Senior Manager, Technical Operations - Animation Production

About Our Company

VIZ Media has been bringing the finest in manga, anime, and global entertainment to English-speaking fans across the world for nearly 40 years. From classic series like Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, and Naruto to current hits like My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, and Chainsaw Man, we continue to offer the best in action, romance, fantasy, and adventure stories for fans of all ages.

Our critically acclaimed manga, graphic novels, and books have won Eisner, YALSA, and Hugo awards and are available in both print and digital editions, and our premier catalog of anime titles can be seen on TV and via streaming and digital download, as well as in collectible Blu-ray and DVD sets at major retailers.

Learn more about VIZ Media, anime, and manga at www.viz.com.

Job Summary

VIZ Media, the world leader in English-language versions of manga and anime (Japanese comics and animation), is looking for a Senior Manager, Technical Operations to join our Animation Production team. The Senior Manager, Technical Operations is responsible for the supply chain asset management of deliveries, post-production, production, distribution (SVOD, AVOD, FAST, TVOD, home video, broadcast, theatrical, etc.), and archives for Animation Production. The core duties are managing the Technical Operations team, contributing to execute and meet the production and distribution demands, leading and developing operational workflow optimization, and sustaining industry technical, quality, and security standards. This position will drive, manage, define, produce, troubleshoot, and route assets through the production life cycles from inception to archiving.

What you'll do:

• Oversee and drive asset production, post-production, and management across SVOD, AVOD, FAST, TVOD, home video, broadcast, theatrical distribution pipelines with vendors, partners, licensors, licensees, and cross-functional teams.
• Own, track, troubleshoot, report, and communicate the status and progress of assets along the production workflows, distribution pipelines, and archiving processes.
• Drive, maintain, and actively participate in the execution of secure, effective, scalable, on-time asset production and management infrastructure that ensure quality standards and meet distribution technical requirements and timelines.
• Lead, support, and coach the team along with working on projects, assigning projects, prioritizing new release timelines/escalations, and managing capacity constraints.
• Manage, contribute, develop, define, and document best practices, timelines, workflows, SOP's, including security, technical, quality assurance and control requirements.
• Align regularly with business, marketing, and production teams to prepare, strategize, recommend tools/resources, and execute for the evolving demands and challenges.
• Technical operations subject matter expert to maintain an understanding of all workflows and processes to guide and support partners, vendors, and production and cross-functional teams.
• Proactively work with senior stakeholders and managers to collaborate, support, and implement efficient and secure workflows.
• Manage, evaluate, and negotiate with vendors/studios while monitoring performance.
• Develop budgets, manage vendor costs, and process invoices.

The ideal candidate has:

• 10+ years working in post-production, localization, home video, streaming, Media & Entertainment environments
• 7+ years leading asset management in the Media & Entertainment industry
• 5+ years managing and leading a team in a production/localization/operations environment
• Comprehensive production and localization knowledge and experience with video, audio, metadata, and timed text (subtitles, closed captions, forced narratives, SDH) technical specifications and formats
• Proficient use of delivery tools, cloud storage, and post-production software and technology (Aspera, AWS, OCI, Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, Subtitling/Caption & QC software, or similar)
• Proficiency with productivity and collaboration tools (i.e., Microsoft Office Suite, Google Workspace, Slack, Asana, or similar)
• Experience establishing and documenting optimal secure production infrastructure with the ability to evaluate, create/adapt, implement, and execute workflows and best practices
• Strong project management and organization skills, with highly detailed oriented approach
• Excellent leadership, communication, mentorship, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills
• Experience developing budgets and managing costs
• Bachelor''s Degree in related field, or equivalent experience, with a record that demonstrates suitable preparation for this position

Additional preferred experience:

• Knowledge of/interest in anime and manga
• Experience/knowledge of the licensing business
• Ability to speak, read, and write in Japanese

Work Environment & Schedule

Location: The Senior Manager, Technical Operations position is open to candidates local to the San Francisco Bay Area or remote within the states of California, Oregon, New York, or Texas. If local to the Bay Area, the Senior Manager should expect to work onsite 1-2 days per week at our San Francisco office. If remote, the Senior Manager should expect to travel to San Francisco 3-4 times per year.

Schedule: This is a Regular Full-Time position with core hours of 10 am to 4 pm Pacific Time, with some flexibility outside of core hours as needed.

Compensation: $130,000 - $145,000 annually, depending on experience, with additional variable compensation

VIZ Media offers the following benefits to its eligible employees:

• Partially subsidized Health, Dental, and Vision insurance
• 401(k) savings plan - including employer matching
• Flexible Spending - health and dependent care
• Commuter stipend for in-office work
• Life Insurance/AD&D/STD/LTD
• Legal & ID Theft insurance
• Group Pet insurance rates
• Paid holidays, vacation, and sick time - plus your birthday is a holiday!
• Philanthropy program, including paid time off for volunteer work
• Wellness program, including fitness membership discounts and reimbursement
• Full time casual dress
• Flexible work hours

As part of a multi-media entertainment company, employees may be subjected to work-related content such as: sexually explicit images, nudity, and graphic violence. Applicants should be willing to work with this type of content.

VIZ Media is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, marital status, or any legally protected status.

Please beware of recent scams to online job seekers. Any email from the VIZ Media recruiting team will come from an @viz.com email address (for example, janedoe@viz.com) or from our recruiting system Greenhouse (for example, no-reply@greenhouse.io). If the email is not from one of these addresses, it is not from VIZ Media.

VIZ Media respects applicants'' privacy rights. To review VIZ Media''s Privacy Policy, please visit VIZ Media Applicant Privacy Policy - CA.