Director, Live Engineering in London

About us: Encompass Digital Media is a global managed services company focused on supporting TV networks, broadcasters, sports leagues and digital platforms with the delivery of their linear/nonlinear video and audio content across television, radio and digital platforms. We design, implement and operate reliable video and audio solutions that capture, process and deliver clients’ content from any source, in any format, to any destination in the most efficient and reliable way possible.

Main Purpose: The Director, Live Engineering has a global remit responsible for driving the design, build, testing, and delivery of live and ad-hoc broadcast systems into production Operations and Support environments, while providing Tier-3 engineering support for critical live events. The successful candidate must demonstrate their ability to work in an agile environment, adapt quickly to changing priorities, and effectively manage last-minute requests. Acting as the strategic lead for global standardization and efficiency initiatives, the Director will oversee a team of Live Engineers, ensuring best practices, compliance, and continuous improvement across processes, technology, and tools. This role is to provide management and technical leadership to a global team of Live engineers, ensuring alignment with business goals, team objectives, security standards, and operational excellence. The role is part of a multi-regional engineering team that adopts a ‘follow-the-sun’ project and support model to ensure coverage for Encompass’ regional operations.

Principal Responsibilities:

• Leadership & Management
  • Lead and develop a global team of Live Engineers, ensuring effective prioritization and adaptability to changing business needs.
  • Own team performance and processes from Solution Architect handover through build, testing, and operational transition.
  • Manage resource planning, hiring, and skills development, fostering technical depth and IT expertise.
• Design & Delivery
  • Act as design authority for low-level designs for live and ad-hoc projects.
  • Own and manage critical design changes to live and ad-hoc builds, ensuring all changes are controlled, communicated, and implemented effectively to minimize risk and maintain system integrity.
  • Drive the globalisation of live design approaches, ensuring consistency, scalability, and alignment with international standards and practices across regions.
  • Oversee installation, commissioning, documentation, and handover of new systems and major technical changes.
  • Ensure projects are delivered on time, on budget, and to specification, following best practices and company standards.
• Collaboration & Knowledge Transfer
  • Establish mechanisms for effective collaboration with Operations, Support Engineering, PMO, and Sales/Solution Architects.
  • Drive knowledge sharing and process alignment across global teams.
• Standardisation & Compliance
  • Ensure global consistency in technology, tools, and processes.
  • Maintain compliance with company policies, SOPs, and security standards (including SOC 2).
  • Continuously identify and implement process improvements.
• Escalation & Support
  • Serve as the escalation point for Tier-3 support during live events.
  • Oversee root cause analysis, corrective and preventative maintenance, and system upgrades.
• Reporting & Governance
  • Track global team skillsets and performance.
  • Provide regular status reporting and strategic technical advice to senior management.
  • Develop and manage capital and operating budgets.

Additional Requirements:

• Occasional travel (approximately 20%).
• Point of escalation for major customer impacting issues.
• Strong judgement, critical thinking, communication, and adaptability.
• Ability to mentor and train teams on technical and mental models.

Experience/Knowledge: The Director, Live Engineering, must have the following skills and experience:

• Industry experience, at least 10 years in progressively senior technical roles within live broadcast or media environments, including planning and executing complex live projects.
• Proven leadership and mentoring ability, experience leading a global engineering team, driving team development, and fostering technical excellence.
• Deep technical expertise, strong background in broadcast systems design, build, Tier-3 support, and IP-based workflows, with detailed knowledge of live television and production systems, transmission/decoding, signal quality analysis, and broadcast test equipment.
• Strategic and operational excellence, demonstrated ability to deliver process standardization, efficiency improvements, and long-term technology strategies, while managing vendor relationships, budgets, and resource planning.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, excellent customer-facing communication skills, documentation standards, and ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams (Operations, PMO, Solution Architects, Sales).
• Change and project management proficiency, familiarity with change management processes, system commissioning, and best practices for design and documentation.
• Problem-solving under pressure, proven capability in escalation management, and troubleshooting in high-pressure live environments.
• Self-motivated and adaptable, resourceful in maintaining and growing technical competency, with a clear understanding of broadcast design principles and emerging IT technologies.

Personal Skills:

• Strategic Self-Starter, highly motivated and proactive, with the ability to quickly assimilate complex global requirements and drive initiatives independently.
• Collaborative Leader fosters a culture of teamwork and knowledge sharing across diverse, international teams to achieve common goals.
• Integrity & Accountability, demonstrates honesty and a strong sense of ownership, ensuring decisions and actions reflect organisational values and global standards.
• Adaptable & Committed, Flexible and prepared to operate across time zones and outside standard hours when necessary to deliver critical outcomes.
• Risk-Aware Decision Maker, Applies a logical, thorough approach to tasks, with a strong focus on risk management and governance for live system changes in a global environment.
• Calm Under Pressure, thrives in fast-paced, high-pressure situations, responding decisively and calmly to evolving priorities and complex challenges.
• Influential Communicator possesses exceptional interpersonal skills, able to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels worldwide, including presenting strategic initiatives to secure buy-in and alignment.

Benefits include: 25 days annual leave per annum, plus bank holidays; Matched up to 5% pension contributions and independent pension advice; Health benefits including eye care vouchers, health cash plan and 24/7 employee assistance programme; Income protection and life assurance benefits; Regular wellness and engagement events; Performance recognition awards.