overseeing multi-platform series (audio, video, digital, social), ideally within sports, news, or premium content.
- Deep understanding of UK and global football and/or Formula 1 audiences, with a strong editorial instinct for what resonates culturally.
- Demonstrated ability to balance creative ambition with commercial outcomes, including experience working with sales, sponsors, or partners.
- Experience leading teams, managing budgets, and working cross-functionally in complex organizations.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and external partners.
- Comfortable operating at both a strategic and hands-on level, especially around major live moments and breaking news cycles.
The Athletic offers unique perks and benefits to all full-time employees based on their country of residence. Our UK benefits packages offer benefits and perks, competitive to the local market.
The Athletic Media Company is an equal opportunity employer and enthusiastically encourages people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply. The Athletic will consider all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.
Click here to review our Applicant Privacy Notice, which describes how and when The Athletic Media Company collects, uses, and shares certain personal information of job applicants and prospective employees.
Beware of fraudulent job recruiting schemes! Our recruiters use [email protected] exclusively, and our team members will use an email address with @theathletic.com domain. We do not conduct interviews via text or instant message and we do not ask candidates to download software, to purchase equipment through us, or to provide sensitive personally identifiable information, such as bank accounts or social security numbers. If you have been contacted by someone claiming to be a member of the recruiting/HR team at The Athletic but operating from a different email address about a job offer, please report it as potential job fraud to the law enforcement and to [email protected].
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The Company
What We Do
Here for every sports story that matters. -- The Athletic (http://theathletic.com) is a subscription-based media publisher of smarter sports coverage for die-hard fans. Founded in 2016, The Athletic’s all-star team of writers have produced thousands of quality stories for subscribers free of ads, pop-ups and auto-play videos. The Athletic now offers in-depth local coverage in 47 North American pro sports markets along with premium national coverage across MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA & more. Readers can count on original, authentic storytelling written by talented local and national sports journalists like Ken Rosenthal, Pierre LeBrun, Seth Davis, Stewart Mandel, Shams Charania and many more. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
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