Product Manager

Description

PLAYER & ADVERTISING TECHNOLOGY

Lead the Player Squad: set priorities, run planning and refinement, and act as the single product owner for the player engineers drawn from the Apple, Android, Roku, smart TV and web engineering teams

Own the vision, strategy and roadmap for the video player and player SDKs on every platform the company Streaming Platform ships on: Apple, Android, Roku, smart TV, game console and web. Define what the player and the SDKs become over the next three years and sequence the work to get there

Own the playback experience end to end: live, linear and video on demand over HLS and DASH; DRM; adaptive bitrate; multi-audio and subtitle tracks; player controls; and interactive features such as live timeline events, multi-view and in-player overlays

Own advertising within the player: define and prioritize the ad insertion roadmap across client-side, server-side and server-guided ad insertion, and own how ads render, track and are measured in the player, from SCTE-35 markers and HLS date range tags through VAST and VMAP responses

Collaborate with the encoding team on how ads are signaled and inserted across our streams, and on the AWS Elemental Media Services stack (MediaLive, MediaPackage, MediaTailor), so that stream conditioning, ad markers and manifests support the player roadmap

Collaborate with the Google Ad Manager and Ad Operations teams on ad decisioning, configuration and reporting, so that what the player requests and renders matches what the business sells and measures

Take in and triage feature requests from the company TV, ServusTV On and Rally.TV tenants and from the client product teams; consolidate them into one prioritized player backlog and communicate decisions and trade-offs back to the requesters

Set and hold a high bar for quality and user experience: define the player test strategy with QA, including device coverage, ad scenario matrices and pre-event live readiness, and hold releases to it

Define success metrics before launch and review them after: quality of experience (start-up time, rebuffering, errors, bitrate), ad fill and completion, and interactive feature adoption, using Datadog, Datazoom and ad server reporting, and turn findings into roadmap items

Manage player and advertising vendor relationships, including SDK licensing, ad server and measurement partners; lead build versus buy decisions and standard vendor contracts with Legal and Procurement

Lead player incident triage during live events and for playback or advertising escalations; maintain the player documentation, runbooks and ad integration guidelines the tenants and client teams rely on

Ensure player certification, accessibility (captions, audio description, European Accessibility Act), privacy and platform store requirements are met on every device family

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE AND COLLABORATION

Own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for the video player and player SDKs across every platform on the company Streaming Platform

Champion seamless collaboration between design, the Player Squad and the client engineering teams: act as the driving force that keeps player work moving by removing obstacles and ensuring alignment to deliver the right player efficiently and at high quality

Build strong cross-team, cross-department and cross-cultural relationships with technical and business stakeholders, including encoding, Ad Operations, tenant and client product teams; use verbal and written communication to influence and align them on the player roadmap and release plan.

Prioritize user stories, defects, and enhancements from the tenants and client teams to ensure that the Player Squad efficiently delivers the player vision (i.e., full-lifecycle product delivery)

PRODUCT STRATEGY

Develop a comprehensive and current understanding of streaming delivery and player technology: HLS and DASH, low latency, DRM, codecs, and the player frameworks on each platform (AVPlayer, ExoPlayer and Media3, Roku, Shaka and HTML5), including how Apple, Google, Roku and the TV manufacturers evolve them

Become the team's expert in video advertising technology: client-side, server-side and server-guided ad insertion, SCTE-35 and date range signaling, VAST and VMAP, Google Ad Manager, and ad measurement and viewability, and where the market is heading

Lead research into emerging player and advertising capabilities such as interactive and shoppable formats, multi-view and personalized ad experiences, and analyze what leading streaming services ship to identify where the company Streaming Platform leads or lags

COMMUNICATION

Exhibit strong project management skills and follow-up with stakeholders across Santa Monica, Salzburg and the tenant teams. Staying on top of deadlines and proactively communicating changes in delivery dates or scope to management and team leads is critical!

Distill requirements, share feedback, and facilitate verbal and written discussion among player engineers, encoding, Ad Operations, ad sales and non-technical stakeholders in two time zones

Use collaborative tools to sketch and define preliminary playback and advertising experiences and user journeys across TV, mobile and web

Build and deliver presentations and player demos; write and review Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) and technical specifications for player and advertising features

Manage stakeholders across the three tenants and keep them apprised of milestones, progress, and results

Requirements

• Fluent in English (German is advantageous)
• 3+ years of experience in Product Management owning a video player, streaming playback or video advertising product
• Deep working knowledge of HLS and DASH streaming protocols, including manifests, adaptive bitrate, low latency and DRM (FairPlay, Widevine, PlayReady)
• Hands-on experience with video advertising: client-side, server-side and server-guided ad insertion; SCTE-35 markers and HLS date range tags; VAST and VMAP; and Google Ad Manager for video
• Experience with the AWS Elemental Media Services suite (MediaLive, MediaPackage, MediaTailor) or equivalent live streaming infrastructure
• Familiarity with interactive player features such as multi-view, live timeline events, in-player overlays and shoppable or data-driven formats
• Experience leading a squad of engineers and setting the quality bar for what ships, including test strategy and release readiness
• Experience with quality of experience and ad performance tooling such as Datadog, Datazoom, Conviva or ad server reporting, and a track record of using data to make product decisions
• Experience managing player and advertising vendors, including SDK licensing and build versus buy decisions
• Comfortable working directly with engineers on technical topics: reading manifests, logs and ad responses, and reproducing playback issues on device
• Experience leading the agile development process, including conducting sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives
• Ability to influence and lead high performing, cross-functional teams
• Strong project management skills, exhibiting excellent teamwork, problem-solving, and strategic thinking skills
• Outstanding written and oral communication – this role requires daily interaction with stakeholders, including engineering, legal counsel, product management, and program management
• Experience with player frameworks on connected TV, game console and web platforms such as AVPlayer, ExoPlayer and Media3, Roku, Shaka Player or Bitmovin (preferred)
• Experience with live sports or event streaming at scale, including FAST and linear channels (preferred)
• Additional Information
• This position is open to U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, or individuals who are currently authorized to work in the United States on a valid visa.
• The base salary range for this position is $116,000 - $174,000 + cash incentives. Actual salary offers may vary based on work experience. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified.
• Our current Benefits include:
• Comprehensive Medical, Dental and Vision Plans, 401k Match, Family Leave, PTO & Paid Holiday Schedule, Pet, Legal, and Life Insurance, Tuition Reimbursement (Benefits listed may vary depending on the nature of your employment and/or work location).
• Company Description
• The global the company Digital Products & Services technology team is responsible for building, launching, and maintaining cutting edge technology solutions to support all global consumer-facing digital products such as streaming platforms like the company TV, Mobile Apps & Games, the company's site as well as pushing the brand forward by staying on the cutting edge of Emerging Technologies.
• We are looking for a Product Manager to own the video player for the company Streaming Platform, which powers the company TV, ServusTV On and Rally.TV on mobile, web, connected TV and game console apps. You will lead the Player Squad, a cross-platform team of player engineers drawn from the native apps, smart TV and web engineering teams, and you will own the vision, roadmap and quality bar for every player and player SDK the platform ships. The player is the core of the streaming platform: every live event, every video on demand and every advertising impression runs through it.
• We own the video player and collaborate with other teams to deliver the end-to-end experience. Advertising is one part of that: you will work with the encoding team on how ads are signaled, inserted, rendered and measured across our HLS and DASH streams, from SCTE-35 markers and HLS date range tags through client-side, server-side and server-guided ad insertion, and with the Google Ad Manager and Ad Operations teams on decisioning and reporting. As a technical subject matter expert on streaming video and a talented communicator, you will take in feature requests from the three tenants and build strong relationships across teams and departments in Austria and the United States, aligning business, product and engineering on a single player roadmap.