Vice President, Content Merchandising Automation

This is a Full Time Job

Location: Culver City, California, United States of America

In an era of content abundance, discovery is the differentiator. Our editorial future depends on intelligent systems that scale human creativity, not replace it. This role ensures that the HBO Max experience is guided by smart automation that connects our subscribers to the stories that matter most.

We are seeking a transformational leader to reinvent how content merchandising is implemented on a global scale. The Vice President, Content Merchandising Automation will own taxonomy, metadata, and automation strategy - partnering with engineering and product to unlock catalog utilization, improve efficiency, and drive engagement across our streaming platform.

If you're passionate about intelligent tooling and editorial excellence at global scale, this is your opportunity to lead one of the most critical evolutions in streaming.
Key Responsibilities
• Reimagine Workflows – Lead content merchandising automation and work across teams on process transformation initiatives that reduce manual editorial effort and scale merchandising globally.
• Build for Scale – Establish global taxonomy and metadata standards as the backbone of discovery, personalization, and catalog utilization.
• Drive Innovation – Partnering closely with the consumer algorithms team & tools teams to leverage AI/ML and emerging technologies to accelerate tagging, classification, and enable merchandising.
• Be Data-Driven – Use analytics to optimize catalog utilization, measure merchandising ROI, and ensure merchandising delivers measurable business outcomes. Develop KPIs and success criteria to measure the efficiency and performance impact of automation on editorial workflows.
• Lead Globally – Build and lead a high-performing automation team with clear priorities, KPIs, and a culture of operational excellence.
• Influence Broadly – Serve as the subject matter expert with senior leaders

What Success Looks Like
• Merchandisers across HBO Max's global regions use automation tools as their default workflow.
• The catalog - from tentpole series to long-tail library titles - is surfaced intelligently and dynamically, personalized to each member.
• Content priorities and metadata are fully integrated into the machine learning loop, improving both recommendation accuracy and creative impact.
• The platform becomes more adaptive, flexible, and scalable as manual bottlenecks are eliminated.

Skills Needed
• Help define scalable metadata and campaign tagging practices that serve as inputs for promotion models and content surfacing logic, working closely with the teams building our personalization algorithms and content workflows.
• Deep understanding of content workflows, content merchandising, and the pain points of manual curation in large-scale environments.
• Proven experience partnering with engineering, product, and data science teams to drive tool development and workflow transformation.
• Strong familiarity with machine learning-based recommendation systems, real-time personalization, and campaign performance measurement.

Candidate Qualifications
• Proven Transformer – Track record leading editorial transformation at scale, ideally in direct-to-consumer streaming or digital content.
• 10+ years in content operations, merchandising, or editorial with 5+ years in senior leadership.
• Experience in direct-to-consumer streaming or digital content environments.
• Content & Tech Hybrid – Deep expertise in taxonomy and metadata management, paired with technical fluency (CMS, APIs, metadata pipelines, AI/ML).
• Commercially Minded – Data-driven leader with experience applying insights to drive catalog utilization, engagement, and growth.
• Change Agent – Recognized for challenging the status quo and delivering innovative, scalable solutions with business impact.
• Global Leader – Exceptional team builder with success leading high-performing global operations and transformation teams.
• Influential Communicator – Skilled at aligning executives and cross-functional partners around a shared vision for scale and efficiency.

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If you're a qualified candidate with an arrest or conviction record, please know that your application will be considered in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.