The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University seeks an experienced professional to manage the school’s studio production operations and inspire early-career creators to advance their production skills.
The Instructional Professional oversees the operation, maintenance and support of the Cronkite School’s growing television and podcast studios. This position plays a key role in supporting professional and academic productions, ensuring that studios, control rooms and associated equipment are fully functional and effectively used by students, faculty and staff. The Instructional Professional will support daily studio productions (including the award-winning Cronkite News), and teach one media production course each semester.
The successful candidate will be a knowledgeable studio production expert and a student-first instructor inspired by the future of media. The candidate will demonstrate a commitment to organization and collaboration; an ability to communicate and motivate in high-pressure, fast-paced production environments; possess the skills to inspire, support and instruct student creators; and instinctively deliver clear direction and feedback.
This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, 12-month appointment with the academic rank of “instructional professional” based on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus. It is a year-to-year appointment, not a tenure-track appointment.
Essential Duties
- Manage and maintain the Cronkite School’s television/video and podcast studios; control rooms; and related production equipment, ensuring technical health, accessibility and efficient support for students, faculty, staff and professionals.
- Coordinate and schedule studio use for classes, student organizations and external partners.
- Prepare and maintain studios and control rooms for daily use (e.g. reboot playback, record and automation systems).
- Create and maintain switcher packages (profiles) for various programs.
- Implement and operate new studio technologies and virtual set systems, and collaborate with engineering staff to support installation, configuration and testing of production systems.
- Provide technical and operational support, guidance and troubleshooting for student and professional productions, troubleshooting as needed during business hours and occasional evenings/weekends for special events.
- Document and regularly update studio and control room procedures and best practices.
- Train and direct student workers on studio tasks, including encoding, streaming practices, video clipping workflows and regular cleaning.
- Conduct regular equipment inspections; inform an update and replacement schedule, and provide accurate departmental reporting. Teach one course per semester.
- Train students, faculty and staff on studio operations (equipment, camera operation, lighting, workflows); control room operations (switcher, EVS, audio console, chyron); ENPS and rundowns; and other workflows in various instructional settings.
- Foster a learning culture that inspires mass communication students with multimedia content, tools and techniques.
- Serve as a studio production thought leader, proactively staying abreast of new tools, techniques and technology; curating exemplars of superior content; and highlighting superb student work.
- Collaborate with school leadership and faculty to support multimedia curricula.
- Supervise student workers in accordance with ASU Work+ standards, including hiring, training, scheduling, approving time, and providing ongoing feedback.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
There are no service, research or creative activity responsibilities.
Required Qualifications
Candidates must have a bachelor’s degree at the time of appointment, and at least 10 years professional production experience in a major-market or national media organization, or equivalent specialized experience.
Desired Qualifications
- Demonstrated experience working in live and/or studio production environments with early-career professionals.
- Strong understanding of television and digital production workflows, including switcher operations, graphics systems, playback systems, audio/video routing, livestreaming and encoding, ideally in a news setting.
- Experience with newsroom systems such as ENPS, Chyron, EVS and automation software.
- Fluency in the Adobe Creative Suite (particularly Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Audition).
- Experience teaching production workflows, technology and techniques to others.
- Evidence of a network of studio production professionals and experts who can advise on the field.
- Experience working with undergraduate or graduate students in a university or professional setting and evaluating student work.
- Experience using an online training or learning management system (e.g. Canvas, Blackboard, Google Classroom).
About the Cronkite School
The Cronkite School is widely recognized as the nation’s premier mass communication school, ranked a top collegiate program by the Broadcast Education Association for four consecutive years. Rooted in the time-honored values that characterize its namesake—accuracy, responsibility, integrity—the school fosters excellence and ethics among students as they master the professional skills required to succeed in the digital media world of today and tomorrow.
Based on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus in the heart of the nation’s fifth-largest city, the School is known for its hands-on, “teaching hospital” approach to learning led by a faculty composed of Pulitzer Prize-winning professional journalists, strategic communications leaders and world-class media scholars. More than 2,500 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students regularly lead the country in national competitions as they prepare for careers in journalism, PR, marketing, strategic media and related communication fields.
About Arizona State University
Arizona State University, ranked the No. 1 “Most Innovative School” in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for 10 years in succession, has forged the model for a New American University. Repeatedly ranked No. 1, ASU has topped more than 20 lists in the last three years: No. 1 in the U.S. for global impact (Times Higher Education) and No. 1 in the U.S. for sustainable practices (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education). ASU is a comprehensive public research institution, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves. ASU operates on the principles that learning is a personal and original journey for each student; that they thrive on experience and that the process of discovery cannot be bound by traditional academic disciplines. Through innovation and a commitment to accessibility, ASU has drawn pioneering researchers to its faculty even as it expands opportunities for qualified students, attracting some of the highest-quality students from all 50 states and more than 130 nations.
Application Instructions
Applicants will be asked to create or use an existing Interfolio Dossier to submit the following:
- A cover letter stating qualifications
- Curriculum vitae or resume
- Contact information (name, address, email, telephone number) for three professional references
Successful candidates will demonstrate throughout their materials how their teaching, research, and service will contribute to the fulfillment of the ASU Charter.
The applicant’s name should appear in each uploaded file name. Cover letters may be addressed to the Search Committee Chair, Brett Kurland. Questions about the position should be directed to the search committee chair at: bkurland@asu.edu.
Application deadline is December 6, 2025 Applications will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis for a reserve pool. Applications in the reserve pool may then be reviewed in the order in which they were received until the position is filled. Applicants must apply online at: apply.interfolio.com/177245