NAC Technical Specialist

ABC News is America’s No. 1 news source, providing straightforward, fact-driven journalism across broadcast, streaming, digital and audio. ABC’s award-winning programs include “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight with David Muir,” “Nightline,” “20/20,” “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” “GMA3: What You Need to Know,” and “The View”.

Other platforms include ABC News Live, the network’s 24/7 streaming channel;
ABC News Studios, a premium, narrative nonfiction original production house; ABC News Digital, comprised of a diverse audience of more than 53 million monthly average users; ABC Audio, the premier source for radio news and industry-leading podcasts; FiveThirtyEight, renowned data journalism organization; and NewsOne, the affiliate news service. Based in New York City, ABC News is comprised of three U.S. bureaus and eight international bureaus, with a presence in more than 20 countries around the world.

The NAC Technical Specialist will be providing broadcast support within the News Acquisition Center, ABC News’ air-critical transmission operations center for managing incoming and outgoing live feeds for various shows and platforms. 

The Technical Specialist will be expected to partner with New York based technical teams to influence workflow design solutions for news coverage as well as develop technical strategies for electronic newsgathering.

The specialist should be able to work in a fast-paced, control room environment. This position requires flexible hours and some travel for breaking/planned news events.

Responsibilities include maintaining technical infrastructure of the 24/7 operations center, identifying new IP based technologies that will enhance workflows, and providing on-site technical support and escalations for field teams and department staff.

Responsibilities

• Perform regular maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting to ensure that all transmission infrastructure is operating at an optimal level.

• Provide shift support within NAC during peak production times (Good Morning America / World News Tonight) to allow for immediate technical escalation for broadcast critical remotes.

• Escalate with engineering, infrastructure, and key leadership teams when experiencing highly visible incidents.

• Provide on-call support 24 hours, 365 days per year. Support may entail phone conferences with NAC staff or remotely troubleshooting a production issue with a field team.

• Execute strategic planning, staging, and rollout of key transmission solutions to be used by both NAC staff and remote newsgathering teams.

• Deploy encoding / decoding hardware for various scale planned and breaking news events.  This could include travel on location for support.

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum of two (2) years of IT desktop support / system administration.

• Demonstrated in-depth knowledge of live television production and network-level technical requirements, standards, and solutions.

• Proven ability with live transmission-based elements:

  ·          H.264/HEVC codecs

  ·          Video format standards

  ·          Entirety of a live transmission signal flow

  ·          Ability to lead other technical team members

• Experience working within a technical support team that provides a high level of remote support.

• Advanced knowledge of and the ability to perform remote troubleshooting on various operating systems (Windows, OSX, Linux).

• Advanced problem-solving skills with a sense of urgency to identify the root cause and implement the fix.

• Strong verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.

• Physical requirements and work environment: Ability to climb ladders, work on raised structures.

Education

• Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering, Information Technology, or a minimum of 4 years of experience in a media/broadcast environment as described above.

The hiring range for this position in New York is $129,900.00-$174,100.00 per year based on a 40 hour work week. The amount of hours scheduled per week may vary based on business needs. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.

Salary : $129,900 - $174,100