Director of Production (London)

The Rolex SailGP Championship is the most exciting racing on water, where anything can happen in short, adrenaline-fueled battles between national teams at iconic stadium destinations worldwide. Top athletes fly in identical high-tech F50 catamarans faster than the wind, at speeds approaching 60 mph. Founded in 2018, SailGP is one of the world’s fastest-growing sports and entertainment properties, now in its fifth season. SailGP also races for a better future, championing a world powered by nature. In 2020, SailGP set a new standard as the first climate positive sports and entertainment property and began delivering actions and innovations that advance the global adoption of clean energy. Underpinning the organization’s purpose-driven agenda is a diversification of the league, with the goal of immediately progressing gender equity and inclusivity. SailGP is a global organisation with defined values that shape the culture of its team – deliver quality, break boundaries, make an impact, stand together and strike a balance.

Summary: You will provide key oversight of production management support to the SailGP Productions and work closely with the SailGP Chief Content Officer who is responsible for in-house production departments that cover Broadcast, Social, Content and Distribution. You will support the implementation of the content and broadcast strategy with a focus on logistical and technical operations and planning and facilities, where needed to deliver a ‘best in class’ global content calendar. You will be responsible for the drafting, and the management and reporting of the event production budgets delivering targets set by the finance team and CFO as well as manage a small team of co-ordinators and managers. You will need an understanding of Broadcast technology and Digital tools as this role will also support the tech and graphics teams to ensure we are both efficient and future forward.

Key Responsibilities:

• Finance & Legal: Supporting the Chief Content Officer and working with all heads of department to create and manage the department budget, as well as producing ad hoc budgets as and when required for new technologies and projects. Tracking, reporting and monitoring all costs associated with delivering the Live Feeds, Highlights, shoots and non-live programming from SailGP events. Approving purchase orders for vendors and contractors across SailGP Productions. Working with the legal team to draft and issue contracts for all 3rd party vendors including suppliers, helicopter charters and boat rentals. Working with People team to ensure all talent, freelance and contract staff are properly engaged. Ownership of licensing and reporting of all music and archive footage use. Ensuring all production documentation is up to date and the team understands the use of release forms are completed. Contributing to and drafting risk assessments as required and ensuring these are shared with the appropriate teams, collating risk assessments from vendors.
• Event Operations: Responsible for overseeing the booking and management of all SailGP Productions freelance and contract hires for all SailGP events. Supporting the Chief Technology Officer and team with the management and delivery of services from Broadcast Facilities, Communications, Distribution, Camera Technologies and Streaming/Digital production. Supporting broadcast distribution and rights manager by liaising with broadcasters and ensuring the distribution of onsite information to broadcasters (running orders, weather etc) and communicating any business critical updates such as over-runs or delays. Operationally responsible for lines and satellite bookings. Overseeing the collaboration between SailGP Productions and the SailGP Events teams and Travel departments as required. Leading (or Overseeing) weekly operations calls with department heads to ensure issues and concerns around events can be raised and solved in advance. Leading Broadcast operations calls with both internal and external suppliers, pre-event and during event. Overseeing the Production Management Team to ensure delivery of production schedules, call sheets, risk assessments, post production paperwork etc. and all relevant activations have been captured. Overseeing the management of Helicopter and On Water delivery and working with key vendors to ensure the procurement of appropriate helicopters and camera boats for each event. Liaising with the Head of Media Operations to facilitate visiting broadcaster needs and ensuring crucial information is shared re press conference and mixed zone times. Liaising with the SailGP Events team to support and deliver the coverage for Event TV and sport presentation including on-water and on-shore prize giving ceremonies. Liaising with the Head of Inspire to coordinate race timings and ensure content capture for inclusion in the live broadcast and highlights programming. Supporting the Purpose Team with activations onsite including but not limited to the Champions for Change events. Supporting the Head of Graphics with staff bookings for events and projects, along with financial planning and forecasting. Supporting the PM team on the delivery of broadcaster services such as delivery notices and distributing post-production paperwork (music cue sheets / transcripts) to broadcasters for the Event Promo, Highlights and Review. Responsible for the Facilities and Studio contract and overseeing the booking and smooth delivery of the remote production operation, including content team and Highlights program delivery, live broadcast and LiveLine remote facilities. Overseeing the booking and management of freelancers and contractors for content produced outside of events including but not limited to Racing on the Edge.

Key Expectations:

• Role models SailGP Values and pioneers a positive culture
• Leads by example and demonstrates their commitment to diversity and inclusion through their words and actions
• Challenges the status quo, embracing a mindset of continuous improvement and evolution propagating this with their teams
• Encourage and empower the delivery of work that will leave an impact on SailGP and align with Better Sport, Better Planet
• Translates SailGP's strategic objectives into SMARTER objectives and goals for their teams enabling, empowering and coaching them to deliver
• Engage in high level thinking to drive the team and SailGP forward influencing others in the process
• Exercise key problem solving skills and serve as advisor to multiple areas of the business
• Strategise constructively with key stakeholders and team managers to work towards the bigger picture
• Embraces the power of feedback, recognising its importance in building high performing teams and evolution for SailGP
• Commercially impactful, assessing stakeholder areas and considers all variables to form commercial decisions

About You: This is an experienced role, the candidate must demonstrate experience working in a relevant role on live sports broadcasts for a production agency, federation or broadcaster. Prior experience supervising post-production schedules, timelines and facilities. Prior experience working in and managing a live sports gallery would be desirable. Knowledge and understanding of outside broadcasts and remote production set-ups. Excellent interpersonal and organisational skills. Previous experience managing freelance and non-permanent contract staff. Confident managing and negotiating with third parties. Evidence of delivering in a fast paced, global role. Comfortable working under pressure, able to multi-task, problem solve and retain exemplary attention to detail. Experience managing and reporting budgets. Experience of supervising, guiding and motivating a multi-faceted team. Comfortable coaching, mentoring and developing junior staff. Confident working closely with leadership and managing upwards.

Location: London, UK. Hybrid working model with a minimum of 3 days per week in the London Office with weekend work required during events. Significant international travel for SailGP events.