Broadcast engineering

Senior technical project manager

What does a senior technical project manager do?

Senior technical project managers have responsibility for delivering several projects at the same time and co-ordinating the people who work on them. Their job is to make sure all the technical spaces that support broadcasting – like studios, edit suites and playout centres – are built the way they need to be used. They also need to ensure they are tested and working properly, long before people use them to make programmes.

Senior technical project managers have a lot of experience working on various projects over many years and understand not only how to manage different engineering teams, but also how to balance budgets and keep their projects running to schedule. They may work on projects that take years to deliver, but whether it’s a broadcast centre for a football stadium or a distribution centre for a streaming service like Netflix, there are always deadlines to be met.

Senior technical project managers usually have a small team of project managers and trainees but might also carry out planning and design work on their own. To make sure all the different projects and engineering teams work together, senior technical project managers must be strong communicators: they know how to work with all the engineering teams on a project, as well as with architects, designers, accountants and, most importantly, with the people who will use the new broadcast facilities.

They often need to evaluate which tasks are the most urgent or important, and where to allocate engineering teams in order to meet deadlines and finish their projects within budget.

Watch and read

What is a senior technical project manager good at?

Planning: Seeing the big picture and thinking ahead of the plan to avoid problems
Coordinating: Being able to work across different engineering projects with several engineering teams at the same time
Understanding tech: Keeping up to date with the latest advances in technology.

Who do senior technical project managers work with?

A team of technical project managers and trainees in the installation team. They work out proposals with design engineers and report to project directors.

How do I become a senior technical project manager?

Senior technical project managers have many years of experience managing engineering teams and working in this field. Most start as trainees and move up to become technical project managers.

If you want to progress to this role, you’ll need to get experience working in a large-project department or for a major installation company. Most importantly, you will need to find a job where you manage a team of other engineers.

At school or college

If you’re interested in a career in broadcast engineering, A-levels in maths, computer science and physics would be good to get under your belt. You could combine these with subjects from the arts and humanities, such as English, history or music, which may come in useful for the content of the programmes you work with. Languages are also handy if you need to travel or want to work with foreign broadcasters – studying A-level Spanish might be your ticket to working at the 2026 World Cup in Mexico.

The following Level 3 vocational qualifications are also relevant to this role:

BTEC in Engineering with Engineering Maths
Cambridge Technical Extended Certificate in Engineering
BTEC National Foundation Diploma in Engineering
C&G Technical Certificate in Engineering
EAL Technical Diploma/Extended Diploma in Engineering Technologies
BTEC Diploma/Extended Diploma in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
City & Guilds Advanced Technical Diploma in Electrical Installation
EAL Diploma/Advanced Diploma in Electrical Installation

Selected schools and colleges have also started offering T-levels – a qualification equivalent to three A-levels that is designed to help you get into the industry of your choice. Study is 80% classroom- and 20% work placement-based.

The following T-levels would help to kick-start your career in broadcast engineering:

Digital Production, Design and Development
Digital Support Services
Digital Business Services
Design and Development for Engineering and Manufacturing
Maintenance, Installation and Repair for Engineering and Manufacturing
Engineering, Manufacturing, Processing and Control

Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are jobs with training. Search for apprenticeships in broadcast engineering with broadcasters like BBC and Sky. Go to What’s an apprenticeship? to find out more and Where can I find an apprenticeship? to find apprenticeships in your region. Alternatively, you can approach companies directly. Take a look at our list of apprenticeships to find the schemes of the main broadcasters. The BBC has a three-year broadcast and media systems degree apprenticeship that offers a mix of practical experience and university study in all areas of media systems engineering. You may also be interested in the level 3 apprenticeship for broadcast and media systems technical operator.

Volunteer

Get involved with events in your local community, whether that’s running the sound for your school talent show, managing the special effects for an amateur dramatics society or helping out at a volunteer-run radio station.

Contact theatre productions or local music venues that can get you behind the scenes of a production environment. Anything that gives you experience in dealing with equipment in a live environment will be helpful. Voluntary experience is great for your CV, because it shows you’re enthusiastic, have technical ability and experience and you work well as part of a team.

Get a degree

A degree in a maths or science subject would stand you in good stead for entering the world of broadcast engineering. You could also look at electronic engineering, software design or computing. Go to ScreenSkills Select to find university and college courses accredited by ScreenSkills.

Look outside the industry

If you can’t or don’t want to get into broadcast engineering straightaway, industries that require similar skills include telecoms, live events and radio. These would enable you to strengthen your technical abilities and get experience with technical equipment.

Being a senior technical project manager is also a managerial role, so try to find roles that provide experience with technical equipment as well as increasing responsibility within a team. For roles that have both technical and managerial aspects, look into smaller film and music video productions.

Get work experience

Write to local production companies and ask if they offer technical assistant roles. Keep an eye out for work experience opportunities at the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky and the PACT Indie Diversity Training Scheme.

Alternatively, try approaching a rental equipment company that supplies productions with the gear they need. This will enable you to get your hands on equipment, learn more about it and get to know people who work in TV.

Take a short course

If you are over 18, make a ScreenSkills account and check out ScreenSkills’ Training and opportunities page and click on Training to see what courses are available, whether they are in person or online. The training doesn’t have to be linked directly to broadcast engineering; for example, a short course on developing resilience would help you understand how to thrive in challenging circumstances.

Network

Get to know people in the film and TV industry by attending events such as ScreenSkills’ Open Doors. Go to Training and opportunities and use the events filter to find out what’s on. Meet professionals and ask them questions about their work, while demonstrating interest in and knowledge of the industry. Offer to provide them with your professional contact details and try to stay in touch with them. Go to Network well to learn how to do this.

Network online

Create a LinkedIn profile. See if there are Facebook pages or other social media groups for people making film and TV in your area. Create a ScreenSkills profile. There are a lot of crewing agencies that will charge you to be on their books. Sign up to the free ones initially. Wales Screen, Northern Ireland Screen and Filming in England offer free crew databases and opportunities to network in person. Find a film office near you and get connected. If you do sign up to paid sites, make sure they specialise in the areas in which you’re interested.

Search for jobs

Search for jobs on the broadcasters’ websites as well as on LinkedIn and other job-hunting websites. Make use of the ScreenSkills jobs board. You can also send a short speculative letter with your CV to technical managers or vision supervisors.

You might also be interested in...

Being a design engineer, project director or systems architect.

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