Job Description

Distant Moon — Senior Producer | Leesburg, VA

Full-Time | Travel Required

Distant Moon is seeking a Senior Producer to lead meaningful filmmaking projects and develop the people who bring them to life. Our work spans documentary, commercial, educational, and narrative filmmaking, often exploring questions of culture, history, meaning, and human flourishing.

As we pursue larger and more complex productions, you will bring the experience and judgment to help us take that next step. You will lead projects from pre-production through filming and handoff to post, partner closely with directors and clients, and mentor our production team.

This is an opportunity to stay close to filmmaking while helping shape how a growing studio plans, staffs, and executes its work. We're looking for an experienced producer who enjoys the challenge of a demanding shoot, takes pride in developing others, and brings practical insight from a range of professional productions.

What You'll Do

• Bring creative vision into production. Partner with directors and clients to translate project goals into practical plans, guiding productions through pre-production, filming, wrap, and a coordinated handoff to post-production.
• Manage budgets and protect project margins. Build and own budgets for assigned productions, review budgets managed by other producers, and oversee spending forecasts and expense reconciliation. Work with production leadership to address cost changes, financial risks, and scope adjustments.
• Assemble the right people and resources. Oversee crew hiring, location scouting, equipment sourcing, travel, and scheduling so each production has the resources and preparation it needs.
• Lead with confidence on set. Anticipate needs, coordinate with directors and department leads, delegate effectively, and resolve problems in real time while maintaining a calm, safe, and professional production environment.
• Develop the production team. Manage and mentor producers, our gear specialist, and future production support staff through weekly check-ins, quarterly reviews, clear expectations, regular feedback, and performance accountability.
• Lead the client production experience. Set expectations, communicate tradeoffs, and navigate changes with professionalism and care, building trust with clients, collaborators, and talent.
• Keep projects and people aligned. Partner with production leadership to assign projects, balance workloads, and maintain weekly scorecards tracking budgets, margins, producer capacity, and emerging risks.
• Strengthen production practices and project wrap. Improve workflows, documentation, and production tracking; coordinate with finance, legal, and post-production to complete financial and contractual obligations and ensure thorough handoffs.

What We're Looking For

• Substantial professional producing experience, typically gained over 10+ years, with extensive on-set responsibility. We welcome candidates with fewer years who demonstrate comparable production leadership, project complexity, and team management experience.
• A strong documentary, narrative or high-end commercial background, experience across multiple production formats, and demonstrated success handling larger or more complex productions.
• Proven ability to create and manage production budgets, forecast costs, track and reconcile expenses, and protect project profitability across multiple concurrent productions.
• Working knowledge of professional production logistics, including crew roles and rates, locations, equipment, scheduling, production insurance, and project wrap requirements.
• Confident on-set judgment and problem-solving skills, with the ability to anticipate needs, coordinate departments, and make timely decisions as conditions change.
• Strong client-facing communication and professional discretion when working with directors, crew, clients, and high-profile talent.
• A self-directed, collaborative approach with strong follow-through and proficiency in production budgeting and project management tools such as Wrapbook, Teamwork, or comparable platforms.

Bonus Experience

• Experience managing and mentoring producers or production staff, with the ability to delegate, balance workloads, provide constructive feedback, and help others take on greater responsibility.
• Narrative production experience, especially feature films, or high-end commercial production experience.
• Experience working with union rates, SAG-AFTRA requirements, and related negotiations.
• Creative producing experience, including pitch decks, concept development, and collaboration with directors on scripts.
• Current relationships with freelance crew, established directors, production companies, agencies, and post houses

About Distant Moon

Distant Moon creates films and media designed to move audiences, challenge ideas, and engage deeper questions about culture, meaning, and human flourishing. Our work spans documentary, commercial, educational, and narrative storytelling across a wide range of mission-driven clients and partners.

Many of our projects involve values-driven subject matter and require thoughtful storytelling, strong creative judgment, and editorial sensitivity. We value people who work collaboratively, communicate well, and take pride in producing polished, emotionally grounded work.

Work Environment

Distant Moon operates from a purpose-built creative studio in Leesburg, Virginia designed specifically for filmmakers, editors, and storytellers. Our workspace was intentionally built to support collaboration, focused editorial work, production planning, and creative development across all stages of filmmaking.

This role combines production planning, team management, and hands-on work on location. Travel is required and is estimated at approximately 40% of the role, with significant variation by project and season.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.

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