Anti-Piracy & Media Trust Lead

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 Media's Digital Trust & Safety (DTS) team is seeking an Anti-Piracy and Media Trust Lead to lead the design, development, and operationalization of the company's enterprise anti-piracy ecosystem. This is a strategic, hands-on role that blends technical expertise, program management, cross-functional leadership, and vendor oversight to protect Versant Media's content and IP across digital platforms globally.
 

Anti-Piracy Strategy & Program Development

• Develop and own Versant Media's anti-piracy strategy, including dedicated program charters and enforcement frameworks across content verticals (Sports, News, Podcasts, Entertainment)
• Define and stand up distinct anti-piracy work-streams, including enforcement playbooks tailored to common incident types
• Build and maintain a scalable operating model that translates strategy into measurable, repeatable enforcement operations
• Lead stakeholder alignment efforts across business units, securing formal sign-off on program governance documents

Enforcement Operations & Incident Response

• Serve as the primary point of contact and lead for all anti-piracy enforcement activity, including content takedowns across platforms (YouTube, Meta, and other social platforms)
• Manage enforcement escalations and coordinate authorized submissions on behalf of talent and executives
• Route and triage cases using a structured risk framework (Revenue, Reputation, Relationship) to prioritize enforcement decisions
• Maintain and evolve the Digital Trust & Safety Intake Portal (Jira-based) for content protection and anti-piracy workflows

Vendor & Platform Management

• Oversee relationships with anti-piracy vendors including Vobile, HCL Tech, and others, establishing evidence-pack SLAs and performance tracking
• Coordinate with YouTube CMS, Vobile asset ingestion workflows, and UGC protective services integrations
• Negotiate platform enforcement capabilities and limitations directly with platform trust & safety teams (e.g., YouTube, Meta)
• Evaluate and onboard new vendors or tools (e.g., social media viral clip monitoring, MUSO analytics) to expand enforcement coverage

Technology & Infrastructure

• Build and maintain tooling to support enforcement workflows — including Airtable-based repeat offender tracking systems and intake portals
• Provide technical recommendations on content protection infrastructure (DRM, ABAC, CMS metadata integrity, hardware protection tiers)
• Configure and manage piracy-related mailboxes and communications infrastructure (e.g., piracyalerts@versantmedia.com)
• Support integration of Jira ticketing and Slack-based workflow automation for anti-piracy operations

Reporting, Governance & Executive Visibility

• Produce monthly operational metrics and executive-level Authenticity Score reporting
• Develop and present the anti-piracy strategy and staffing model to senior leadership, including President-level stakeholders
• Collaborate with Legal (IP & Music) to ensure enforcement actions are aligned with rights ownership, distribution agreements, and FTC Consent Decree obligations
• Maintain documentation of all architectural and enforcement decisions to satisfy compliance and audit requirements

Piracy Intelligence & Research

• Monitor the evolving piracy landscape, including piracy-adjacent consumer harms (fraud, phishing, malware, identity theft)
• Share relevant intelligence across teams via curated feeds and analysis
• Stay current on anti-piracy technology, enforcement tools, and platform policy changes

Media Trust & Content Integrity

• Monitor digital platforms and social media for AI-generated deepfakes, synthetic media, and manipulated content featuring Versant Media talent, executives, or brand assets
• Establish detection workflows and escalation paths for synthetic or manipulated content that poses reputational, legal, or safety risks
• Partner with platform trust & safety teams and AI detection vendors to identify and remove non-consensual deepfakes and misleading synthetic media
• Develop and maintain a content authenticity framework to verify that Versant Media content in the wild has not been altered, re-contextualized, or weaponized for nefarious purposes
• Coordinate with Legal and Communications teams on response protocols when manipulated content reaches significant distribution
• Track emerging AI-enabled threats (voice cloning, face-swap video, synthetic news segments) and advise leadership on proactive countermeasures
• Evaluate and implement content provenance and authentication standards (e.g., C2PA, digital watermarking) to establish chain-of-custody for published assets

CISO Support & Cyber Program Management

• Serve as a program management resource for the CISO and Cyber Defense Operations team, supporting the planning, tracking, and execution of key cybersecurity initiatives
• Maintain project plans, status reports, and roadmaps for Cyber-aligned workstreams, ensuring milestones are tracked and stakeholders are kept informed
• Facilitate cross-functional coordination between Cyber Defense Operations and adjacent teams (Legal, Engineering, Business Units) on security programs with DTS touchpoints
• Support the preparation of executive briefings, board-level security updates, and risk reporting on behalf of the CISO

Qualifications

Required

• 15+ years of experience in anti-piracy, content protection, digital rights management, or a related field within the music, media, or entertainment industry
• Demonstrated expertise in technical infrastructure for anti-piracy programs (fingerprinting, CMS, DRM, UGC content ID)
• Experience managing enforcement operations across major platforms (YouTube, Meta, etc.)
• Strong program management skills, including the ability to develop charters, RASCIs, playbooks, and OKRs
• Proven track record of vendor management and SLA development
• Excellent cross-functional communication and stakeholder engagement skills, including experience presenting to executive and President-level audiences

Preferred

• Experience with Jira, Airtable, Confluence, and Slack for operational workflow management
• Familiarity with domain registrar enforcement, ad revenue disruption, and payment method interdiction strategies
• Understanding of legal and regulatory frameworks relevant to IP enforcement (DMCA, FTC Consent Decrees, distribution agreements)
• Experience working with or building threat intelligence programs

Who You'll Work With

This role reports to the Director, Digital Safety & Protection and collaborates closely with:

• Legal (IP & Music Counsel)
• Cyber Defense Operations
• Video Encoding Engineering
• Business Unit representatives (Sports, News, Entertainment, Golf)
• External vendors and platform partners

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.

For LA County and City Residents Only: VERSANT Media will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories, or arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with relevant legal requirements, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, where applicable.

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.