Product & Partnership Leader

Tim
Schaeffer.

15+ years building strategic operator partnerships across EMEA. Driving the integrations between the world's biggest streaming and telecom brands — at scale, at C-level, and from the ground up.

Tim Schaeffer
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Years in Streaming & EMEA Partnerships
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People led across direct & extended orgs
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Stage audience reached across EMEA

Partnership leader.
Product thinker.

I build and scale the kind of partnerships that look impossible on paper — where streaming meets telecom, where product and commercial need to move together, and where trust at SVP and CTO level is earned, not granted.

At Netflix, I own EMEA's most commercially significant operator relationships across DACH: Deutsche Telekom, Sky Germany, Vodafone, Swisscom, and others. I've launched global-first product pilots — the first-ever partner STB signup flow, first-of-its-kind Promo API experiments — while building the cross-functional coalitions that make those things actually ship.

Before Netflix: Senior TPM at Amazon (Alexa AI, Fire TV Europe), Head of OTT at Maxdome (ProSiebenSat.1) with end-to-end responsibility and direct leadership of the entire staff, and Smart TV portal lead at NetRange. Fifteen years across every layer of the streaming ecosystem.

Strategic Partnerships

15+ years across Telco, OTT, CE, and payment integration ecosystems. From distribution deals to product co-design with CPO and CTO-level executives across EMEA.

Product & Innovation

Led global-first product pilots at Netflix. Senior TPM at Amazon across Alexa AI (NLU) and Fire TV Europe. Hands-on with the full build-deploy-measure loop.

People Leadership

Proven people manager with full hire/fire/promote experience — 15+ direct reports, cross-functional teams of 50+. Lifelong commitment to developing others.

Change & Complexity

Drives bold agendas through influence and coalition-building — novel legal frameworks, organizational change, AI-powered tooling — without relying on authority or escalation.

Career across

Netflix
Amazon
maxdome
ProSiebenSat.1
NetRange

Managing Netflix's key relationships at

Deutsche Telekom
Sky
Vodafone
Swisscom
Sunrise
O2 Telefonica
Waipu.tv

The career arc.

From Smart TV portals to global streaming negotiations.

Apr 2023 – Present
Sr. Manager of Partner Engagement — DACH
Netflix · Berlin
  • Strategic owner of Netflix's most commercially significant DACH operator relationships — Deutsche Telekom, Sky Germany, Vodafone, Swisscom, and others
  • Launched global-first product pilots including the first-ever partner STB signup flow and first-of-its-kind Promo API experiment series
  • Led high-stakes commercial negotiations at VP and SVP level across multiple EMEA markets
  • Built EMEA's first scalable Data Clean Room — novel legal, privacy, and technical framework from the ground up
Aug 2022 – Mar 2023
Sr. Technical Product Manager — Alexa AI, NLU
Amazon · Berlin
  • Led product delivery for Amazon's Berlin AI site — ML and NLU models powering Alexa across 5 major locales
  • Single Threaded Leader for global AI tooling projects; led a global language accuracy improvement initiative
2021 – 2022 · Career Break
🚐
Intentional reset
Converted a van into a mobile home. Traveled 17 European countries with my wife, then 2 months in Latin America — an intentional reset between chapters.
Feb 2020 – May 2021
Sr. Technical Product Manager — Fire TV Edition
Amazon · Munich & Berlin
  • Led integration of Amazon's Fire TV OS onto CE manufacturer platforms across Europe — Vestel, Grundig/Arcelik, and others
  • Negotiated with senior execs at major CE manufacturers to embed Fire TV Edition across EU markets
Oct 2017 – Jan 2020
EU Product Lead — Alexa Smart Home
Amazon · Munich
  • Owned the Alexa Smart Home product across 5 European locales (DE, IT, ES, FR, UK)
  • Launched Alexa Smart Home in Italy and Spain — defined scope, led cross-functional execution and go-to-market with teams of 50+
Sep 2014 – Sep 2017
Head of OTT — maxdome
ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE · Munich
  • Led the OTT department with full personnel authority — 15+ direct reports
  • Owned strategic distribution across all major CE platforms and operator partners including Vodafone, Horizon, and TeleColumbus
Feb 2012 – Sep 2014
Head of Portal Operations — Smart TV
NetRange GmbH · Hamburg
  • Reported directly to CEO; led a team of 5 PMs delivering Smart TV portal solutions for TCL, Changhong, Vestel, JVC, Pioneer, and others

360° feedback.

"Tim you are a stunning colleague and very valued member of our Partnerships team. Team DACH is on a great path to meet our ambitions for 2025 and beyond — and your contribution has been critical."
Emma Lloyd
VP EMEA Partnerships · Netflix
"You have become an indispensable member of our group. Your relationship-building skills, excellent judgement, and collaborative approach continue to make a huge difference for our team."
Sebastian Bauer
Senior Manager Marketing Partnerships DACH · Netflix
"You're a role model when it comes to selflessness. Always prioritising what's best for Netflix, supporting others in succeeding — humble and ready to pick up the work, even outside your responsibility."
Rene Rummel-Mergeryan
Director BD, DACH/CEE/Nordics · Netflix
Tim Schaeffer keynote at Vodafone Sales Conference

Speaking at the intersection of streaming, telco, and product.

From industry symposia to 1,700-person sales conferences — translating complex partnership strategy into clear, compelling narratives for senior audiences.

Tim Schaeffer at Vodafone Sales Conference
June 2026 · Düsseldorf
Vodafone Sales Conference
Keynote speaker representing Netflix to an audience of 1,700 Vodafone sales professionals. Presented Netflix's partner integration value proposition at scale.
Tim Schaeffer at Fraunhofer FOKUS Media Web Symposium
June 2025 · Berlin
12th FOKUS Media Web Symposium
Presented on personalized recommendations in the partner UI — Netflix's approach to delivering value through operator-embedded streaming experiences.

The intentional reset.

In 2021, between Amazon and Netflix, I did something most people talk about and few actually do — I converted a van into a mobile home and spent a year on the road with my wife, crossing 17 European countries and two months in Latin America.

It wasn't a sabbatical. It was a deliberate choice to create space, build something with my hands, and see what clarity comes when the calendar is empty. The answer: a lot of it.

I came back with a clearer sense of what kind of work I want to do, who I want to do it with, and how to stay calm when things get complicated — which, in EMEA operator partnerships, is often.

Say hello.

Always open to a good conversation — partnerships, streaming ecosystem, or what's happening in EMEA.