Sales Operations & Production Lead, Local Media

WORK OPTION:
The NBA currently provides eligible employees the option of working remotely one day per week._________________Sales Operations & Production Lead, Local Media Position Summary The Sales Operations & Production Lead , Local Media is responsible for overseeing the operational execution, production workflow, and commercial delivery infrastructure supporting the NBA’s Local Media business. Reporting to the General Manager, Local Media, this role oversees the end-to-end coordination of advertising operations, sales execution, trafficking, inventory management, format strategy, and production services across the league’s local media ecosystem.

This leader manages a multidisciplinary organization consisting of full-time employees and contractor resources across three core verticals:
Ad Traffic & Format Strategy, Sales Operations, and Sales Production. The role is accountable for building scalable operational processes, ensuring flawless commercial execution, optimizing production readiness, developing and adhering to broadcast standards and practice s for inventory, and driving cross-functional coordination between programming, commercial, production, engineering, finance, and distribution teams.

The AVP will play a critical role in launching and scaling the Local Media operating model for the 2026–27 season and beyond, helping establish standards, workflows, systems, and governance that enable efficient monetization and high-quality delivery across linear, streaming, and emerging distribution platforms.

Major Responsibilities Lead the Sales Operations & Production organization supporting Local Media commercial execution, including advertising workflows, inventory operations, trafficking strategy, production coordination, and sales enablement.

Manage and develop a team of full-time employees and contractor resources spanning Ad Traffic & Format Leadership, Sales Operations, and Sales Production functions.

Oversee advertising formats, operations and trafficking workflows across local linear, digital, and streaming platforms, ensuring accurate inventory execution, format compliance, timely delivery, and campaign fulfillment.

Develop and standardize operational procedures, workflow governance, and quality-control protocols across commercial production and sales execution activities.

Partner closely with Commercial, Ad Sales, Finance, Programming, Production, Technology, Engineering, Distribution, and external media partners to ensure alignment between revenue objectives and operational capabilities.

Lead commercial inventory planning and operational readiness for live game broadcasts, shoulder programming, sponsored content, and ancillary programming across all local media markets.

Oversee sales production execution, including creative asset management, sponsorship integration workflows, production timelines, and delivery coordination with internal and external stakeholders.

Collaborate with Programming and Production teams to ensure advertising formats, sponsorship integrations, and commercial breaks are operationally aligned with production standards and league guidelines.

Drive operational efficiency initiatives through workflow automation, systems optimization, vendor coordination, and resource planning to improve scalability and reduce operational risk.

Establish KPI frameworks, reporting cadences, and operational dashboards to measure delivery accuracy, production efficiency, campaign execution, inventory utilization , and revenue support performance.

Support the launch and scaling of the Local Media organization for the 2026–27 season by helping implement operational infrastructure, staffing models, vendor strategies, and cross-functional processes.

Serve as a senior operational escalation point for commercial delivery issues, production conflicts, trafficking exceptions, and time-sensitive broadcast execution matters.

Partner with Engineering and Technical Operations teams to ensure operational readiness across ad insertion systems, trafficking platforms, delivery workflows, and content management systems.

Ensure compliance with league standards, adverti s er obligations, rights requirements,…