VP, Productions (Originals)

Almost Friday Media (AFM) is a fast-growing digital-first media company and creative studio. We've evolved from a single Instagram page into a multi-brand ecosystem spanning comedy, sports, unscripted, and scripted content, with distribution across YouTube, social, podcasts, and live formats. We're building the next-generation entertainment company for a digitally native audience.

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced VP, Production (Originals) to own the operational execution of every production across AFM's four verticals — Sports, Talk, Unscripted, and Scripted. This is not a creative development role. It is physical production: logistics, planning, resource management, budgeting, staffing, scheduling, and technical oversight.

We are looking to build a system that scales with multiple departments producing simultaneously and competing for the same studios, equipment, crew, and editors. We are looking for a production leader with a constant, company-wide understanding of every moving piece that can plan proactively.

The right person should be able to hear a simple creative concept — "we're producing a 12-episode comedy series" — and immediately start building the operational roadmap: timeline, studio and space needs, set construction, camera and lighting packages, audio requirements, crew size, budget, production and edit schedules, staffing plan, equipment gaps, risk areas, and where the process can be streamlined.

Key Responsibilities

Company-Wide Production Planning

• Own physical production resources holistically across all four verticals — each creates differently, but all compete for the same studios, cameras, lighting, audio, crew, producers, editors, and technical staff.
• Build and maintain long-term production calendars, weekly production schedules, studio programming, and resource and budget forecasting.
• Ensure production is never surprised by resource conflicts.

Equipment & Technical Resource Management

• Maintain a complete, centralized understanding of the company's production capabilities: every camera, lens, and lighting package, audio inventory, storage, live production equipment, editing and server infrastructure, and studio capabilities.
• A Technical Director reports into this role. This role owns the operational production strategy; the Technical Director owns execution of the technical systems that support it, in close day-to-day partnership.
• GFX and other technical production staff, along with any additional technical production hires needed to support the programming, report into this role — consolidated out of individual department reporting lines so coverage, standards, and resourcing are managed centrally rather than team by team.
• Own the entire post-production department, including a dedicated Post Producer or Post Supervisor who reports into this role and manages scripted post-production end to end.
• Build out a scaled production team hierarchy.

Production Budget Ownership

• Understand true production costs behind every project and know where additional spend creates real efficiency versus where it doesn't.
• Build and own production budgets, crew budgets, equipment budgets, rental budgets, and travel budgets.
• Take creative and programming plans from Programming leadership and turn them into a viable, presentable cost estimate with full production-department and line-item detail.
• Quickly assess the right staffing model for every production — existing staff, short-term contractor, freelance crew, a fixed-term hire, or full-time — understanding the financial and operational tradeoffs of each.
• Build a proactive staffing process with the relevant creative executives involved throughout.

Systems & Scalability

• Build repeatable systems: shoot checklists, equipment checkout processes, call sheets, scheduling templates, crew communication protocols, and vendor relationships.
• Build and maintain coverage plans, onboarding documentation, and process guides.

Cross-Department Coordination

• Serve as the operational hub between Creative, Producers, Technical Operations, Sales, Branded Content, Finance, and Leadership.
• Maintain constant visibility into what's shooting, what's editing, what's being planned, what resources are available, what conflicts are coming, and what needs to be solved before it becomes a problem.
• Ensure staffing and budget decisions affecting a show are made in real consultation with the relevant creative lead.
• Own and lead the company's production organization, serving as a mentor to producers, editors, production coordinators, and technical staff.
• Own regular production meetings, establish clear workflows and operational standards, and bring proven systems that unify the team under one production philosophy.
• Actively coach producers to think strategically, anticipate needs, and solve problems proactively — success in this role is measured by a stronger, more capable production team over time, not just by projects getting made.

What Success Looks Like

The company is never surprised by production needs. When a project is greenlit or in development, leadership already knows how it will get made, what it will cost, how long it will take, what people and equipment are required, what risks exist, and what timeline is realistic.

Qualifications

• At least 10+ years of experience in production management, ideally across multiple concurrent shows, formats, or verticals.
• Deep physical production experience and strong technical production knowledge (camera, lighting, audio, studio operations).
• Experience building and managing teams.
• Track record building production systems and processes from the ground up, not just executing within existing ones.
• Proven budget and financial management experience across production, equipment, crew, and rental budgets.
• Demonstrated success partnering closely with creative leadership as a core part of the job.
• Exceptional organizational skills, strong operational thinking, and comfort making quick staffing and budgeting decisions.
• Calm under pressure, highly proactive, resourceful, and an excellent communicator.
• Excellent communicator, able to clearly translate operational realities to creative and executive leadership and keep every department aligned on plans, timelines, and tradeoffs.
• Experience managing technical staff and equipment/inventory operations.

Why Join Us

At AFM, you'll have the opportunity to build a new model for entertainment: a nimble, creator-driven studio shaping culture across comedy and sports media. This role is central to that vision — stepping into a company with strong creative leadership already in place, a growing slate of shows with real audience traction, and a genuine mandate to build the production function the business now needs from the ground up.

#J-18808-Ljbffr Jobleads-US