General Manager

A part-time management job at Radioplayer Worldwide in London, UK
Posted 9 December 2016, 4.08am est

Radioplayer Worldwide is a non-profit organisation dedicated to rolling out the collaborative Radioplayer platform around the world. We help broadcasters take control of the ‘user experience’ for radio in their country, using technology and practices developed by UK Radioplayer. Our common metadata platform helps countries ‘collaborate on technology, compete on content’, and has the potential to improve the radio experience in cars, homes, and on mobile and ‘hybrid’ devices.

Beyond the UK, Radioplayer is already in use in Germany, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, and Norway – with Canada and Peru due to launch early in 2017. Radioplayer Worldwide is re-organising itself from January, to help existing Radioplayer countries collaborate more effectively – and grow the international Radioplayer family still further.

The General Manager role is central to this ambitious vision, and is part of a restructuring which will see Radioplayer Worldwide established as a non-profit organisation in its own right, based in 55 New Oxford Street, London (alongside UK Radioplayer, and other radio-related businesses). The GM will report to the Chair of the new Radioplayer Worldwide board (currently the MD of UK Radioplayer).

The role

Both the UK and the Worldwide versions of Radioplayer are non-profit organisations, operated for the strategic benefit of the radio industry. They run on tight budgets, with small teams of multi-talented individuals, who work extremely hard. Because the digital radio/audio landscape is constantly evolving, our responsibilities are always changing too. But there are some core elements to this role...

• Working with UK Radioplayer and all the other Radioplayer countries, the GM will lead on strategy and product-planning for Radioplayer Worldwide.
• The GM will be the daily point of contact with Radioplayer Worldwide countries – via email, phone, Skype, project-tracking systems, and face-to-face meetings.
• The GM will work with our legal and business development consultants, to agree licensing terms and finalise contracts with Radioplayer Worldwide countries.
• The GM will organise the regular ‘Technology Group’ meetings of Radioplayer Worldwide countries. These will be a 50/50 mix of strategic discussions and technical/product planning.
• The GM will design and run the processes for ‘technical triage’ within Radioplayer Worldwide. This includes bug-tracking, prioritisation of technical work, liaising with technology suppliers, scoping new features, and communicating with Radioplayer Worldwide stakeholders.
• The GM will manage the budget for Radioplayer Worldwide.

A typical day might involve a mixture of the following...

• Get up to speed with email and JIRA tickets (our bug tracking system) from partner countries
• Discuss feature priorities for the next update to the Radioplayer apps, with our tech. partners
• Finalise the venue for the next Technology Group meeting, and book your own flights for it
• Join a conference call about getting Radioplayer onto a new home speaker system
• Help a country that’s asking for advice about their next Radioplayer marketing push
• Phone a Radioplayer partner to explain about a delay to a bug-fix in our apps
• Prepare some slides for a conference in Switzerland where you’re presenting
• Help to test a prototype that we’ve set up in the office

The person

• Brilliant Diplomat - able to understand the diverse needs of stakeholders operating in different markets, and achieve a pragmatic plan that moves Radio forward.
• Organisational Ninja – undaunted by the tsunami of information and the impossible workload, you’ll prioritise ruthlessly, maintaining progress in the areas which are strategically important.
• Insatiably Curious – you’ve always resisted being pigeon-holed as either a ‘techy’, an ‘organiser’, a ‘strategist’, or a ‘creative’. You’re all of those things, because it’s 2017.

Details

Initially, the role is a part-time one, working the equivalent of 2.5 days a week. These hours would ideally be spread across 4 or 5 days, so we can be responsive to enquiries from partner countries. We envisage the GM role becoming full-time, once Radioplayer Worldwide has grown further.

We will consider applications from freelancers, who want to make this part of a portfolio of work across the week. However, once it becomes full-time, the post will need to be made permanent.

We expect the GM to work mainly at our office in 55 New Oxford Street, but there’ll also be some international travel to meet stakeholders. We’re also flexible about occasional working-from-home – particularly when there are documents to write, or complex thinking to be done.