Welcome to Warner Bros. Discovery… the stuff dreams are made of.
**Who We Are… **
When we say, “the stuff dreams are made of,” we’re not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD’s vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the storytellers bringing our characters to life, the_ creators_ bringing them to your living rooms and the dreamers creating what’s next…
From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive.
We are the now and the next. The power behind the people building the future. We are born from the spirit of innovation. We are created from the idea that people around the world want more, need more, deserve more. We are the home of the global digital revolution. We are CNN.
To see what it’s like to work at CNN, follow @WBDLife on Instagram and X!
We are CNN. THE WORLD'S MOST ESSENTIAL AND ENGAGING SOURCE OF DIGITAL NEWS. We are in the midst of rapid transformation and need our next generation of innovators, makers, and dreamers who will lead and drive our growth. We aim to make the world a better, more connected place.
Your New Role…
The Director of Audience Development is a senior leader within Audience Strategy & Insights, responsible for driving audience growth, engagement, and habit across a portfolio of desks or a major vertical. This role translates audience signals into actionable editorial strategy at scale—ensuring that insights consistently shape coverage decisions, planning, and execution.
You will oversee and elevate the work of embedded Audience Editors, setting direction, prioritizing opportunities, and ensuring that insights lead to measurable impact. You’ll operate as a strategic partner to editorial leadership, helping define how audience needs inform what we cover, how we present it, and how we distribute it.
This role sits at the intersection of editorial judgment, data fluency, and operational leadership—balancing day-to-day decision support with longer-term audience strategy.
You’ll work in close partnership with DART (Data, Analytics, Research & Testing), Product, and platform teams to ensure our audience-first approach is both actionable and scalable.
Your Role Accountabilities…
Strategic leadership & audience direction
Own audience strategy for a portfolio of desks, defining priorities that drive reach, engagement, and subscriber habit.
Translate audience signals (quantitative and qualitative) into clear strategic direction for editorial leaders.
Ensure audience considerations are embedded in planning, commissioning, and coverage execution—not just post-publication analysis.
Identify the biggest growth opportunities (coverage gaps, format innovation, platform strategy) and align teams against them.
Insight activation & editorial partnership
Guide how insights are delivered and used—elevating from reporting to decision-driving recommendations.
Partner directly with desk leadership to shape coverage plans, editorial priorities, and major moment strategies.
Oversee high-impact analyses and ensure they result in clear “do more / do less / try next” actions across teams.
Support major news moments and tentpoles with audience strategy, ensuring alignment across platforms and desks.
Team leadership & capability building
Manage and mentor a team of Audience Editors and Senior Audience Editors, elevating the quality, consistency, and impact of their work.
Set standards for insight generation, experimentation, and communication across the team.
Coach editors on advanced audience strategy, platform dynamics, and editorial influence.
Build a culture of curiosity, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Experimentation, frameworks & scalability
Oversee experimentation across desks (formats, packaging, timing, distribution), ensuring learnings are synthesized and scaled.
Develop and standardize playbooks, workflows, and best practices that can be applied across multiple desks.
Partner with DART and Product to improve tools, dashboards, and reporting that enable faster, clearer decision-making.
Ensure audience insights are measurable, repeatable, and tied to business and editorial goals.
Cross-functional collaboration
Act as a senior liaison between editorial, Product, Analytics, and platform teams (Off-platform, Home, Notifications, Newsletters).
Align daily audience execution with longer-term platform and product strategies.
Surface patterns, risks, and opportunities across desks and escalate when coordination or investment is needed.
Contribute to broader audience strategy discussions and organizational priorities.
Channel & platform leadership
Ensure strong, consistent audience strategy across Search, Social, Home, Notifications, and Newsletters.
Guide desks in aligning coverage with audience intent, platform dynamics, and distribution opportunities.
Partner with central teams to evolve platform strategies and ensure editorial needs are represented.
Qualifications & Experience...
Strong editorial judgment and alignment with journalistic values and independence.
7–10+ years of experience in digital media, audience development, content strategy, or audience insights.
Proven track record of shaping editorial strategy using audience insights and delivering measurable growth.
Experience leading or mentoring teams and influencing senior editorial stakeholders.
Strong partnership with analytics, product, and platform teams to translate insights into action.
Deep understanding of audience acquisition and engagement levers (SEO, social, home, newsletters, alerts).
Exceptional ability to synthesize complex data into clear, actionable recommendations.
How We Get Things Done…
This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at www.wbd.com/guiding-principles/ along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview.
Championing Inclusion at WBD
Warner Bros. Discovery embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects a wide array of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.
If you’re a qualified candidate with a disability and you require adjustments or accommodations during the job application and/or recruitment process, please visit our accessibility page for instructions to submit your request.
In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, location, skill set, experience, and/or performance. Base pay is just one component of Warner Bros. Discovery’s total compensation package for employees. Pay Range: $166,603.00 - $309,405.00 salary per year. Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards. In addition, Warner Bros. Discovery provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and sick time and vacation.