The Athletic is seeking a razor-sharp, unflappable Technical Director to spearhead the technical execution of our new flagship daily live show. Sitting in "Seat 1" of the control room, you will be the absolute backbone of the broadcast, responsible for translating the Senior Producer's editorial cues into flawless, real-time on-screen action.
This is a highly technical, fast-paced role that requires instantaneous decision-making. You will operate the video switcher, manage multi-cam studio setups, route remote guest feeds, and oversee the health of the live stream from "fade up" to sign-off. The ideal candidate is a control room veteran who possesses a deep understanding of modern IP/digital streaming workflows and stays perfectly calm when breaking news forces an on-the-fly technical pivot.
Responsibilities
- Live Switching & Execution: Physically operate the production switcher during the daily live broadcast, executing clean cuts and video effects instantly on the Senior Producer's call.
- Control Room Setup & Workflow: Configure and maintain the control room architecture. Build and save custom macros, registers, and snapshots to ensure the daily look of the show is consistent and easily retrievable.
- Signal & Feed Management: Manage all incoming and outgoing signals. Coordinate the seamless integration of remote guests via Zoom, etc, ensuring low-latency video and mix-minus audio are locked before going live.
- Technical Quality Control: Monitor video and audio levels throughout the broadcast to ensure compliance with premium streaming standards. Act as the primary gatekeeper against frame drops, stream lag, or audio syncing issues.
- Equipment Oversight & Maintenance: Oversee the studio’s physical technical infrastructure, including robotic cameras (PTZ), lighting grids, encoders, and hardware/software updates.
- Crisis Troubleshooting: Diagnose and resolve technical failures (e.g., dropped remote feeds, frozen graphics engines, signal loss) mid-broadcast without interrupting the viewer experience.
- Post-Show Archive: Manage the master recording configuration, ensuring clean and dirty cuts of the broadcast are properly encoded, archived, and handed off to the post-production and social teams.
Requirements
- 5+ Years of Live TD Experience: A proven track record of switching daily, fast-paced live programming (sports, news, or high-volume talk formats).
- Hardware & Software Mastery: Deep technical fluency with industry-standard switchers and streaming platforms—specifically vMix, NewTek TriCaster, Ross Carbonite, or Blackmagic ATEM systems.
- IP Video & Protocols: Expert knowledge of modern video transport workflows, including NDI, SRT, RTMP, and traditional SDI workflows.
- The "Live" Mindset: Exceptional reaction time and spatial awareness. You can listen to the producer in your ear, watch 10 monitor screens at once, and punch the next shot perfectly on beat.
- Problem Solver under Pressure: A proactive troubleshooter who always has a "Plan B" (and Plan C) mapped out in the routing switcher if a piece of gear fails mid-show.
- Team Collaborator: Ability to work seamlessly alongside the Audio Engineer, Graphics Producer, and Associate Producer to create a synchronized, ego-free control room environment.
We are excited to learn more about you and your experience. To keep our hiring process as fair and authentic as possible, we ask that you submit your own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process. If you are a candidate for a technical role, we will let you know what specific tools you are permitted to use for your technical assessment.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of live Technical Director experience in fast-paced daily programming (sports, news, or high-volume talk).
- Deep technical fluency with industry-standard switchers and streaming platforms (vMix, NewTek TriCaster, Ross Carbonite, Blackmagic ATEM).
- Expert knowledge of video transport workflows and protocols (NDI, SRT, RTMP) and traditional SDI workflows.
- Ability to physically operate the production switcher and execute clean cuts and effects on cue.
- Experience configuring control room architecture, building/saving macros, registers, and snapshots for consistent show look.
- Proven ability to manage remote guest integration (Zoom, low-latency feeds) and ensure mix-minus audio.
- Strong troubleshooting skills to resolve dropped feeds, frozen graphics, signal loss mid-broadcast.
- Experience overseeing studio infrastructure including PTZ/robotic cameras, lighting, encoders, and hardware/software updates.
- Collaborative teamwork with Audio Engineer, Graphics Producer, and Associate Producer in a control room environment.
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.
