At 2U, we are all in on purpose. We are motivated by our mission – to eliminate the back row in education – and connected by our shared passion to deliver world-class digital education at scale. As the parent company of edX, the world’s leading online learning platform, 2U powers more than 4,000 online higher education offerings – from free courses to full degrees. Together with more than 230 colleges, universities, and corporate partners, we are helping to unlock human potential.
What We’re Looking For:
The Media Systems Engineer works within the 2U Learning division as the resident expert in media post-production workflows and best practices. They will serve as the system administrator for the post-production environment including 2U’s enterprise media asset management system, media storage solution, and all ancillary post-production related equipment and peripherals that enable workflows including ingest, transcoding, video editing, motion graphics, audio mixing, color correction, video quality assurance, and final delivery. This pivotal role will be a key liaison between 2U post production teams across product lines including Graduate and Undergraduate Degrees, Executive Education, and edX.
This role will collaborate with internal 2U departments including Engineering, Production Innovation, Learning Technology, and IT, as well as external post production vendors, our systems integration partner, and product suppliers to ensure continued proper protocols as they relate to security, ongoing maintenance, updates, and enhancements to post production systems. This person will also work with the Media Systems Specialist to provide guidance and delegate day to day responsibilities. This person is a passionate media and tech enthusiast, constantly monitoring and absorbing media production and ed-tech industry norms, as well as the latest technical solutions including hardware, equipment and post-production related software. The person in this role will aid in determining 2U’s media and video technological vision, implementing media technology strategies, and ensuring that the technological resources are aligned with the company's business needs.
Responsibilities Include, But Are Not Limited To:
1. Serve as global Administrator and in-house SME for media/video post-production systems including media asset management solution, AWS storage infrastructure in partnership with 2U IT/Engineering, and all media-related equipment and peripherals
- Monitor performance and maintain post-production systems according to established requirements.
- Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with internal stakeholders and external vendors who are users within 2U’s MAM environment.
- Main liaison between 2U, post-production vendors, systems integration partner, and product suppliers for ongoing required support and troubleshooting of system anomalies.
- Provide technical expertise for all post-production editorial and technical staff including editors and motions graphics designers, video post-production management staff, and production staff for day-to-day video engineering needs encompassing all related disciplines such as operational system support monitoring and troubleshooting.
- Ensure security of the media post production environment leveraging deployed tools through access controls, backups, and firewalls.
- Establish and manage all user permissions and track licensing and usage.
- Troubleshoot access issues and outages among end users.
- Administer, support, and operate AWS/S3 tools and cloud-based storage; monitor and report on ingress and egress in collaboration with 2U Engineering team.
- Administer, support, and operate file-based encoding, transcoding, and media conform workflows from ingest through final delivery.
- Manage and inventory all 2U-owned local (US-based) hard drives, RAID storage, and LTO archive library if applicable.
- Support and operate LTO archive library, RAID storage, and hard drives, as necessary in conjunction with current 2U post production vendor
- Assist with software configurations for physical/local/remote servers and ingest/edit workstations as required.
- Install and maintain physical/local servers and ingest/edit workstations as required.
- Troubleshoot any machine/equipment failures, software glitches, and offline/missing media, escalating to SI partner when necessary.
- Help evaluate and troubleshoot technical quality control issues related to media, including both raw and final assets, and work with stakeholders executing media acquisition on resolving these issues.
- Make recommendations and implement upgrades to media post-production systems and software with new models and releases in order to support increasing scale, complexity requirements, and future functionality enhancements.
- Provide insight on required technical specifications for production including field and studio acquisition.
2. Develop, introduce, monitor, and improve workflows and automation in partnership with various stakeholders including internal and external post production teams.
- Develop efficient workflows based on best practices essential to a media post production operation.
- Develop and update technical documentation, policies, and SOPs for media and editorial workflows.
- Collaborate with 2U’s systems integration partner, product vendors, and internal 2U stakeholders to develop and test API integrations.
- Participate and advise on best practices for Adobe Creative Suite project and sequence organizational structures, MAM metadata architecture, and taxonomy standards.
- Identify new areas for a more streamlined approach to relevant production and post-production work including automation considerations.
- Support vendor and partner inquiries regarding external media production best practices and technical deliverable requirements.
- Participate in discussions and/or review of updates or modifications to overall operational workflows and SOPs, as appropriate.
- Maintain and update technical quality control specifications.
3. Training/Coaching.
- Responsible for training Media Systems Specialist and internal 2U staff and external vendors on related 2U systems who participate in production and post production processes including advising on technical specifications for filming/recording, editing, graphics, audio, and video quality control and assurance.
- Develop expertise on all aspects of 2U’s post-production environment including deployed MAM software and AWS storage.
- Develop and maintain training materials including user-guides, documentation, screen share recordings, etc. for user groups.
- Communicate rollouts of new video post production tools and resources to user groups.
- Training and facilitating internal 2U and external vendor training for any user groups leveraging MAM.
- Provide orientation to external/freelance technical and editorial staff (e.g. video editors) to post-production operational systems.
4. Take on additional duties and responsibilities as required.
Things That Should Be In Your Background:
- Bachelor’s Degree is required.
- 7+ years of professional video/media production/post production, engineering and operations experience.
- Experience as a System Administrator, Network Administrator or similar role in support of a complex media post production operation.
- Experience with various operating systems and platforms.
- Experience with databases, networks (LAN, WAN), and cloud-based media storage. AWS/S3 and tiered cloud storage experience is a plus.
- Experience with media processing systems and workflows at various stages of the media supply chain (workflow engines, ingest, transcode, metadata, editing, delivery).
- Comprehensive knowledge of file-based and proxy workflows, formats, frame rates, aspect ratios, codecs and file types required for a high-volume media post production environment.
- Expertise in media post-production software and editing techniques on non-linear editing platforms including the full Adobe Creative Suite.
- Experience with enterprise media asset management software. IPV Curator experience is a plus.
- Full knowledge of encode hardware and transcode software applications. Root 6 workflow engine experience is a plus.
- Knowledge of system security and data backup/recovery.
- Experience with LTO Archive software and hardware.
- Experience with product/project management software, Atlassian Jira is a plus.
- Expertise leveraging various technology and software solutions including Google Suite, Microsoft Office, Slack and overall web-savviness.
- Knowledge of technical aspects of video production, including best practices for filming, lighting and audio engineering techniques.
- Familiarity with video closed captioning and transcription workflows.
- Maintains a high level of professionalism and has the ability to interface effectively with a variety of people including internal staff, executive management, and vendors to establish productive, ongoing relationships.
- Ability to work with a team with the ultimate goal of creating the highest quality academic content possible for our university partners.
- Impeccable verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate in a courteous, tactful, and concise manner.
- Champion of change management, with a proven ability to influence and guide stakeholders on highly technical processes.
- Supremely organized and capable of handling multiple projects, priorities, and competing deadlines simultaneously.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, ever-evolving environment that requires constant agility and adaptability.
- An intuitive decision-maker with excellent critical thinking and analytical skills.
- A positive, proactive and collaborative attitude.
- A great sense of humor and the ability to handle stress with grace.
Other Attributes That Will Help You In This Role:
Working Conditions
Limited travel may be required on an as-needed basis. There will be an intermittent requirement to support media post-production teams in different time zones.
Physical Requirements
May need to transport/install/rack various post-production related equipment.
Benefits & Culture
Our global employee base is a diverse collection of innovators, dreamers, and doers working together to transform lives through higher education. We believe that every employee can advance our shared purpose, and that life at 2U should be fun and meaningful. If you’re excited by the opportunity to provide over 40 million learners and counting with access to world-class online higher education, then join us – and do work that makes a difference. #NoBackRow
We offer comprehensive benefits (unique per country) and excellent work/life balance.
Full-time, ZA benefits include:
- 2 complimentary Getsmarter short courses per year
- Subsidised medical aid with Discovery Health Medical Scheme
- 4% 2U contribution towards Discovery Life Pension Fund and Group Risk Benefit
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Generous leave policy including time off to volunteer for non-profit organization, study leave, sports leave and a company-wide festive season break
2U Diversity and Inclusion Statement
At 2U, we are committed to building and sustaining a culture of belonging, respect, and inclusion. We are proud of the steps we’ve taken to bring together an employee base that embodies diverse walks of life, ideas, genders, ages, races, cultures, sexual orientations, abilities and other unique qualities. We strive to offer a workplace where every employee feels empowered by what makes us different, as well as by how we are alike.
2U is committed to providing reasonable accommodations during our recruitment process. If you need assistance or accommodations, please reach out to us at: recruitingaccommodations@2u.com.
About 2U Inc.
For more than a decade, 2U, Inc. has been the digital transformation partner of choice to great non-profit colleges and universities delivering high-quality online education at scale. As the parent company of edX, a leading global online learning platform, 2U provides over 45 million learners with access to world-class education in partnership with more than 230 colleges, universities, and corporations. Our people and technology are powering more than 4,000 digital education offerings — from free courses to full degrees — and helping unlock human potential. To learn more: visit 2U.com.
About edX
edX is the education movement for restless learners and a leading global online learning platform from 2U, Inc. Together with the majority of the world’s top-ranked universities and industry-leading companies, we bring our community of over 45 million learners world-class education to support them at every stage of their lives and careers, from free courses to full degrees. And we're not stopping there — we're relentlessly pursuing our vision of a world where every learner can access education to unlock their potential, without the barriers of cost or location. Learn more at edX.org.
Learn more at https://2u.com/careers/
#NoBackRow
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by individuals assigned to this position, and are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required. All employees may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities from time to time, as needed.
2U is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate against applicants or employees and ensures equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of their race, creed, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, national origin, age, marital status, disability, citizenship, military or veterans’ status, or any other classifications protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. 2U’s equal opportunity policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to recruiting, hiring, training, promotion, job benefits and pay.
2U is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from South African citizens who are members of designated groups who may contribute to Employment Equity within the workplace and the further diversification of ideas. In this regard, the relevant laws and principles associated with Employment Equity will be considered when appointing potential candidates. We are required by law to verify your ability to work lawfully in South Africa. 2U requires that you submit a copy of either your identity document or your passport and any applicable work permit if you are a foreign national, along with an updated curriculum vitae.
