Operations Lead – Media Production
Hyderabad, IndiaFull-timeSenior · 6-10 years
About this role
Role Overview
We are looking for a senior Operations Lead – Media Production to partner closely with the Engineering & Media Operations leaders. This role focuses on driving operational rigor, planning, analytics, and execution discipline across media production so that the organization can scale predictably without constant leadership intervention.
This is not a hands-on production role. Instead, this person will operate one level above daily execution: planning capacity, identifying bottlenecks, driving operational discipline, and challenging assumptions with data. The ideal candidate brings an operations-first mindset, strong analytical skills, and experience running high-throughput, time-sensitive production environments.
Key Responsibilities
Production Planning & Capacity Management
- Own end-to-end production roster planning across teams and vendors.
- Anticipate leaves, public holidays, festival weeks, and shrinkage at least 30 days in advance.
- Translate forecasts into daily and weekly production capacity plans.
- Ensure production targets are met despite variability in volume, staffing, or external constraints.
- Proactively surface risks and recommend mitigation plans (extra shifts, redistribution, buffer capacity, etc.).
Operational Excellence & Workflow Optimization
- Develop a deep understanding of the end-to-end (E2E) production workflow, from platform output to final delivery.
- Identify process gaps, inefficiencies, and manual dependencies that slow down production.
- Partner with Engineering and Platform teams to propose system and tooling improvements that increase throughput, reduce rework, and improve reliability.
- Drive standard operating procedures (SOPs) for predictable execution.
Analytics, Insights & Decision Support
- Apply strong analytical thinking to production, quality, and turnaround metrics.
- Build and maintain dashboards and data visualizations that clearly communicate:
- Production volumes vs. targets
- Capacity utilization
- Rework trends
- SLA/TAT adherence
- Move beyond reporting numbers to delivering insights and recommendations.
- Act as a thought partner to leadership by challenging plans with data-backed perspectives.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) & Continuous Improvement
- Lead RCA for production failures, delays, and quality issues.
- Identify systemic causes rather than surface-level symptoms.
- Track corrective and preventive actions to closure.
- Establish feedback loops so learnings translate into lasting process or platform improvements.
Team & Vendor Operations Management
- Manage and coordinate teams operating within a high-volume production flow.
- Enable team leads to succeed by providing clarity on priorities, expectations, and metrics.
- Work closely with external vendors/managed services partners to:
- Hold them accountable to output and SLA commitments
- Align forecasts, capacity, and delivery expectations
- Escalate early when execution deviates from plan
Leadership Enablement
- Act as a senior operational partner to leadership on media production initiatives.
- Own cross-functional execution of operational initiatives that require structure and follow-through.
- Prepare clear operational updates, risk assessments, and action plans for leadership review.
- Enable effective delegation by taking end-to-end ownership of assigned operational outcomes without constant oversight.
Required Skills & Experience
- 6–10+ years of experience in operations, production management, program management, or similar roles.
- Experience operating in high-throughput, time-bound environments (media production, call centers, content operations, e-commerce operations, or managed services).
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to break down complex systems.
- Hands-on experience with data analysis and visualization tools (Sheets/Excel, dashboards, BI tools preferred).
- Proven ability to lead RCA and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
- Ability to operate independently, prioritize effectively, and manage ambiguity.
Nice-to-Have Qualifications
- Experience working with external vendors or BPO/managed services partners.
- Familiarity with media, content, or creative production pipelines.
- Exposure to platform-driven or AI-assisted production workflows.
- Experience acting in a Operations Lead, or Program Lead capacity.
What Success Looks Like
- Production runs predictably with fewer surprises during holidays, spikes, or platform changes.
- Leadership spends less time firefighting and more time on strategy.
- Data and dashboards drive conversations—not anecdotes.
- Systemic issues are identified early and resolved permanently.
- The organization scales smoothly without over-reliance on individual heroics.
Why This Role Matters
As media production volume, platforms, vendors, and geographies expand, strong operational leadership becomes critical. This role ensures planning, execution, and continuous improvement are built into the system—not dependent on individual heroics—allowing the organization to scale with confidence.