WQED

Vice President, Operations

Reports to: President & CEO
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Status: Full-time; fractional or contract arrangement may be considered

Position Summary

WQED is seeking an experienced operational leader to bring structure, discipline, and follow-through to complex work across the organization.

The Vice President, Operations is a senior, hands-on leadership role for someone who can bring structure to complex operational work, translate decisions into operational plans, and make sure important work gets finished. This person will lead major facilities initiatives, strengthen cross-functional execution, and provide experienced coaching and mentorship to emerging leaders.

The role is not about personally doing every task. It is about making sure the right work is identified, assigned to the right people or vendors, properly planned and budgeted, and completed to an appropriate standard.

WQED is changing quickly. Many employees are new to their roles, teams are taking on new responsibilities, and some of our operating systems and practices need to evolve with the organization. This position will provide experienced judgment and practical leadership to our operations: building stronger systems for project management, facilities and vendor oversight, records retention, measurement, accountability, and cross-functional execution.

The Assignment

• Bring operational discipline to WQED so that approved priorities are translated into clear ownership, realistic plans, visible risks, and timely follow-through.
• Build systems that make the organization easier to operate rather than solving the same problems repeatedly.
• Coach and develop emerging leaders across WQED, helping them strengthen their judgment, planning, accountability, and ability to lead work independently.
• Strengthen how WQED defines success, measures progress, and holds itself accountable for commitments.

What Success Looks Like

• Operations staff have clear priorities, appropriate authority, regular coaching, and effective systems for managing projects, vendors, facilities, and recurring responsibilities.
• Major operational and cross-functional projects have an identified owner, scope, budget, schedule, decision points, and clear next steps.
• WQED’s tower and transmitter site improvement work is organized into a practical, sequenced plan, with qualified vendors selected and managed, permits addressed, budgets tracked, risks surfaced, and work moving toward completion.
• Preventive maintenance agreements and recurring facilities obligations are documented, scheduled, reviewed, and managed proactively.
• WQED has a practical system for tracking cross-functional work that depends on operational coordination, identifying dependencies, escalating problems, and follow-through.
• WQED makes substantial progress reducing its backlog of physical records, with materials appropriately identified for destruction, digitization, compliance retention, or archival review.
• Leaders and teams are increasingly clear about what they are trying to accomplish, how progress will be measured, and who owns the work.
• Operational work increasingly moves through clear ownership and established processes rather than informal knowledge or last-minute intervention.

Essential Responsibilities

• Operational Leadership, Accountability, and Staff Development
• Help leaders translate ideas and decisions into executable plans.
• Identify risks, unresolved dependencies, and potential delays early and bring them to the appropriate decision-makers.
• Develop practical systems, processes, and documentation that improve consistency without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Create useful mechanisms for defining expected outcomes, tracking commitments and progress, and identifying when work requires intervention.
• Strengthen accountability by making ownership, expected outcomes, measures of progress, deadlines, and escalation points clear.
• Provide hands-on mentorship to Operations staff in project planning, vendor management, prioritization, budgeting, communication, documentation, and decision-making.
• Provide coaching and candid feedback to emerging leaders across WQED, helping them build the judgment, planning discipline, and confidence to lead work more independently.
• Records Management
• Lead a structured review of WQED’s accumulated physical business records.
• Establish and manage a process for identifying records for secure destruction, digitization, compliance retention, or archival review and potential physical preservation.
• Coordinate with the appropriate internal owners for legal, financial, human resources, engineering, public file, rights, compliance, and archival records.
• Establish priorities, workflows, staffing or vendor support, and tracking systems to move the project steadily toward completion.
• Oversee the appropriate disposition of obsolete equipment and other accumulated materials.
• Project Management, Risk, and Operational Readiness
• Establish a practical organization-wide approach to tracking significant projects without creating unnecessary administrative burden.
• Help leaders establish meaningful measures of progress and outcomes for significant initiatives, with an emphasis on useful information rather than reporting for its own sake.
• Consistently measure progress on organizational objectives, identifying work that is off track, and helping owners determine corrective action as needed.
• Facilitate cross-functional work when responsibilities overlap or successful execution depends on multiple departments.
• Help WQED identify operational vulnerabilities before they become emergencies.
• Support planning for physical security, business continuity, emergency preparedness, facilities access, critical infrastructure, and vendor coverage.
• Maintain appropriate documentation of recurring responsibilities, vendors, systems, contacts, and escalation procedures.
• Vendor Management and Facilities
• Develop scopes of work, solicit and evaluate proposals, recommend vendors, establish schedules, monitor progress, resolve obstacles, review change requests, and hold vendors accountable for completion.
• Coordinate work that may include physical security systems, masonry and tuckpointing, HVAC repairs and upgrades, electrical work, lighting, construction improvements, permitting and occupancy requirements, environmental remediation, equipment removal, and related site improvements.
• Maintain visibility into facilities risks, deferred maintenance, capital needs, and significant operating costs.
• Oversee preventive maintenance and service agreements involving generators, backup power systems, life-safety and fire protection equipment, and other critical infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading operations, facilities, logistics, project management, administration, engineering support, military operations, construction management, or another environment involving complex people, systems, vendors, assets, and deadlines.
• A record of leading complex projects involving multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
• Experience supervising, coaching, and developing people at different stages of their careers, including emerging managers and leaders.
• Ability to influence and improve execution across departments without assuming ownership of their substantive work.
• Strong project-management discipline and the ability to turn broad objectives into specific assignments, milestones, schedules, and decisions.
• Experience selecting, coordinating, and holding outside vendors and contractors accountable.
• Comfort managing budgets, reviewing proposals, evaluating tradeoffs, and approving work and invoices within established authority.
• The ability to establish order where processes are incomplete, responsibilities overlap, or institutional knowledge is poorly documented.
• Ability to help leaders define meaningful outcomes, measure progress, and strengthen accountability without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Strong judgment about when to act independently, involve subject-matter experts, or escalation an issue.
• Clear, direct written and verbal communication.
• High standards for reliability, discretion, accountability, documentation, and followthrough.
• The ability to earn trust across technical, creative, administrative, and executive teams.
• Willingness to spend significant time on-site and visit WQED facilities as operational needs require.
• Experience in public media or broadcasting is not required. Experience with facilities, construction, engineering environments, regulated operations, government or military service, emergency management, logistics, or similarly complex operating environments may be particularly relevant.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this full-time position is $160,000 to $180,000, commensurate with experience. Benefits include a PPO health insurance plan; employer-paid dental, vision, disability, and life insurance; and, after 12 months, a 5% employer contribution to a 403(b) retirement plan.

Work Environment and Schedule

This is a Pittsburgh-based role requiring regular on-site presence at WQED’s Oakland facility and periodic work at other WQED facilities, including the tower and transmitter site.

Depending on the selected candidate and organizational needs, WQED may consider beginning the engagement on a fractional or contract basis, with the scope and schedule structured around agreed operational priorities.

About WQED

WQED Multimedia is an iconic public media institution, one of America’s original educational broadcasters. Today, we reach hundreds of thousands of neighbors across southwestern Pennsylvania through five broadcast television channels, streaming platforms, 24/7 classical radio, and education and community engagement programs.

This is a moment of real transformation. With major shifts in media consumption, the launch of new digital products like WQED+, the elimination of our federal funding, and growing demand for trusted, hopeful, local storytelling, WQED is evolving from a traditional broadcaster into a multi-platform community resource.

Joining WQED now means an opportunity to help shape how Pittsburgh connects through stories, culture, learning, and shared experiences: on air, online, and in person.

Equal Employment Opportunity

WQED Multimedia is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate the diversity of the communities we serve and are dedicated to fostering an inclusive, supportive workplace for all. Applicants with disabilities or those needing reasonable accommodation may contact careers@wqed.org.