Freelance Nba Jobs (NOW HIRING)

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Position Summary

The Technical Manager, Local Media serves as the senior operational leader responsible for the execution, performance, and continuous improvement of production technology services supporting the NBA's Local Media ecosystem. Reporting to the Vice President, Production Technology, this role leads the day-to-day technical operations supporting Local Media league program facilitated game broadcasts, ensuring reliable, scalable, and consistent execution across NBA arenas and NBA Secaucus.

Serving as an operational owner of the technical production service function for the Local Media team, the Technical Manager oversees production technology operations supporting broadcast contribution, routing, monitoring, transmission, master control, HSAN connectivity, and distribution workflows. This position provides leadership to freelance Technical Managers, establishes operational standards and best practices, drives continuous improvement initiatives, and partners closely with GPM Broadcast Engineering & Broadcast Operations, technical production operations vendors, NBA teams, and other cross-functional stakeholders to deliver best-in-class live broadcasts.

The Technical Manager serves as the primary technical liaison between engineering, production, and broadcast operations, ensuring technical readiness, operational excellence, and seamless execution across all League-supported productions. This role partners closely with the Vice President, Production Technology to translate strategic technology initiatives into scalable operational capabilities while continuously improving the League's production technology service model.

This position is based in the NBA Secaucus office and requires regular in-office attendance five (5) days per week. This role supports live NBA game productions and League events and requires flexibility to work evenings, weekends, holidays, and extended hours in accordance with the NBA game schedule and other League programming. Occasional domestic travel to NBA arenas and other League event locations may be required.

Major Responsibilities

Operational Leadership

• Lead the League's Technical Manager function, providing leadership, coaching, scheduling, onboarding, performance feedback, and operational oversight for freelance Technical Managers supporting NBA Local Media productions.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the Local Media production operation working with the GPM Broadcast Engineering team on the HSAN connectivity platform, ensuring reliable contribution, routing, monitoring, transmission, and distribution of live NBA game broadcasts.
• Own, in conjunction with the NBA with Broadcast Engineering & Operations team, the operational performance, service delivery, and reliability of production technology services supporting League-produced broadcasts.
• Establish operational priorities, technical standards, service levels, governance processes, and best practices supporting production technology operations across League-supported productions.
• Oversee day-to-day production technology operations between NBA arenas, NBA Secaucus, Broadcast Engineering & Operations, production operations vendors, distribution, and participating NBA teams.
• Lead operational readiness planning for all supported productions, ensuring technical infrastructure, connectivity, transmission paths, communications systems, and production technologies are fully prepared prior to each event.
• Partner with the Vice President, Production Technology in developing the long-term operational roadmap for production technology services, ensuring operational readiness, scalability, and alignment with evolving business priorities.
• Support implementation and operational transition of new production technologies, workflows, and infrastructure initiatives developed by Production Technology leadership.

Live Broadcast Operations

• Coordinate production technology, transmission, signal acquisition, routing, monitoring, master control, and broadcast distribution workflows supporting live NBA game productions.
• Serve as a primary technical escalation point during live productions, leading cross-functional troubleshooting efforts and coordinating rapid resolution of production technology issues.
• Lead technical incident response during live broadcasts, directing cross-functional teams to restore service while minimizing operational impact.
• Develop contingency plans, operational playbooks, and technical readiness procedures supporting mission-critical live productions.
• Provide operational leadership for preseason games, NBA All-Star, NBA Summer League, international games, and other League events.
• Participate in after-hours operational support and on-call rotations supporting live productions and critical production technology systems.

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve standard operating procedures, engineering runbooks, technical documentation, and operational support workflows.
• Establish, monitor, and report on operational KPIs, service levels, incident trends, and system performance metrics to identify opportunities to improve reliability and efficiency.
• Lead post-event operational reviews, root cause analyses, corrective action planning, and lessons learned following technical incidents.
• Recommend workflow enhancements, automation opportunities, and operational improvements that improve service quality, scalability, resiliency, and production efficiency.
• Coordinate maintenance windows, software deployments, network changes, and system upgrades while minimizing operational impact to live productions.
• Ensure operational compliance with League technical standards, broadcast quality expectations, and established production technology procedures.
• Evaluate production technology operations and recommend process improvements that support long-term operational excellence and organizational scalability.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Lead onboarding, mentoring, scheduling, performance management, and ongoing development of freelance Technical Managers and technical support personnel.
• Foster a culture of operational excellence, accountability, collaboration, customer service, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Build and maintain strong partnerships with NBA teams, internal departments, broadcast partners, and key stakeholders to ensure consistent technical execution and exceptional service delivery.
• Provide subject matter expertise supporting new production workflows, operational planning, and League-wide production technology initiatives.
• Support annual operational planning, staffing strategies, resource allocation, budget forecasting, and production technology expense management.
• Represent Production Technology within cross-functional planning meetings and operational governance forums, ensuring alignment across engineering, production, operations, and distribution teams.

Required Education / Professional Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Engineering, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, Media Production, or a related field preferred.
• 8-10+ years of progressively responsible experience supporting live broadcast production, production technology, broadcast engineering, or technical operations.
• Demonstrated leadership experience managing technical personnel supporting live sports broadcasts or large-scale broadcast operations.
• Experience supporting multi-venue production environments and mission-critical live event operations.
• Experience coordinating production technology operations across engineering, production, transmission, and broadcast operations teams.
• Demonstrated experience establishing operational standards, service delivery models, and technical governance processes.
• Experience leading technical incident response and troubleshooting complex broadcast technology environments.
• Professional sports or major live event production experience strongly preferred.

Required Skills / Knowledge Attributes

• Expert knowledge of live broadcast production systems, workflows, and end-to-end signal flow.
• Strong understanding of IP-based broadcast infrastructure, contribution networks, transmission systems, and cloud-enabled production workflows.
• Experience supporting REMI, centralized production, master control operations, contribution networks, and broadcast distribution.
• Familiarity with SMPTE ST 2110, NMOS, SRT, NDI, JPEG XS, multicast networking, and other modern broadcast technologies preferred.
• Strong troubleshooting, analytical, incident management, and root cause analysis skills.
• Demonstrated leadership, coaching, mentoring, and team development capabilities.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, executive presence, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence across multiple functional groups.
• Strong organizational and project management skills with the ability to manage multiple concurrent productions and competing priorities.
• Proven ability to lead operational change, implement process improvements, establish governance, and drive continuous improvement initiatives.
• Ability to make sound technical and operational decisions in high-pressure, fast-paced live production environments.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and technical documentation platforms.

Working Conditions

• This position is based in NBA Secaucus and requires regular in-office attendance five (5) days per week.
• Must be available to work evenings, weekends, holidays, and extended hours based on the NBA game schedule and other live production requirements.
• Must participate in on-call support rotations and respond to critical production technology issues outside of normal business hours as necessary.
• Requires occasional domestic travel to NBA arenas and other League event locations to support game productions, technical deployments, testing, and special events.
• Ability to work in fast-paced live broadcast environments where priorities may shift rapidly to support live productions.

Salary Range:

$130,000 - $165,000

Job Posting Title:

Employees currently are eligible to receive an annual discretionary performance bonus, awarded at the sole discretion of the Company and subject to any terms and conditions set by the Company. Employees and/or eligible dependents may be eligible to participate in the following Company-sponsored employee benefit programs: medical; dental; vision; life/AD&D insurance; short- and long-term disability; fertility and family-forming assistance; wellbeing allowance; educational assistance; mental health coaching/therapy; tax advantaged accounts such as HSA and healthcare/dependent care FSAs; a 401(k) retirement plan; and time off benefits that include vacation, sick time, and personal days.

We Consider Applicants For All Positions On The Basis Of Merit, Qualifications And Business Needs, And Without Regard To Race, Color, National Origin, Religion, Sex, Gender Identity, Age, Disability, Alienage Or Citizenship Status, Ancestry, Marital Status, Creed, Genetic Predisposition Or Carrier Status, Sexual Orientation, Veteran Status, Familial Status, Status As A Victim Of Domestic Violence Or Any Other Status Or Characteristic Protected By Applicable Federal, State, Or Local Law.

The NBA is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace. To safeguard our employees and their families, our visitors, and the broader community from COVID-19, and in consideration of recommendations from health authorities and the NBA's own advisors, any individual working onsite in our New York and New Jersey offices must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The NBA will discuss accommodations for individuals who cannot be vaccinated due to a medical reason or sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance.

About the NBA

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball. Built around five professional sports leagues: the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 214 countries and territories in 60 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2024-25 season featured a record-tying 125 international players from a record-tying 43 countries. NBA Digital's assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass. The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with more than 2.3 billion likes and followers globally across all leagues, team and player platforms. NBA Cares, the NBA's global social responsibility platform, partners with renowned community-based organizations around the world to address important social issues in the areas of education, inclusion, youth and family development, and health and wellness.