This role is offered on a hybrid contract giving you the opportunity to also work from home 3 days a week.

Comic Relief reserves the right to close the role early if a large number of applications are received.

​​Purpose of job:​ 

Our Production Manager is a pivotal and exciting role in a busy production team. You will act as a key support to all members of our Creative Services/Production, Social, Entertainment and Partnerships as well as Stories Development Teams. The role will support with ensuring production processes are adhered to, to ensure Production is safe, compliant, and sustainable. You will be responsible for scoping and implementation of logistics, permissions and accreditations both UK and abroad, music rights and archive licences, production delivery and required deliverables across diverse content formats, including post-production paperwork and consent forms. The role will also support our Head of Creative Services, and Production Leads, with securing, booking and contracting external resource across our full roster of freelancers & agencies, to include booking shoots, equipment, crew and mapping these requests on our scheduling system, Float. 

​​Key responsibilities: ​ 

TV Broadcast: 

• Budgeting – annual and campaign budgets – balancing financial limitations with creative innovation, turning creative visions into workable budgets and schedules, forecasting and reporting to Finance.  

• Budgeting for external pitches to networks/Indies.  

• Working with BBC broadcast editorial compliance and technical delivery specifications for TV broadcast.  

• Manage Relationship with post-production facilities. 

• Manage Relationship with BBC and BBC Production Management/Appeals team.

• BBC/CR Co-Production Agreement. 

• Negotiate agreements and rates with external suppliers to secure the best deals for production, including an up-to-date knowledge of the market.

Creative Services: 

• Supporting Producers, Production Heads and Leads, by sourcing, securing, booking and contracting all external resource (to include freelancers, Ltd Companies & Agencies), crew, equipment and shoots and mapping these into our scheduling tool, Float, and tracking committed spend across our directorate budgets. 

• FTC contracting to include Request for Resource forms, budget allocation, CEST/ IR35 determination, background check waivers, references, contract and specifics around schedule 1. 

• Running a weekly directorate production meeting to go through all upcoming production shoots, covering off any internal and external resource needed to cover these, and ensuring everyone is aligned.  

• Updating department budgets with committed spend and working with Finance to ensure invoices accurately reflect projected costs.  

• Pulling appropriate reports where necessary around department spend, forecasting projections, and scheduled vs actual time spent. 

Rights Management: 

• Management of our existing Archive to ensure future use of content is used in accordance with our rights.  

• Footage sales – oversee approx. £80k income pa. 

• Future proofing – setting up Production DAM system & full digitisation of Archive / integration of AI capabilities.  

• Maximising and monetising content through clip sales, ad revenue and distribution strategies.

Legal, Business Affairs and Assurance: 

• Establishing relationships with Production Management counterparts to implement ways of working, efficiencies. 

• Work with Legal to set up commissioning agreements and production/co-production agreements. 

• Ensure optimal rights retention.  

• Management of our Production Risk Register.

• Insurance – Production and for freelance contractors/crew – UK and abroad.

DEIB: 

• Diversity Monitoring of on-screen contributions and off-screen talent (film crews and creatives we employ) for CR content output.  

• Ongoing work to expand talent pool of freelancers, contractors and crew both UK and Internationally. 

• Re-invest in opportunities for young/marginalised and under-represented groups.

People management 

• Line-management of our Production Assistant.  

• Proactively undertake business planning, prioritise activities and set clear and realistic objectives based on capacity, expertise and aspirations. 

• Provide balanced, constructive feedback, undertake effective performance management to embed accountability and proactively support the professional development and growth of staff. 

• Maintain regular two-way communication and dialogue with staff, ensuring information is cascaded and escalated as needed. 

• Model an enabling, inclusive and empowering leadership style that builds a values-based culture throughout the charity. 

​​Person specification​ 

​​Essential criteria​ 

• Solid experience and confident in cross-platform content creation from pre-production through to delivery, including television broadcast, digital and social platforms, live events and audio a plus.  

• Demonstrable experience in a similar role gained an agency / production team with experience of delivering for TV / end to end.   

• Highly organised, with attention to detail and the ability to remain calm under pressure, whilst ensuring production compliance processes are adhered to.  

• Experience with balancing financial limitations with creative innovation, turning creative visions into workable budgets and schedules, forecasting and reporting to Finance Business Partner.  

• Experienced at negotiating agreements and rates with external suppliers to secure the best deals for production, including an up-to-date knowledge of the market. 

• Experience of overseeing, updating and managing large departmental budgets.   

• Strong contracting experience to include: request for resource, budget allocation, CEST/IR35 determination, background check waivers, references, contracts. 

• Adept at expanding a diverse talent pool of freelancers, contractors and crew both UK and Internationally. 

• Understanding of legal requirements of filmmaking, rights, permission etc 

• Understanding of Safeguarding responsibilities with regards to informed consent, re-use, re-consent.  

• Experienced at overseeing Risk Registers to include owning Risk Assessments 

​​Desirable criteria​ 

• Experience with BBC broadcast editorial compliance and technical delivery specifications for TV broadcast.  

• Worked in a similar role at a charity with an in-house production team 

• Experience of managing a DAMs system. 

• Experienced at using studio project management tools such as Float and/or Jira.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Comic Relief we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Why work at Comic Relief

There are lots of good reasons to join us at Comic Relief. You can read more about our employee benefits, such as our commitment to flexible and hybrid working. We ask staff to come to the office twice a week, normally on agreed team days, so that we can do all those things that are difficult to do online. Our office is based in Whitechapel, London, There are lots of opportunities to develop your skills and experience at Comic Relief, including opportunities to become a Mental Health First Aider or to participate in our Employee Network Groups that focus on making Comic Relief a more inclusive place to work

Disability Confident employer

 As part of the Disability Confident scheme, we take positive action by providing first-round interviews to candidates who have a registered disability, provided they meet the minimum criteria for the role, as demonstrated on their CV.

We ask that candidates that wish to be considered for this scheme email j.scott@comicrelief.com to discuss further. Please do not email CV's/cover letters.