Senior Director of Talent, MasterClass
$183-220k
+Equity
Streaming platform for learning
Be an early applicant
Streaming platform for learning
501-1000 employees
Be an early applicant
$183-220k
+Equity
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To help unleash the human potential, by inspiring individuals to learn amazing new skills.
Role
Who you are
- 12+ years minimum professional experience in talent booking, talent relations, or representation at an agency, streamer, network, production company, or speakers bureau, with at least 4 years in a similar leadership role
- Demonstrated record closing high-profile talent and negotiating directly with their representation
- Experience leading a team, or a strong player-coach track record where you led while still carrying deals
- Adept at managing multiple projects, juggling competing tasks, and self-directing in a dynamic setting, consistently meeting deadlines with minimal oversight
- Fluency in deal structure, fee benchmarking, and contract terms in partnership with Business Affairs
- Experience with enterprise or brand partners who expect white-glove handling
What the job involves
- As Senior Director of Talent, you'll lead the team that finds, signs, and stewards the instructors behind everything we make — original classes, certificate programs, cohort-based programs, live events, and our podcast
- You'll carry your own book of business, personally closing talent for our newest and fastest-growing lines, while leading two directors on the booking side and two in talent relations
- You'll partner closely with Creative, Production, Marketing, and Go-to-Market to convert access into signed instructors and to keep every relationship healthy long after launch
- A credible closer and a steady leader, you'll bring order to how talent demand enters the company, build the deal infrastructure this function has run without, and represent talent's work — and its limits — to company leadership
- Lead and develop a team of four across talent acquisition and talent relations
- Set coverage and assignments across Core, Marquee, certificates, cohorts, podcast, and events; ensure no line runs unowned
- Arbitrate load across the team and protect capacity; escalate early when demand outpaces it
- Build the development path this function has not had, including a promotion track into director roles
- Run postmortems on closed deals and launched classes to compound what the team learns
- Personally book instructors for cohort-based programs, podcast, and live programming, plus overflow across classes and certificates
- Negotiate and close agreements directly with talent, agents, managers, and enterprise partners
- Set and maintain fee benchmarks and deal structures across the slate; know when to walk
- Partner with senior sourcing relationships across the company to convert high-tier access into signed instructors
- Pressure-test instructor choices with Creative and Insights for brand fit, audience appeal, and commercial potential
- Oversee instructor relationships from first conversation through launch and re-engagement
- Ensure marketing, social, and editorial approvals move on time across a catalog approaching 400 instructors
- Own escalations on high-profile relationships, including those managed through representation
- Oversee instructor-facing events: dinners, firesides, all-hands appearances, ERG programming, and live cohort weekends
- Partner with Go-to-Market on enterprise and brand-partner relationships that expect white-glove handling
- Own a single intake for every talent request across the company, with a named owner and a due date
- Document the function's negotiating posture, fee benchmarks, and deal terms so they are usable by someone who did not close the original deal
- Consolidate recurring meeting load and approval workflows; champion thoughtful use of new tools and technologies — including AI — to reduce manual coordination
- Report on slate coverage, booking pipeline, and instructor cost against plan
- Must be able to present ideas in digestible formats, and able to pivot to meet changing priorities and deadlines
- Extensive experience engaging with and influencing high-profile individuals and their representation
- Ability to lead internal and external meetings with senior level management, agencies, and enterprise partners
Our take
MasterClass is a streaming platform that offers its members the chance to learn skills and theory directly from the best in the business, all with celebrity status. For example, learning to cook with Gordon Ramsay, mastering tennis techniques with Serena Williams, and perfecting songwriting with Alicia Keys.
The streaming platform provides more than 100 classes across nine categories, including sport, wellness, music, food, and business. Each class is made up of around 20 short video lessons, accompanied by a workbook and a members’ community.
With a $2.5 billion valuation and no shortage of funding, MasterClass is seen as a leader in the edtech market and differentiates itself from fierce competitors Udacity and Udemy by blurring the line between education and entertainment.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
May 2021
$225m
SERIES F
May 2020
$100m
SERIES E
Total funding: $461.4m
Company benefits
- Health & Wellness: Premium medical, dental, and vision insurance plans for you and your family. OneMedical and Peloton subscriptions. Access to Modern Health and Included Health for additional well-being and expert medical care
- Paid Time Off: Take the time you need when you need it. Company-wide winter and summer recharge breaks and half-day Fridays
- Equity: In addition to a competitive base salary, our equity plans allow employees to share in the success of the company
- Unique Perks: Quarterly flex dollars for whatever you need, cell phone and internet stipends, lunch on Tuesdays for those in-office, and the occasional instructor drop in
- Family Planning: Competitive parental leave programs for both birthing and non-birthing parents. Leave administration with Cocoon. Fertility support through Carrot
- Learning & Development: We are a learning company after all! Full access to MasterClass courses and the opportunity to gift memberships to loved ones. Personal development dollars are provided every 6 months for things like career coaching or books
- Charitable Giveback: Company charity matching and paid days off to volunteer in your community
Company HQ
SoMa, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
David Rogier
(Founder & CEO)Having studied at Washington University, they worked in Strategy and Operations at Tesco for 3 years before taking an MBA at Stanford. They used this experience to found MasterClass.
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