Managing Director of Impact Media

Job Description

Job Description

We're looking for a dynamic, social-first, strategic media leader who is excited to transform ParentsTogether’s mission into multi-format, cross-platform content that reaches parents at scale. The ideal candidate is entrepreneurial with a growth mindset, having equal strengths in storytelling and content production, along with the operational rigor to manage high-performing teams.

The Managing Director of Impact Media will combine a passion for kids and families with the expertise to lead a team in creating and distributing compelling content that is topical and culturally fluent. Our mission is to reach people who scroll past traditional news media with issue-driven content that speaks to their everyday parenting experiences and challenges.

We’re looking for a people leader, someone who can teach, guide and create where no task is too small or too big.

This role will report to the Executive Director, and work closely with the CEO of the for-profit ParentsTogether Holdings (anchored by the Motherly brand). This is a senior role for a builder who knows how to take an ambitious strategic direction and translate it into a roadmap, a high-performing team, and a media operation that consistently delivers results.

We strongly encourage you to apply if this role and our mission sound interesting to you, even if you are not sure you meet all of the qualifications. We are interested in a wide variety of experiences and backgrounds.

ABOUT US

Founded in 2012, ParentsTogether is the largest mission-driven media organization serving parents in the United States. Through a growing network of media properties (including Motherly,) we reach approximately 32 million parents a year with trusted, emotionally resonant content that meets parents where they already spend their time – scrolling social feeds, watching vertical video, and building relationships with creators and influencers they trust.

We are a multi-entity organization comprised of:

• ParentsTogether Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that anchors our charitable mission and owns PT Holdings;

• ParentsTogether Action, a 501(c)(4) that conducts advocacy and permissible lobbying; and

• PT Holdings, a for-profit C-corporation that owns and operates Motherly and serves as the vehicle for building our multi-brand parent lifestyle media portfolio.

ParentsTogether’s theory of change is rooted in the belief that to build a world where all kids and families can thrive, we must reach parents beyond the audiences typically engaged by issue-focused organizations.

We produce content that takes on the forces shaping families' lives — the economy, healthcare, education, kids' safety, the policies and power structures behind it all — with the cultural fluency and craft to break through to parents who don't follow news or politics. We are not just talking to people who already agree with us; we are building a "bigger we."

Bridging these efforts requires a team that can move fast, learn quickly, and operate across very different kinds of work — from shaping narratives to leveraging technology innovation. Our strategy framework is based on lean startup principles: we try out ideas quickly, see what works, and iterate. We work collaboratively to solve challenges together, and we drive impact on high-stakes issues in a positive, low-ego, low-drama work environment.

As ParentsTogether has grown into a media network reaching tens of millions of parents, media and culture-shaping have become central to how we drive impact. The Managing Director of Impact Media will play a defining role in this next chapter, helping shape what mission-driven media at scale looks like in this moment.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Managing Director of Impact Media leads the programmatic teams that fuel our impact media work (including content, production, narrative, and issue storytelling). The role is responsible for two interconnected jobs:

Translating strategic direction into a clear, executable roadmap. Working with the Executive Director and senior leadership, you'll take ParentsTogether's vision for impact issue-focused media and turn it into a concrete plan: which audiences we go after first, what content bets we're making, how we sequence the work, how we leverage emerging tech to accelerate our processes, and what success looks like. You'll bring rigor and structure to ambitious ideas, pressure-testing them, identifying what it will actually take to deliver, and building the case to funders and stakeholders for the resources required.

Managing our content, production, narrative, and storytelling teams to build a media operation that can deliver at scale. You'll lead across multiple functions and bring the operational rigor and strategic clarity needed to build the teams and tools to consistently produce content that takes on the issues shaping families' lives — and reaches parents who don't follow news or politics. You’ll support our content, narrative, and product teams in creating durable audience relationships, building scalable content franchises, and developing repeatable formats.

Here's what you'll be responsible for:

• Strategic planning and execution

  • Translate ParentsTogether's vision for mission-driven media into a clear, sequenced roadmap with concrete milestones, resourcing, and success metrics.

  • Identify and operationalize new audience development and narrative strategies, such as reaching dads through the issues that affect their families, or reaching MAHA-curious parents through coverage of the forces actually shaping kids' health–by translating them into testable plans the team can execute against.

  • Partner with the Executive Director on funder conversations related to media strategy, articulating what specific bets require, what they will deliver, and how progress will be measured. Be able to represent our content strategy externally.

  • Make clear, evidence-informed decisions about where the team should focus, what to test, and what to scale.

• Team and operational leadership

  • Manage and integrate the multiple teams that power our pro-social impact media — content, production, narrative, and storytelling.

  • Set clear strategic and editorial direction across these teams, and align their work against shared priorities and goals.

  • Coach and develop team leaders across functions; set clear expectations and high standards; provide direct, timely feedback; and support the team's growth as the work evolves.

  • Oversee the design of the systems, workflows, and tools that allow these teams to operate efficiently and learn quickly — from ideation through production and distribution to performance analysis.

  • Establish an incubation model that consistently produces, tests, and validates new ideas, generating clear signals about what works and a reliable pipeline of proven concepts.

  • Set and hold teams accountable to performance benchmarks that reflect both reach and resonance.

• Cross-functional leadership across the network

  • Be part of the connective tissue between our issue-focused content and our lifestyle and entertainment content produced across Motherly and other PT Holdings properties — creating the workflows, touchpoints, and shared processes that allow our narrative priorities to actually make their way into content across the network.

  • Partner with the leadership of Motherly and PT Holdings to align on shared narrative priorities and identify opportunities where impact media work and cultural content can amplify each other across the network.

  • Work closely with the Executive Director and senior leadership to ensure media execution stays tightly aligned with organizational priorities.

  • Identify and resolve gaps in cross-team workflows, communication, or strategic alignment.

You'll be a great fit if you:

• Have built something. You have hands-on leadership experience in a digital media operation where you were accountable for reach and engagement, and you can point to things you created, launched, or rebuilt, not just maintained.

• Are fluent in modern digital media. You understand how content performs across social, video, email, SMS, and emerging formats. You are an expert in vertical video and social formats. You understand the mechanics of organic vs. paid distribution, can run A/B tests, and let data drive decisions quickly. You know what a high-performing content strategy looks like and can coach teams to deliver across social, video, email, SMS, and emerging formats.

• Have an experimental, iterative mindset. You build things, test them, learn fast, and move on. You have a proven track record of growing an audience from 0 to 1 and 1 to 10, and have successfully developed net-new franchises with clear GTM and launch strategies.

• Are tech-forward, or an early adopter. You see how AI is shifting the media industry, and you have a starting thesis about how it can be used to supercharge our work. You have a history of using emerging tech tools and platforms to innovate.

• Are a translator of vision into execution. When given ambitious strategic direction, you instinctively start asking "what would it actually take to do this?" — and then you build the plan, the team, and the systems to get it done.

• Have meaningful people management and hiring experience. You’ve managed and coached team members directly, you give clear feedback, and you create a culture of accountability.

• Are skilled at pointing multiple teams in the same direction. You've led across functions — content, production, narrative — and you know how to align teams around shared goals and build the systems, rituals, and workflows that let them work together smoothly.

• Believe deeply in the breakthrough thesis that issue-driven content can reach non-political, non-news-consuming parents. You're motivated by the craft challenge of making content about the economy, healthcare, education, and kids' safety so good, so emotionally resonant, and so culturally fluent that parents who'd scroll past traditional news will stop and watch.

• Thrive in environments that are evolving. ParentsTogether is in the middle of an exciting strategic moment, and you are energized by ambiguity, change, and the work of helping define what comes next.

• Bring a thoughtful approach to equity in practice, both in the content you help shape and in how you build and lead teams.

POSITION DETAILS

• This is a full-time role. Salary ranges from $180,000 to $215,000, depending on experience.

• Location: Remote/flexible — Schedule and geography are flexible as long as you are generally available 12 PM – 5 PM ET on most weekdays.

• This position reports to the Executive Director and oversees a team of 10+ employees and contractors.

• Benefits include health insurance (with cost-share for dependents) for employees working > 75% time, three weeks of vacation (plus holidays and the last week of the calendar year off), paid family and sick leave, retirement match after four months on staff, and a FSA account. This position is considered exempt.

HOW TO APPLY

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please apply on our Career Page at -page.com/parents-together-foundation only and include the following:

• Resume

• Answers to the following questions in short form (one to two paragraphs per question) in lieu of a cover letter:

  • How many years of people management experience do you have? What is the largest team you’ve led? How would your employees describe you as a manager?

  • What does it look like, in practice, to make content genuinely welcoming to people who don’t already agree with you? How have you approached that in your past work? Share links or examples as possible.

  • Describe a recent successful piece of content or content strategy you led. Why did it work? What impact did it have? What platform or distribution choices drove the result? Include links or examples if available.

At ParentsTogether, we have an intersectional lens and believe that building a multiracial, cross-class parent movement is non-negotiable. We are actively working to build a diverse team of staff and contractors; people of color, people from poor and working-class backgrounds, LGBTQ folks, and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based upon gender, race, national origin, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation, or gender expression.