Responsibilities
- Own and drive audience growth goals across YouTube, podcasting, and social media platforms — with clear KPIs for follower growth, reach, views, and engagement.
- Develop and execute platform-specific growth strategies that capitalize on algorithmic opportunities, cultural moments, and creator trends.
- Identify whitespace opportunities in the sports media landscape and build plans to exploit them before the competition does.
- Monitor audience analytics and platform signals to continuously refine strategy and stay ahead of shifts in social consumption behavior.
- Lead a creator strategy, identifying the talent we work with, and the ideal models for partnership that works for the talent and The Athletic.
- Champion a distinct, ownable off-platform voice for The Athletic — one that is authoritative, entertaining, and recognizable across platforms.
- Push creative boundaries to develop content formats that set us apart from legacy sports media and digital-native competitors.
- Partner with the Head Of Video to develop social video content strategies designed to scale audiences while reinforcing The Athletic brand.
- Partner with the Head Of Series and Specials to develop strategies to grow audiences on YouTube and podcasting channels.
- Stay obsessively current on platform trends, creator strategies, and cultural conversations to inform content ideation.
- Build and grow The Athletic's creator ecosystem — identifying, developing, and managing relationships with external creators.
- Develop programming strategies that create pathways to The Athletic's owned platforms.
- Own the P&L associated with The Athletic's social handles and creator channels — managing budgets, revenue opportunities, and ROI across platforms.
- Work with marketing, editorial, and product to develop social-to-platform conversion strategies that drive subscriber acquisition and retention.
- Report regularly to senior leadership on performance, strategy, and resource needs with clear accountability for growth targets.
- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of two Growth Leads, with potential to expand into Social Media Managers as the function scales.
- Build a high-performance team culture grounded in creative ambition, analytical rigor, and a bias toward experimentation.
- Define clear roles, workflows, and success metrics across the team to drive accountability and output quality.
Requirements
- 7–12 years of experience in digital media.
- Proven track record of scaling social media audiences and YouTube channels at significant scale — ideally within sports, entertainment, or news media.
- Deep platform fluency across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), and podcast platforms, with a strong understanding of how algorithms, formats, and monetization work on each.
- Experience managing or overseeing creator relationships and talent-driven social content.
- Comfort owning a P&L and making budget decisions in a growth context.
- Strong analytical skills — you use data to make decisions but also know when instinct and creative judgment matter more.
- Exceptional communicator who can align stakeholders, inspire a team, and present clearly to leadership.
- A genuine passion for sports, sports media, and the creator economy.
Work Arrangement
Hybrid — United States, United Kingdom
Additional Information
- The annual base salary range for this role is $200,000.00 - $240,000.00 USD.
- Total compensation may vary based on education, experience, skills, and location.
- For roles in the U.S., eligible for variable pay such as annual bonus and restricted stock.
- Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.
- For roles outside of the U.S., benefits information provided during interview process.
- Candidates are asked to submit their own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process.
- The Athletic Media Company is an equal opportunity employer.
- Beware of fraudulent job recruiting schemes; recruiters use careers@theathletic.com exclusively.
