Lead Producer (Full-Time)

About the Role

The Lead Producer at STN Digital blends strategic leadership with hands-on production execution, partnering across Creative, Social, Project Management, Client Success, and external production partners from ideation through final delivery. This role brings production expertise into the creative process early, shaping concepts, developing capture strategies, and determining the smartest way to execute ideas. Beyond individual productions, the Lead Producer elevates STN’s overall production capabilities by coaching team members, improving processes, introducing new technologies, and fostering cross-department collaboration.

The Lead Producer also applies a deep understanding of social platform behaviors—such as hooks, visual hooks, framing, pacing, UI-safe composition, and creator-inspired storytelling—to ensure productions generate high-performing, platform-native assets.

Responsibilities

• Production Strategy & Capture Development
  • Lead assigned productions from concept through final delivery by developing production plans, capture strategies, budgets, staffing recommendations, schedules, and logistics.
  • Partner with Creative and Social to determine the strongest capture approach for every concept, factoring in platform behaviors, hooks, visual hooks, framing, pacing, and UI-safe composition.
  • Bring production expertise into the creative process early, shaping concepts and identifying the smartest execution strategies.
  • Generate and strengthen creative concepts that open new opportunities for clients and drive business growth through innovative production thinking.
• Onsite Leadership & Execution
  • Lead crews, manage production partners, and direct onsite execution while supporting talent.
  • Create a calm, organized, solutions-oriented production environment that maintains exceptional client service under pressure.
  • Personally produce assigned projects while providing strategic oversight on productions led by other producers, freelancers, or cross-functional teammates.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration & Client Management
  • Partner daily with Creative, Social, Project Management, and Client Success to align on production priorities, communicate tradeoffs, and proactively solve challenges.
  • Serve as STN’s production expert in client meetings, pre-production planning, and production debriefs—communicating recommendations and setting expectations.
  • Participate in ideation sessions, creative reviews, and pre-production calls to ensure concepts are executable while identifying opportunities to elevate creative through smarter capture approaches.
  • Partner with leadership on production planning for pitches, estimates, staffing recommendations, and client presentations to support new business.
• Elevating Agency-Wide Production Capability
  • Review production plans and provide feedback to producers and cross-functional teammates to maintain consistent production standards.
  • Develop documentation, playbooks, training materials, and AI workflows that improve how teams plan and execute productions.
  • Build and maintain relationships with freelance crews, vendors, and production partners while identifying opportunities to expand STN’s production offerings.
  • Research emerging social trends, production technologies, platform updates, and creator behaviors to keep STN ahead of the curve.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in production or producing within an agency, sports, and/or live entertainment environment.
• Deep understanding of how audiences consume content across social platforms (Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube) and how that shapes capture strategy.
• Proven ability to lead productions onsite, including managing crews, vendors, talent, and client expectations under real-time pressure.
• Strong budgeting, staffing, and logistics planning skills across productions of varying scale.
• Excellent client-facing communication and presentation skills.
• Track record of coaching or mentoring other producers and cross-functional teammates.
• Highly organized with strong systems-thinking and documentation habits.
• Proactive in identifying production risks and solving problems before they escalate.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, reactive sports and entertainment environment where priorities shift quickly.
• Passionate about sports and live entertainment content.

What Success Looks Like

• Productions consistently launch on time, stay organized throughout execution, and meet or exceed STN’s Standard of Excellence.
• Output teams consistently receive platform-native content that maximizes creative flexibility and social performance.
• Internal teams report clear communication, strong collaboration, and confidence throughout production.
• Clients view STN’s production expertise as a strategic advantage and consistently trust production recommendations.
• Production processes become increasingly scalable, efficient, and consistently adopted across the organization.
• STN maintains a best-in-class production network while continually evolving its production capabilities.

Most Critical Outcome (MCO): Deliver STN’s Standard of Excellence across every production, from concept through delivery.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of relevant experience in production or producing within an agency, sports, entertainment, or media environment.
• Demonstrated experience managing production budgets, crews, and vendor relationships.
• Strong working knowledge of social-first content capture and platform-native best practices.
• Proficient use of production planning and project management tools.
• Experience developing training materials, playbooks, or process documentation (a plus).
• Sports and live entertainment industry experience (strongly preferred).

Pay

CA-based salary range is $87,600 - $110,000. Actual compensation is dependent on experience, location, and job-related qualifications and may vary for positions outside of California.

Schedule

• Full-time, hybrid role based in San Diego, CA.
• Evening and/or weekend work required due to the nature of the sports and entertainment industry.
• Travel required.

Physical Requirements

Comfortable working in an office for 40 hours/week with the understanding that working within the sports and entertainment industry may require additional hours.