The Director of the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia heads the agency and manages its affairs. He is elected by the Media Commission for a term of six years. He represents the Media Authority in and out of court, and his duties also include preparing and implementing the decisions of the Media Commission.

The Director of the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia is Dr. Tobias Schmid. He is also the European representative of the Directors' Conference of the Media Authorities (DLM) and the representative for the Digital Services Act (DDG).

Since April 2025, he has headed the working group Evolution of the Media Regulatory Framework of the European Board for Media Services (Media Board), the association of national media regulatory authorities in Europe. In this capacity, he is also a member of the Executive Board. From January 2020 to December 2021, he was Chair of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA), the predecessor of the current Media Board.

Since April 1, 2021, he has also been a member of the Expert Committee for Communication and Information of the German UNESCO Commission, and since September 2022, he has been Chair of the Federal Expert Committee for Media in the German Music Council.

Tobias Schmid was re-elected as director in 2022 and has been serving his second term since January 1, 2023. His deputy is Dr. Petra Gerlach, head of the Media Policy and Innovation Department at the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Until December 2016, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Brautmeier was Director of the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia. He succeeded Prof. Dr. Norbert Schneider, who was Director until September 2010. Prof. Schneider's predecessor – as the first Director of the then State Broadcasting Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia – was Klaus Schütz.