About Backstage
Backstage is the largest talent marketplace for the entertainment industry, media, brand marketers, and other content creators, matching their creative projects with the best actors, voiceover artists, production crew, and other industry professionals. Employers around the world use our best-in-class technology to staff over 50,000 creative projects a year in film, television, commercials, branded content, theater, experiential marketing, and more.
Backstage is the only platform that services the entire content creation ecosystem, providing a one-stop shop for productions to source, hire, and pay right-fit talent for any project, anywhere. We recognize creatives as the beating heart of our brand, and we have a core mission to break down barriers for entry to careers in the entertainment industry by connecting talent to the best jobs, networking opportunities, and educational resources.
Crucial to that mission is our ongoing commitment to harnessing the latest technology to design innovative digital tools that promote more diverse, equitable, and inclusive hiring practices and facilitate more authentic, successful storytelling. We’re a team of customer-centric, data-driven, forward-thinking, strategic problem-solvers with a passion for helping our customers and members make amazing things together.
About TCS
TCS' mission is to empower creative talent and streamline the content creation process for projects in film, television, commercials/branded content, social media, theater, music video, video games, and more. We provide solutions that manage the entire project lifecycle, including talent discovery and staffing, production, post production, and distribution. Our brands include Backstage, Coverfly, FilmFreeway, Final Draft, ShareGrid, and Voice123.
TCS is the creative services division of Cast & Crew, a family of individually innovative companies modernizing the ways in which content is created.
The Role:
Backstage is seeking a dynamic, growth-minded VP of Product to set our future product vision, devise our product strategy, and own the roadmap for all our product offerings, including our marketplace, educational content, and project management tools and workflows. As VP of Product, you will be the influential leader for our team of five passionate product managers and designers who aim to make the world’s creator economy more accessible, inclusive, productive, and successful. We value strong process, data, innovation, flexibility, humility, and collaboration.
In this executive level role, you will direct overarching product strategy for our brand as we continue our expansion into global markets, new verticals focused on crew and below-the-line freelancers, and features. You must be able to envision the unique and complex intersection of these distinct audiences, and guide your team to serving each equally. As we are a lean team in a scaling organization, you must covet the opportunity to be a hands’ on contributor in a senior leadership role.
The VP of Product will report to the President of TCS, the creative services division of Cast & Crew.
What You’ll Do:
- Set the strategic product vision for Backstage and our products; envision the future and put us on a path to building the most innovative marketplace for creators and talent
- Lead extension of Backstage brand into new verticals, such as post-production and influencers; work closely with Growth team to increase awareness of evolving brand and product offerings
- Drive penetration of product in new global markets, leveraging deep primary and secondary research accessed through surveys, competitive landscaping and other methodology to understand and meet specific localization challenges
- Work closely with executive stakeholders to strategize and plan the roadmap, including resource allocation, budget, and timeline
- Manage a fully distributed high performance product team; foster a positive environment that encourages collaboration, upholds commitment to process, and provides professional development and mentorship
- Leverage analytics tools (we use Amplitude, Looker, Google Analytics, and others) to measure and report product and project success, and guide pivots and iterations as necessary
- Serve as subject matter expert for product needs; implement new processes, technology, and tools to improve efficiency and effectiveness
- Collaborate with engineers, business analysts, customer success, marketing, operations, and management to research, ideate, and prioritize new opportunities
What we’re looking for from you:
- Proven experience launching a new consumer-facing brand or moving a successful product into a new category or region; B2C marketplace experience strongly preferred
- Executive presence; you possess gravitas and authority, and you’re a leader that your team and organization trust implicitly to make appropriate and data-driven decisions
- Experience hiring, managing, mentoring, and leveling up a remote product team
- Exceptionally strong process that you can articulate clearly, thoroughly, and concisely to technical and non-technical audiences
- Adept at using qualitative and quantitative research methods and methodologies, including market landscaping and competitor analysis, to support product decisions
- A deep understanding of trends, technologies, and best practice, you possess the adequate knowledge and flexibility to determine the appropriate software development methodology (Scrum, Kanban, etc) for each unique situation
- Technical acumen; you may not be a developer, but you are able to understand and confidently communicate with engineers, analysts, designers, and other resources
- Advanced written and verbal communication skills that can be tailored to suit a variety of individual personalities and levels of seniority
- Excellent stakeholder management skills, including driving consensus and alignment
- Experience with web products and web technologies; SAAS experience a bonus
