Chief Engineer

WVTM, the NBC and CBS affiliates in Birmingham, Alabama “The Magic City” is seeking a Chief Engineer. The successful candidate will lead a team and demonstrate the ability to organize, plan, manage, document and complete assignments within a live broadcast environment. You will work in collaboration with the other department heads and directly oversee the daily operation of the station. We are looking for someone with experience in broadcast excellence and teamwork, with a passion for serving the local community, ready to embrace the challenges and opportunities of our ever-evolving industry. The ideal candidate must excel in motivating and working with a high-energy team, enthusiastic about collaborating with all departments, integrating AI into solutions and workflow, focused on the future of our industry. Candidate should demonstrate success in budgeting, capital planning and personnel management. This position reports directly to the General Manager and partners with Hearst Television leadership.    

What You’ll Do 

Engineering Leadership 

• Lead, coach, and develop the station’s engineering team, including staffing, scheduling, AI adoption and implementation, performance feedback, technical training, and on-call coverage. 

• Set priorities and service standards for engineering work, build strong working relationships across departments, and communicate technical issues and their operational impact clearly. 

• Partner with the General Manager and station leaders to align technology plans with local journalism, production, business needs, and Hearst Television standards. 

Broadcast and Facility Operations 

• Oversee the reliability, maintenance, troubleshooting, and lifecycle planning of broadcast, newsroom, production, automation, master control, media storage, network, streaming, and transmission systems. 

• Maintain station transmission and RF facilities, studios, control rooms, remote production equipment, and critical infrastructure such as generators, UPS, and HVAC systems supporting technical operations. 

• Provide engineering leadership during live programming, breaking news, severe weather, outages, and other urgent events; coordinate response, recovery, and follow-up. 

Compliance, Safety, and Resilience 

• Ensure required FCC, EAS, and other applicable regulatory and industry obligations are met, with accurate records, scheduled testing, inspections, and timely corrective action. 

• Maintain preventive maintenance, equipment inventory, technical documentation, safety practices, emergency preparedness, backup power, and disaster recovery plans. 
• Coordinate with Hearst Television and enterprise IT partners on cybersecurity, network resilience, access practices, and business continuity for station systems. 

Planning and Modernization 

• Develop and manage operating and capital budgets, equipment replacement plans, vendor relationships, service contracts, and engineering projects from proposal through implementation. 

• Evaluate and implement improvements to IP-based workflows, automation, cloud or hybrid services, streaming, and other emerging technologies while protecting reliable on-air operations. 

• Use approved AI tools, where appropriate, to support technical research, summarize logs or documentation, identify workflow improvement opportunities, and organize maintenance or project information; verify outputs before use and follow company requirements for confidential, employee, and operational data. 
• Review significant technical incidents, identify root causes, document corrective actions, and apply lessons learned to improve reliability. 

What You’ll Need 

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in television broadcast engineering, media technology, or a closely related technical field, including experience leading or supervising technical staff. 

• Working knowledge of television broadcast systems, RF transmission, studio and newsroom technologies, automation, IP-based media workflows, and applicable FCC and EAS requirements. 

• Experience planning technical projects, managing budgets and vendors, prioritizing equipment lifecycle needs, and coordinating work across departments. 

• Ability to troubleshoot complex systems, make sound decisions under deadline pressure, and explain technical issues to both technical and non-technical colleagues. 

• Ability to provide support during live operations and occasional nights, weekends, holidays, or emergencies as station needs require. 

• Education, training, or experience in broadcast engineering, electrical engineering, information technology, electronics, or a related field. Hearst Television will consider a college degree, trade school diploma, professional certificates, military training, or equivalent practical experience. 

• Experience with broadcast automation, IP video and audio, streaming, cloud or hybrid media systems, cybersecurity practices, emergency planning, and relevant certifications such as SBE is valued. 
• Related military experience will be considered.  

Values in Action  

At Hearst Television we tell stories every day. Stories about people of all backgrounds, perspectives, and identities. That’s why, behind the scenes, we believe in being an organization that fosters collaboration and open communication, ensuring that the content we create is authentic, accurate, and connected to the communities we serve.  

Benefits  

Hearst's benefit programs are modern, flexible and designed to focus on you. As a Hearst employee, you and your spouse or partner or dependents would have access to the following benefits.  

• Medical | Dental | Vision  
• 401(k) matching  
• Emotional Wellness Support  
• Paid Time Off  
• Paid Parental Leave  
• LGBTQ+ Health Services  
• Additional benefits to meet your and your family's needs