Noah Schwartz

Hi, I'm Noah

I'm a digital video product manager focused on OTT and CTV apps, content workflows, and the operational systems behind streaming video. My background spans motion graphics, post-production, file-based delivery operations, content moderation, and the OTT product work I do today. I tend to look at products from both sides: the viewer experience and the workflows that make it possible.

I like working in the messy middle of media technology, where content, platforms, vendors, support teams, and real people all have to come together. That's usually where the hardest product questions live, and where small decisions have the biggest impact.

The through-line

I've been into digital video since high school. A film class sophomore year hooked me, a teacher pushed me to keep going, and I got a Final Cut Pro certificate the summer after. In college I discovered motion graphics, did the internship version of it junior to senior year, and started doing the real-job version at MTV the year I graduated.

Since 2007 I've been working on the user-facing side of video and the operational systems behind it. My first job in college was moderating user-generated videos on Comcast's Ziddio platform. Fifteen years later, I was running the global content review pipeline at Firework. In between I did motion graphics at MTV, post-production and digital delivery at Deluxe and Adstream, the Journy AVOD launch at Ovation, and a Senior Manager role on the international OTT product operations team at Tennis Channel.

By the time I was at Firework, I was already doing product work without calling it that. Writing requirements, drawing diagrams, animating workflows, partnering with the CMS PM on the features customers were asking for. That work led me here. I'm now a Product Manager on the digital video team at Nexstar, working on the CTV apps across 100+ owned and operated stations, the NewsNation app, and the operational systems behind them. First role where the title finally matched the work.

The arc is creative, then operations, then product. But I've never fully left any of those layers behind. I still write requirements, still review builds, still draw the diagrams. The diagram is often the deliverable.

Career timeline

1. Aug 2023 to present · Remote, LA Metro

   Product Manager, Digital Video

   Nexstar Media Group

   Front-end product on Nexstar's CTV apps and the TVE work on NewsNation. In 2025 I led and supported a rollout of 108 station CTV app launches across Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Samsung. I work on player and playback UX, navigation and discovery, multi-livestream experiences, EPG-based features, authentication, station onboarding, and the documentation that makes all of it supportable.

2. Mar 2022 to May 2023 · Remote, San Mateo

   Content Operations Manager

   Firework

   Silicon Valley short-form video startup. Fast-moving, always changing, new customer needs every week. Led content operations end to end and built the moderation pipeline that combined AI scoring with country-specific manual review buckets. Partnered closely with the CMS PM on the features customers were asking for, and ended up writing requirements, drawing diagrams, animating workflows, and building internal tools to monitor content and empower customers to do more on their own. Without realizing it at the time, I'd been doing product work for years. Firework was where I started owning it as the thing.

3. Sep 2019 to Mar 2022 · Hybrid, Santa Monica

   Sr. Manager, OTT Product Operations

   Tennis Channel

   Joined to stand up Tennis Channel International from nothing. Phase one was sourcing the content: ran a major digitization project, dozens of editors, the same Telestream toolchain from Deluxe, and a metadata + filename convention that made downstream automation possible. Phase two was the pivot. The pandemic hit mid-project, so a VOD-heavy library plan became live pandemic tennis on a fully remote team. Worked closely with SportRadar on the app design and feature set, and helped shape the visual design with our designer on top of the Sportradar template. Still the product I'm most proud of having had a hand in. Became a power user of the Amagi stack standing up the first live sports offering on Samsung TV+. T2, the domestic FAST channel built on the non-linear tennis library, came out of the same effort. This is the job where the product work really started.

4. Jul 2017 to Aug 2019 · On-site, Marina del Rey

   Digital Content Manager

   Ovation TV

   Helped launch Journy, Ovation's AVOD app, across Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, mobile, and FAST partners including Xumo, Plex, VEWD, and Samsung TV+. We were one of the first independent channels live on FAST, which meant a lot of the playbook got written in real time: working with CTV app vendors on the app, working with CMS vendors on scheduling features, and standing up a centralized backup and syndication system for our content library. Owned the digital asset workflow: CatDV and Akomi for the DAM side, a producer-editor (Preditor) SOP on the creative side, and the multi-destination publishing pipeline that fed YouTube, the social platforms, and OTT. Standardized the workflow and requirements for content creators, including the YouTubers whose footage we acquired. Mentored by Elba Flamenco, who later referred me to Nexstar.

5. Jun 2012 to Jun 2017 · On-site, Burbank

   Sr. Digital Media Manager · Deluxe → Adstream

   Continuous role through the Adstream acquisition of Deluxe's AdServices division in 2016

   Joined when the operation was almost entirely tape-based and stations were just starting to ask for digital deliveries. The shop had no CMS, DAM, or MAM, so part of the work was researching what those systems were supposed to do and standing one up. Built automated transcoding workflows in Telestream that turned a manual dub-and-ship operation into one that could scale across formats, codecs, and destinations. Designed and ran the workflows that processed, QCed, captioned, watermarked, and transcoded ads for domestic and international broadcast and web. Eventually transferred to LA to stand the same model up on the West Coast. The file-based delivery transition we shaped is part of what led to our division being acquired.

6. Oct 2009 to Jun 2012 · On-site, Upper West Side NYC

   Creative

   Apple

   One-on-one creative training for customers on Final Cut Pro, Aperture, iMovie, iPhoto, and GarageBand. Was on the team that opened the Upper West Side store. Half teaching, half product support, all on top of the day-to-day rhythm of an Apple Store. Started as a part-time gig for the insurance after the MTV layoff. Stuck around for almost three years.

7. May 2007 to Dec 2008 · On-site, NYC

   Motion Graphic Designer / Video Editor

   MTV Networks / Viacom

   Titles, intros, lower thirds, and motion packages for a variety of MTV shows. First real media job after college. Got the layoff slip the week before Christmas in '08 when Viacom thinned the ranks during the recession. Did freelance video work for a while after.

8. Mar 2007 to Sep 2007 · Remote, Philadelphia

   Video Moderator

   Comcast · Ziddio

   Part-time while finishing college. Moderated user-generated videos on the Ziddio platform, picked standout clips for online and TV features, and contributed to the production of "Facebook Diaries." First UGC moderation experience. The same kind of work I'd do at scale 15 years later at Firework.

How I think about product

A digital video product looks simple when it works. Behind that simplicity is a CMS, a feed, metadata, an auth layer, analytics, support documentation, and a content team trying to publish on a deadline. My job is usually to bring clarity across all of that. Turn complicated workflows into something teams can actually use. Make sure the viewer never has to think about any of it.

Education

BFA in Multimedia from the University of the Arts (Philadelphia, 2004 to 2008). Certificate in Advanced Digital Editing from the New York Film Academy (2003 to 2004). Final Cut Pro certified through Apple.

A bit about me

Outside of work, I'm a girl dad to two amazing daughters and married to my favorite human. We live in the South Bay of Los Angeles, soaking up the beachy vibes, chasing sunshine, and sweeping sand out of the car.

Most weekends, you'll find me coaching youth sports, playing pickup, or trying to teach my kids how to hit a backhand. I'm into pretty much every sport with a ball: tennis, pickleball, ping pong, basketball, baseball, and golf are all in the rotation. I'm a diehard Knicks and Mets fan, which means I'm no stranger to heartbreak but forever loyal.

Let's connect

Want to talk digital video products, OTT and CTV apps, media workflows, or some weird media tech problem that needs untangling? Send me a note.