Activations Manager (Fandango - people management experience required)

Company Description

VERSANT (Nasdaq: VSNT) is an industry-changing media and entertainment business and home to trusted brands that shape culture, inform audiences, and build lasting connections. It operates across four core markets: political news and opinion, business news and personal finance, golf, and sports and genre entertainment. These markets are served through a powerful portfolio of iconic and innovative brands, including CNBC, MS NOW, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Versant’s sports division USA Sports, along with complementary digital assets including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and GolfPass.

Job Description

VERSANT is seeking an Activations Manager to lead a team of Activation Specialists responsible for enabling and activating a suite of digital products and services. This role partners closely with Sales, Customer Experience, Product, Technology, Customer Success, Support, Creative, Sales Operations, and Account Management teams to deliver smooth implementations and strong customer outcomes.

Why This Role Matters: This leader will play a critical role in helping customers get started successfully, ensuring activation work is delivered on time, risks are proactively managed, and team members have the coaching, tools, and clarity they need to perform at a high level. The Activations Manager will help build scalable processes, strengthen cross-functional handoffs, and support a collaborative team culture focused on quality, accountability, and continuous improvement.

What You’ll Do

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Activation Specialists, including hiring, onboarding, performance feedback, career development, and day-to-day support.
• Oversee daily activation workflows, ensuring tasks are clearly owned, timelines are met, quality standards are upheld, and teams have the resources needed to succeed.
• Lead activation projects from planning through completion, including managing milestones, coordinating logistics, supporting partner equipment needs, and resolving complex implementation issues.
• Serve as an escalation point for activation challenges, partnering with internal and external stakeholders to manage scope changes, mitigate risks, and deliver strategic solutions.
• Strengthen cross-functional collaboration with Sales, Customer Experience, Product, Technology, Customer Success, Support, Creative, Sales Operations, and Account Management to ensure smooth transitions from sale to activation to ongoing support.
• Create, refine, and document departmental processes, best practices, and performance reporting to improve consistency, scalability, and visibility with senior leadership.
• Perform additional responsibilities as needed to support business objectives.

Qualifications

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree and/or 3+ years of experience in software implementation, project management, operations, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience as a people manager, with direct responsibility for managing employees, providing coaching and feedback, supporting employee development and performance management, and building an inclusive, high-performing team culture
• Strong project management skills, including the ability to balance competing priorities, track progress, analyze team metrics, and follow through consistently.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present team performance, initiatives, risks, and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Strong analytical, planning, organizational, and problem-solving skills, with sound judgment in managing escalations and business needs.
• Ability to travel as needed.

Bonus points for:

• Experience in a SaaS environment, familiarity with sports technology platforms
• Prior experience in a managerial or leadership role.

Hybrid: This position has been designated as hybrid, generally contributing from the Orlando, FL office a minimum of three days per week. This role may require evening, weekend, or holiday work during critical projects and may include on-call support during major implementations.

Additional Information

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to candidateaccessibility@versantmedia.com.

VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc.

VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.