Creator Content & Partnerships Director

Join the future of news We’re on a mission to deliver riveting storytelling for all of America. At The Washington Post, you’ll help reinvent news. Our work is driven by a deep investigative spirit and enhanced by innovation to bring audiences closer to the stories that matter most. About Our Team The Washington Post is powered by the passion and talent of our people. It takes all of us to reinvent news. Beyond our award-winning News and Opinions teams, we work across many departments, including Brand & Events, Communications, Customer Care, Engineering & Product, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing & Advertising, Print Operations, and Sales. Why This Role Matters The Creator Content & Partnerships Director defines and leads the operating strategy for The Washington Post’s creator-content portfolio, helping distinctive creators produce compelling work that expands The Post’s reach, relevance, and commercial potential. This role establishes the editorial, partnership, production, and performance standards that govern the creator program, ensuring creator-led content upholds The Post’s commitment to quality, accuracy, ethics, and audience trust. As the senior individual-contributor expert for creator content and partnerships, this role makes high-impact decisions across creator selection, content development, contract negotiation, production investment, distribution, and performance. This role connects creative ambition with disciplined business execution, ensuring creator partnerships contribute to audience growth, engagement, revenue objectives, and the long-term strength of The Washington Post brand. Working across editorial, video, audience, product, sales, marketing, events, communications, legal, finance, and business operations, this role establishes the direction, standards, and accountability needed to scale the creator-content portfolio. Reporting to the President, Washington Post Creator, this role operates with significant independence and escalates decisions involving material financial, legal, editorial, or reputational risk. What Motivates You You are energized by building a creator-content portfolio that combines distinctive voices, editorial excellence, audience relevance, and commercial potential. You enjoy defining new partnership and content models in an evolving creator marketplace. You bring sound editorial and business judgment to decisions involving creators, content, contracts, production investments, and organizational risk. You value trusted, long-term relationships with creators, talent representatives, agencies, and internal partners. You thrive at the intersection of editorial strategy, creative development, audience growth, talent partnerships, and business performance. You enjoy transforming ambitious creative ideas into scalable programs with clear standards, decision rights, financial parameters, and measures of success. You are comfortable influencing senior stakeholders and resolving competing editorial, creative, legal, operational, and commercial priorities. You use audience insights, market developments, and performance data to challenge assumptions and improve content and partnership decisions. You enjoy serving as a subject-matter expert and helping colleagues, contractors, and partners build stronger creator-content capabilities. How You’ll Support The Mission Define the creator-content portfolio strategy, operating model, and multiyear priorities, translating organizational goals into scalable editorial, partnership, production, audience, and commercial plans. Establish the editorial, ethical, brand-safety, quality, and performance standards for creator content, serving as the final day-to-day approval authority and escalating only matters involving significant enterprise risk. Direct the creator partnership portfolio by identifying, evaluating, selecting, renewing, and discontinuing relationships within established strategic and financial parameters, ensuring investments remain aligned with audience, brand, and business priorities. Lead relationships with creators, talent representatives, managers, and agencies, building trusted partnerships that support creative excellence, clear accountability, and sustainable value for creators and The Post. Negotiate creator agreements as the primary business representative, partnering with Legal on terms and redlines and resolving complex issues involving compensation, deliverables, intellectual property, usage rights, performance expectations, and partnership risk. Oversee the development and performance of creator-led series, shows, and content franchises from concept through production, publication, promotion, and evaluation, ensuring each investment delivers against defined editorial, audience, and commercial objectives. Develop creator and production budgets with Business Operations, making portfolio-level spending and resource tradeoffs that balance creative quality, growth opportunities, operational capacity, and financial discipline. Drive the performance of creator-content products against audience, engagement, and assigned revenue goals, partnering with Sales and Business Development while retaining accountability for the content and partnership decisions that influence commercial results. Set cross-functional operating standards across editorial, video, audience, product, sales, marketing, events, communications, legal, finance, and business operations, resolving complex dependencies and enabling the creator program to scale effectively. Lead contractors, production partners, vendors, and complex project teams while advising senior leadership on creator-economy developments, emerging platforms, partnership models, and investment opportunities, strengthening organizational capability and informing future strategy. The Skills And Experience You Bring Substantial experience leading creator partnerships, talent relationships, editorial programming, digital production, or related content portfolios, typically gained through eight or more years of relevant professional experience. Demonstrated mastery of creator-led, talent-led, or platform-native content, including the development of original series, shows, franchises, and multiplatform content programs. Strong editorial judgment and demonstrated experience establishing and applying standards related to accuracy, ethics, quality, brand safety, audience trust, and reputational risk. Significant experience managing creator, talent, agency, or production relationships, including complex situations involving competing creative, contractual, editorial, and commercial interests. Demonstrated experience leading contract negotiations and partnering with legal counsel on compensation, deliverables, intellectual property, usage rights, approvals, exclusivity, termination provisions, and other material terms. Deep knowledge of major social and creator platforms, audience behavior, content formats, distribution practices, monetization models, and emerging creator-economy trends. Experience developing content or partnership strategies and translating them into operating plans, standards, workflows, budgets, and measurable performance expectations. Experience managing a portfolio of production or partnership investments and making informed tradeoffs involving cost, quality, audience opportunity, operational risk, and potential return. Ability to interpret audience, content, partnership, and commercial data and translate findings into portfolio, programming, distribution, and investment decisions. Strong negotiation, communication, and influencing skills, including the ability to gain alignment among senior stakeholders with different editorial, creative, legal, operational, and commercial priorities. Demonstrated ability to lead large, complex, cross-functional initiatives and direct employees, contractors, agencies, vendors, and production partners through expertise and influence. Sound judgment in determining when to act independently and when to elevate matters involving significant editorial, contractual, financial, legal, or reputational implications. Experience in journalism, news media, digital publishing, entertainment, talent management, or another standards-driven content organization is strongly preferred. A bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and relevant professional experience. Ability to travel approximately once per quarter, participate in approximately one to two events per quarter, and occasionally work outside traditional business hours to support productions, events, platform developments, or creator needs. Collaboration makes us stronger. That’s why our offices are designed with open layouts, modern technology, and easy access to transportation. With certain exceptions for newsgathering and business travel, we work on-site five days a week. Compensation And Benefits Wherever you are in your life or career, The Washington Post offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits for every step of your journey: Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage Company-paid pension and 401(k) match Three weeks of vacation and up to three weeks of paid sick leave Nine paid holidays and two personal days 20 weeks paid parental leave for any new parent Robust mental health resources Backup care and caregiver concierge services Gender affirming services Pet insurance #J-18808-Ljbffr Nashville Public Radio