Vice President, Strategy and Distribution

Hearst Television has an opening for a Vice President, Strategy and Distribution. As a key member of the Strategy and Distribution team, you will lead the business development, financial analysis, and deal execution supporting some of Hearst Television’s most significant transactions. These include retransmission consent agreements, network affiliation agreements, mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and other high-priority initiatives.

You will partner closely with senior leadership, station and regional leaders, legal counsel, and cross-functional teams to structure, negotiate, and close transactions that advance Hearst Television’s distribution, revenue, and corporate strategy. This is a hands-on leadership role requiring sound commercial judgment, strong analytical skills, and the ability to manage complex projects from initial evaluation through execution. This is an in-person position. The work location is in New York City at Hearst Tower. The role reports to the Vice President, Distribution.

Key Responsibilities

Deal Strategy and Execution

• Lead retransmission consent negotiations with MVPDs and vMVPDs, including financial modeling, deal structuring, term negotiation, and renewal strategy.
• Support network affiliation negotiations and strategic partnerships, coordinating with network counterparts and internal and outside legal counsel.
• Provide strategic and financial support for M&A transactions, including valuation, due diligence, and integration planning.
• Own complex transactions and initiatives from initial analysis and structuring through negotiation, approval, and execution.
• Evaluate deal terms and present recommendations to senior leadership.

Financial Analysis and Business Development

• Build financial models supporting distribution revenue, valuation, deal economics, and negotiation strategy.
• Evaluate new business opportunities, emerging platforms, and industry developments that may advance HTV’s distribution and revenue strategy.
• Lead special projects and new business initiatives, including opportunities outside established workstreams.
• Prepare executive presentations, recommendations, and board materials.
• Use approved AI tools to support research, scenario analysis, document comparison, and presentation development.

Collaboration and Leadership

• Partner with station, regional, finance, legal, technology, and operations teams to align strategy with business and operational priorities.
• Represent the Strategy and Distribution team in cross-functional, cross-company, and industry initiatives.
• Lead multiple high-priority and ambiguous workstreams with sound judgment, discretion, and clear communication.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, economics, finance, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• 15+ years of senior-level experience in business development, media distribution, corporate strategy, deal-making, or a related transactional function.
• Demonstrated success structuring, negotiating, and executing complex commercial agreements.
• Strong financial modeling, valuation, and analytical skills.
• Experience working directly with internal and outside legal counsel.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
• Direct experience with retransmission consent, network affiliation, or MVPD and vMVPD carriage negotiations strongly preferred.
• Experience in television, media, streaming, telecommunications, mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, or integration planning preferred.
• Comfort using approved AI-enabled research, analysis, and productivity tools preferred.
• Related military experience will be considered.

Core Competencies

• Strong commercial judgment and executive presence.
• Clear, persuasive communication with senior leaders and business partners.
• Proactive, entrepreneurial approach to identifying and advancing opportunities.
• Collaborative leadership style and ability to build trust across teams.
• Comfort operating with autonomy in complex and ambiguous situations.
• High integrity and discretion when handling sensitive information.
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple high-stakes initiatives.

Values in Action

At Hearst Television, we tell stories every day. Stories about people of all backgrounds, perspectives, and identities. That’s why, behind the scenes, we believe in being an organization that fosters collaboration and open communication, ensuring that the content we create is authentic, accurate, and connected to the communities we serve.

Benefits

Hearst’s benefit programs are modern, flexible, and designed to focus on you. As a Hearst employee, you and your spouse or partner or dependents would have access to the following benefits:

• Medical | Dental | Vision
• 401(k) matching
• Emotional Wellness Support
• Paid Time Off
• Paid Parental Leave
• LGBTQ+ Health Services
• Additional benefits to meet your and your family’s needs

Compensation

The estimated base salary range for this role is between $300,000 and $315,000. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as transferable skills, work experience, business needs, market demands and conditions, including geographic location where the work will be performed, and other factors permitted by law. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.