PBS

PBS is America’s largest classroom, the nation’s largest stage for the arts and a trusted window to the world. PBS’ employees reflect our diverse audiences and are committed to PBS’ mission of creating content to educate, inform and inspire.

PBS offers employment opportunities in a variety of disciplines including communications, creative services, programming, interactive services, information technology, development, engineering, accounting and many other areas.

All positions are at PBS headquarters in the Washington, D.C. area unless otherwise noted.

PBS is America’s largest classroom, the nation’s largest stage for the arts and a trusted window to the world. 

America’s Largest Classroom

As America’s largest classroom, PBS is available to all of America’s children – including those who can’t attend preschool – and offers educational media that help prepare children for success in school. PBS is the No. 1 source of media content for preschool teachers and a leading place parents turn to for preschool video online, withcontent proven to improve critical literacy skills in young children. 

America’s Largest Stage

At a time when funding for music and arts within our schools is being cut, PBS is helping to keep the arts alive today and for generations to come by ensuring the worlds of music, theater, dance and art remain available to all Americans, many of whom might never have had the opportunity to experience them otherwise. During the 2011-'12 season, PBS offered more than 500 hours of arts and cultural programming, which was watched by nearly 117 million people. 

A Trusted Window to the World

 PBS offers programming for a wide range of ages, interests and genres. Each month, nearly 120 million people through television and over 29 million people online explore the worlds of science, history, culture, great literature and public affairs through PBS’ trusted content. 

Why work for PBS? Here's what some of our employees have to say about why PBS is a great place to work.

1. “We truly utilize the power of the television medium to educate and inform. Television is unique in its ability to present culture, diversity and difficult concepts and PBS works hard to offer the best programming that does the most good.” – Karen Neckyfarow, Assistant Director of Program Underwriting Policy

2. “The staff here makes a difference.” – Donald Thoms, Vice President, Programming, General Audience

3. “It resonates with everyone. I’m amazed at the wide smiles I get when I tell people I work at PBS. PBS is something special.” – Keith Brengle, Director of Online Giving

4. “We take great pride in our audience and users and treat them with class, striving to give them the kind of story and characters they deserve.” – Brad Pettingell, Assistant Director for Kids Programming

Benefits at PBS

PBS offers competitive salaries. As an employee-oriented company, PBS also offers an outstanding benefits package. Highlights include:

- Comprehensive medical, dental, life and disability insurance;
- An immediately vested retirement plan to which PBS contributes 8% of your salary (after a one-year waiting period);
- A generous holiday and paid leave program;
- Educational benefits, including tuition reimbursement ;
- In-house training geared to help your professional development;
- A wellness program that includes health fairs and seminars, blood drives and other activities, as well as discounted use of a nearby state-of-the-art gym facilities

PBS is a consistent leader in television’s most prestigious competitions. Some of the major awards and nominations PBS has received in the 2012-2013 awards year include: 

12 Daytime Emmy Awards (39th Annual), including eight for SESAME STREET, two for THE ELECTRIC COMPANY, one for WORDGIRL and one for DESIGN SQUAD, in the New Approaches – Daytime Children’s  category – a sign of PBS’s continuing drive towards innovation.

12 Primetime Emmy Awards (64th Annual), including four for MASTERPIECE CLASSIC "Great Expectations," three for MASTERPIECE CLASSIC "Downton Abbey," and one each for MASTERPIECE CONTEMPORARY "Page Eight," GREAT PERFORMANCES "Memphis," PROHIBITION, INDEPENDENT LENS "Have You Heard from Johannesburg," and SESAME STREET: GROWING HOPE AGAINST HUNGER.

9 News & Documentary Emmy Awards (33rd Annual), more than any other organization. This includes five awards for POV, two for FRONTLINE and one each for INDEPENDENT LENS "The Woodmans" and NATURE "My Life as a Turkey."

7 George Foster Peabody Awards (71st Annual), more than any other organization, for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, POV "My Perestroika," POV "StoryCorps 9/11," INDEPENDENT LENS "Bhutto," AMERICAN MASTERS "Charles and Ray Eames - The Architect and the Painter," AUSTIN CITY LIMITS and NOVA "Surviving the Tsunami."

1 Golden Globe Award (70th Annual) for MASTERPIECE CLASSIC "Downton Abbey" star Maggie Smith.

2 Academy Award nominations (85th Annual) for INDEPENDENT LENS “The Invisible War” and POV "5 Broken Cameras."

4 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards (2013) for INDEPENDENT LENS "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," POV "StoryCorps 9/11," and FRONTLINE's "The Interrupters" and "Opium Brides."

1 Television Critics Association Award (2012) for MASTERPIECE CLASSIC "Downton Abbey, Season 2."

2 IDA Documentary Awards (2012) for AMERICAN MASTERS and INDEPENDENT LENS "The Island President."

3 Writers Guild of America Awards (2013), for FRONTLINE “Money, Power and Wall Street”, SESAME STREET “The Good Sport” and NOVA “The Fabric of the Cosmos: The Illusion of Time."

1 Screen Actors Guild Award (19th Annual) for the cast of MASTERPIECE CLASSIC "Downton Abbey."

2 Arqiva British Academy Television Awards from BAFTA (2012) for Steven Moffat and Andrew Scott for MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! "Sherlock."

2 Producers Guild Awards (24th Annual) for AMERICAN MASTERS and SESAME STREET.

1 American Society of Cinematographers Award nomination (27th Annual) for MASTERPIECE CLASSIC "Great Expectations."

1 Sundance Film Festival Awards (2013), for POV "American Promise."

2 Wildscreen Panda Awards (2012), including the top honor, the WWF Golden Panda Award, for NATURE "My Life as a Turkey."

4 Jackson Hole Science Media Awards (2012), including two for NOVA "The Fabric of the Cosmos," and one each for NOVA "Separating Twins" and BONES OF TURKANA.

4 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations (2013), including one each for THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE and INDEPENDENT LENS "The Invisible War" and two for INDEPENDENT LENS "The Waiting Room."

6 Gracie Awards (2012) for the PBS system, including awards for WORDGIRL and WOMEN, WAR & PEACE.

3 Imagen Awards (2012) for FRONTLINE "Lost in Detention", GREAT PERFORMANCES "Il Postino From LA Opera" and NOAH COMPRENDE.

18 Parents’ Choice Awards (2012); 8 Parents' Choice Awards for Television, including gold awards for THE ELECTRIC COMPANY, SID THE SCIENCE KID and SESAME STREET; 3 Parents' Choice Awards for Small Screen, including awards for THE ELECTRIC COMPANY and CURIOUS GEORGE.

3 Webby Awards (16th Annual), including two for SESAME STREET and one for RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY. In total, PBS producers received nine nominations; an additional 10 honorees from PBS and PBS producers were also selected.

6 Kidscreen Awards (2013), including PBS KIDS being nominated for Channel of the Year and Best Channel Website.

In the Q&A below, get to know more about PBS'er Chris Bishop. Chris has been Creative Director at PBS KIDS since 2000. He led the charge for the recent relaunch of PBSKIDS.org and is the mastermind behind the all-new PBS KIDS brand designs. Outside of the office, Chris is an accomplished artist and illustrator. 

Q. You’ve been with PBS for 13 years. Tell us about a few professional highlights at the organization, and why are they memorable to you?
 
The biggest highlight has to be the new PBS KIDS brand redesign. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to pitch a concept and very proud to have had it rise to the top in a competitive field of very good external firms. I enjoyed working with our internal team to refine the concept – those are some smart people.
 
Aside from that, I've done a lot of random, fun things over the years… I went to Pittsburgh to direct a photo shoot with Mister McFeely. I spoke with Fred Rogers on the phone once when I was working on a game for his site. I shook hands with George Costanza in the elevator. I high-fived Mr. Carson. I touched Telly's nose. I built Crystal City out of cardboard for the company holiday party. I talked snakes with Martin Kratt over beers. I talked caterpillars with Eric Carle. I knocked an ornament off of Jim Lehrer's Christmas tree and helped Judy Woodruff sweep it up.
 
I think one really interesting thing we've done was going to a tiny house in rural Indiana to watch one child interact with our website and take notes. You get the best ideas from watching kids play with the website in person.

Q. Tell us about the new PBS KIDS brand package. What was your thought process behind the changes?
 
The idea was to design the next step for the PBS KIDS brand while not scrapping everything completely for a new direction with no ties to the previous brand. We wanted it to feel like PBS KIDS had evolved but was still familiar.
 
To help the brand appeal to kids all the way up to eight, we made the character Dot a little older and put her in the guide-type roll her brother Dash used to be in. Now SHE leads her new twin younger brother and sister in exploring and adventuring. The gang is no longer limited to backyards and bedrooms – they can shrink down and explore under the couch, they can go into space, they can even climb up a volcano to grill hot dogs.

For design elements, we went with a vibrant palette of magenta, turquoise, yellow, blue and green as well as flat areas of color and line drawing. It has a contemporary feel and allows the exact same visuals to cross over from TV to web to print without having to simplify them for any medium.
 
Q. What are the biggest changes to the new PBSKIDS.org?
 
PBSKIDS.org is no longer built in Flash so the site will now work on phones and tablets. Additionally, the site is built responsively so it will resize and change layout to adapt to the device it's being viewed on - a phone, a tablet, a desktop, a tv or something that ha
been invented yet. Also you will notice we've substantially increased our video size so that it's practically a full-screen experience.
 
The biggest thing that hasn't changed is the show wheel on the homepage. We found in testing that the wheel is a fun and effective way for kids to find their favorite show. In user testing, we showed one girl a prototype of the site without the wheel and she refused to believe it was PBS KIDS! She typed in pbskids.org and showed us the wheel on the previous site and told us THIS was PBS KIDS. So, yeah, after that we had to keep it.

Q. Who would you say has had the biggest influence on your career in design, and why?
 
My old boss Dan Willis really opened my eyes to user experience and putting the user's needs first over everything. Otherwise, I don't really follow design much. I think Nintendo has been a big influence on me over the years. The are constantly re-inventing how they make games and ignoring how everyone else is doing things. That’s what I strive for when I design stuff for kids.
 
Q. Where did you grow up? What do you like or miss most about your hometown?
 
I grew up in Syracuse, NY. My favorite thing about Syracuse is how crazy the whole city is about Syracuse University basketball. From birth, you are raised to be a fan and to *ahem* strongly dislike Georgetown. I also miss the snow but my mom says that's because I am remembering it fondly and not having to deal with it daily.