diff --git a/apps/media-worker/src/produce.ts b/apps/media-worker/src/produce.ts
index aa3b053..94ab253 100644
--- a/apps/media-worker/src/produce.ts
+++ b/apps/media-worker/src/produce.ts
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
  * Everything else is env parity with the API's storage (S3_ENDPOINT/S3_ACCESS_KEY/
  * S3_SECRET_KEY/S3_BUCKET/S3_KEK) and DATABASE_URL for the job tables.
  */
+import { mkdirSync } from "node:fs";
 import pino from "pino";
 import { Pool as PgPool } from "pg";
 import { laneFromEnv, resolveProduceFont } from "./env";
@@ -24,12 +25,14 @@ const logger = pino({ level: process.env.LOG_LEVEL ?? "info" });
 export async function startProduceWorker(): Promise<{ runner: ProduceRunner; pool: PgPool }> {
   const lane = laneFromEnv(process.env.MEDIA_WORKER_LANE);
   const fontFile = resolveProduceFont(process.env.MEDIA_PRODUCE_FONT);
+  const scratchRoot = process.env.MEDIA_SCRATCH_DIR ?? "/var/tmp/media-worker/produce";
+  mkdirSync(scratchRoot, { recursive: true });
   const pool = new PgPool({ connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL });
   const runner = new ProduceRunner({
     jobs: new PostgresProduceJobStore(pool),
     storage: new WorkerS3Storage(workerStorageConfigFromEnv()),
     fontFile,
-    scratchRoot: process.env.MEDIA_SCRATCH_DIR ?? "/var/tmp/media-worker/produce",
+    scratchRoot,
     lane,
     redactor: { redact: () => "[produce stderr redacted]" },
     onStderr: (message) => logger.warn({ message }, "ffmpeg stderr"),