The posting
Photo Production Manager — Sports & Trading Cards
Pulse Trading Cards Location: Remote — United States Employment Type: Full-time Travel: Occasional travel for athlete photo shoots and events
About Pulse Trading Cards
Pulse Trading Cards creates sports, entertainment, and licensed trading card products for collectors. As our athlete roster, brand partnerships, and release calendar expand, we’re building the team and processes behind our next stage of growth.
We’re looking for a Photo Production Manager to own our photography pipeline—from finding the right images to coordinating athlete shoots and delivering approved files to our creative team.
About the Role
You’ll source photography from image companies, agencies, and independent photographers, secure appropriate usage rights, and build a reliable network of photography partners.
When new photography is needed, you’ll make it happen: find a local photographer, coordinate with the athlete and their representatives, develop the brief with our creative team, and manage the shoot through final delivery.
You’ll also organize opportunities to photograph multiple athletes at one location, particularly around tournaments, showcases, camps, signing events, and other gatherings where players are already present.
This is a hands-on role with ownership of sourcing, scheduling, budgets, outside partners, retouching coordination, and our image library. You’ll work closely with our creative, athlete partnerships, and product teams to ensure photography supports every release.
Key Responsibilities
Source and select photography
- Translate upcoming releases into clear image needs by athlete, subject, style, and deadline.
- Research and obtain images from photo agencies, image companies, photographer archives, athlete representatives, and other approved sources.
- Partner with the creative team to select images with strong composition, appropriate resolution, and suitability for trading card layouts.
- Identify missing imagery early and determine whether to source existing photography or commission a new shoot.
Coordinate athlete photo shoots
- Work with our athlete partnerships team, agents, and player representatives to arrange access and availability.
- Find, hire, and coordinate local photographers near athletes, reducing unnecessary travel and making sessions easier to schedule.
- Develop briefs and shot lists with the creative team, including portraits, action poses, expressions, and compositions suited to different card designs.
- Manage locations, schedules, wardrobe requirements, equipment needs, budgets, and deliverables.
- Confirm required agreements and permissions are in place and ensure images are delivered accurately and on time.
Organize multi-athlete sessions
- Identify events and gatherings where multiple athletes can be photographed efficiently.
- Coordinate with event organizers and athlete representatives to arrange authorized access, suitable space, and session times.
- Build schedules that accommodate player availability and keep sessions moving.
- Organize photographers, lighting, backdrops, staffing, and file-delivery requirements.
- Establish a consistent process for identifying each athlete’s files and checking that required shots are captured before the session ends.
Build photographer and image-provider relationships
- Develop a dependable network of photographers across key markets and sports.
- Build ongoing relationships with agencies and image companies to expand access to relevant photography.
- Maintain a roster of partners, including locations, specialties, rates, availability, and usage arrangements.
- Negotiate project scope, pricing, turnaround times, and deliverables within approved budgets.
Manage image rights and documentation
- Obtain and track usage permissions for photography used in our cards and supporting creative projects.
- Confirm that agreements cover intended uses and document restrictions, credit requirements, expiration dates, and reporting obligations.
- Maintain organized agreements and connect licensing records to the corresponding images.
- Flag unclear rights or additional permissions for leadership and legal review before production.
Oversee outsourced retouching
- Prepare source files and clear briefs for our external retouching partners.
- Set priorities, communicate deadlines, consolidate feedback, and manage revisions.
- Review returned assets for completeness, image quality, and alignment with creative and technical requirements.
- Coordinate final approvals and deliver production-ready files to the design team.
Maintain our image library and production workflow
- Establish consistent file naming, athlete identification, metadata, folder structures, and version control.
- Keep original images, working files, approved assets, and associated rights records organized and searchable.
- Track image usage across products and prepare required reports for photographers and licensing partners.
- Maintain visibility into deadlines, costs, missing images, and outstanding approvals.
- Identify and resolve delays before they affect design or production schedules.
Qualifications
- Relevant experience in photo production, photo research or editing, art buying, image acquisition, or a related creative-production role.
- Experience working directly with photographers, photo agencies, or other image providers.
- Experience coordinating photo shoots, including schedules, briefs, vendors, budgets, and deliverables.
- Practical understanding of photography usage rights and the documentation needed to manage them.
- Strong visual judgment, including the ability to assess composition, resolution, image quality, and crop flexibility.
- Familiarity with retouching and post-production workflows.
- Confidence negotiating fees, communicating expectations, and following through with outside partners.
- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail across multiple simultaneous projects.
- Comfort using spreadsheets, project-management tools, and digital asset libraries.
- Ability to work independently in a remote environment and maintain regular collaboration with our New Jersey-based team.
- Willingness to travel occasionally and accommodate selected evening or weekend shoots and events.
Advanced hands-on photography or retouching skills are not required. This role is responsible for organizing and managing the work through completion.
Preferred Experience
- Sports photography, sports media, trading cards, collectibles, or athlete-focused content.
- An established network of photographers or image-agency contacts.
- Experience coordinating athletes, agents, or other talent.
- Experience organizing sessions involving multiple athletes or subjects.
- Familiarity with print production or photography for licensed consumer products.
We welcome candidates from publishing, advertising, entertainment, and other creative industries who bring relevant experience and an interest in the trading card business.
What Success Looks Like
- Our creative team receives compelling, approved imagery on schedule.
- Athlete shoots are well organized and produce a useful variety of images.
- Multi-athlete sessions make efficient use of access, time, and budget.
- Usage rights are documented and easy to verify.
- Our image library is accurate, searchable, and easy for the team to use.
- Photography keeps pace with our growing release calendar.
Requirements
Requirements
- 3+ years of relevant experience in photo production, photo research, photo editing, art buying, or creative production.
- Experience sourcing photography from agencies, image companies, independent photographers, or other professional sources.
- Experience coordinating photo shoots, including booking photographers, scheduling talent, preparing briefs and shot lists, managing budgets, and tracking deliverables.
- Practical understanding of photography licensing and usage rights, including documenting permissions and restrictions.
- Strong visual judgment, with the ability to assess image quality, composition, resolution, and suitability for trading card layouts.
- Familiarity with retouching and post-production workflows, including briefing external partners, consolidating feedback, and reviewing final files.
- Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail, with experience maintaining image libraries, file naming standards, metadata, and version control.
- Strong communication and negotiation skills, with the confidence to manage photographers, agencies, athlete representatives, and other outside partners.
- Proficiency with spreadsheets, project-management tools, and digital asset-management platforms.
- Ability to work independently in a remote environment, manage multiple deadlines, and collaborate regularly with our New Jersey-based team.
- Willingness to travel occasionally for athlete shoots and events, including selected evenings or weekends.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in sports photography, sports media, trading cards, collectibles, or licensed consumer products.
- An established network of photographers, photo agencies, or image providers.
- Experience coordinating athletes or other talent and organizing multi-person photo sessions at events.
- Familiarity with preparing images for print production.
Advanced hands-on photography or retouching skills are not required. We welcome candidates from publishing, advertising, entertainment, and other creative industries with relevant experience.
Benefits
Benefits
- Remote work
- Competitive compensation
- Ownership and impact
- Unique projects
- Travel opportunities
- Professional growth
- Direct collaboration
- PTO
- Healthcare
