Senior Manager, Partnership Strategy and Insights

Description

U.S. Soccer Overview

We are U.S. Soccer, and we are the future of sport in the United States. Our mission is to make soccer the preeminent sport in the United States. We embrace diversity, technology and global connections to drive the growth of our sport and serve our athletes and fans. We seek motivated, passionate, skilled people who can think, create, and work on a team.

U.S. Soccer is a growing company that looks for team members to grow with it. U.S. Soccer offers a comprehensive compensation package, casual work environment, an inclusive culture, and an atmosphere for professional development.

The Federation’s core principles set organization-wide standards to identify and foster our culture and inform how we interact and hold each other accountable. These principles guide U.S. Soccer: We Win Together. We Aim High. We Champion Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. To be successful as a USSF employee, it is critical to demonstrate and live up to these principles every day and with every interaction with peers, stakeholders, and partners.

The Federation’s core values are the individual attributes and characteristics that staff embody to uphold the organization’s principles and succeed. These values guide our employees: Integrity. Commitment. Teamwork. Respect.

Position Description

The Partnership Strategy and Development team is a highly cross-functional, centralized team that focuses on supporting our Partnership Development department in driving new business efforts while also supporting our Partnership Marketing team in driving current partner retention and upsells. The department does this through 1) developing powerful storytelling sales materials that demonstrate U.S. Soccer’s value to the market; 2) identifying and developing new, innovative commercial platforms that can drive value; and 3) leveraging the power of insights and analytics to drive strategy for prospective and existing partners.

The team is seeking a Senior Manager, Partnership Strategy and Insights to join our industry-leading team and drive the growth of soccer in the United States through purpose-driven partnerships. Specifically, U.S. Soccer is looking for a bright, collaborative individual who can develop integrated commercial and marketing platforms to anchor large-scale national partnerships with blue-chip brands. The role will spearhead the development of go-to-market partnership strategies for prospective partners as well as support the Partnership Marketing team drive additional value for our current roster of corporate sponsors. The Senior Manager will play a prominent role in working across the organization (i.e., Marketing, Events, Sporting) on platform development and commercial packaging of new and priority sponsor platforms. The Senior Manager will also need to have experience and comfort leveraging consumer insights and data-driven analysis to 1) demonstrate U.S. Soccer’s value to the market/current partners and 2) drive decision-making on key commercial platforms to prioritize. Ideal candidates will be commercially-minded and play a key role in revenue generation through a combination of a creative and data-driven approach. This individual must have an innate sense of brand and consumer marketing and fit within a collaborative work environment that encourages ideas and contributions from all team members. The individual must be creative, highly organized, and able to work efficiently on multiple projects to meet deadlines. Strong candidates will have experience within sport and entertainment properties and thrive working collaboratively with multiple business stakeholders.

Primary Responsibilities

This individual will be a key contributor to the Partnerships team holistically and will be charged to:

• Provide direction and insight for partnership sales teams to execute against high value, multi-year partnerships
• Develop powerful sales narratives working in collaboration with Head of Insights and Visual Designer
• Work with Senior Director to shape partnership strategy, communication approach, and benchmark valuations for new and existing clients.
• Support sponsorship sales and renewal processes through the creation of insights-based proposals demonstrating partnership approach and value proposition
• Support Partnership Development and Partnership Marketing in delivery and presentation of priority enterprise new business, renewal, and upsell opportunities to clients
• Spearhead the asset development and management process, working closely with key internal stakeholders for alignment (i.e. Marketing, Events, Media, Sporting, etc.)
• Collaborate with key internal stakeholders, cross-functional team, external resources to develop new growth platforms – including identifying macro trends, scoping needs, developing strategic framework, creating implementation plans, timelines, deliverables, etc.
• Collaborate with content/marketing to ensure alignment between platforms and supporting media
• Spearhead creative working groups (weekly deal team meetings) to develop and value new assets, maintaining a balance across new business, upsells, and renewals
• Generate new, unique exposure opportunities and platforms for US Soccer prospects and partners sponsors in alignment with The Federation and brand priorities
• Learn and understand all phases of partnership prospect’s marketing objectives and present partner solutions recommendations consisting of ownable platforms, content ideas and thought-starters
• Drive platform development as a federation-wide priority and bring cross-functional stakeholders into the process for greater collaboration
• Build insight- and data-driven strategies to help partners drive revenue, fan growth, and organizational acceleration
• Support Senior Director in leading consistent meetings with internal stakeholders to review progress, provide updates and vet any partner requests
• Work with Consumer Insights and Partnership Development to develop pricing strategy for existing platforms and new sellable assets
• Manage all project elements including timelines and deliverables
• Support Federation-wide platform initiatives from a commercial standpoint
• Be a student of sports sponsorship programs and assets to be at the forefront of developing new sponsorship platforms
• Maintain strong understanding of federation KPIs to develop key strategies & initiatives to achieve long-term and annual goals.
• Support Partnership Development during the sales process (I.e., official proposal development)
• Ensure Partnership Development priorities are being met and considered during the annual federation strategic planning process
• Manage workflow and timelines of projects and communicate efficiently with internal teams.
• All other duties as assigned by the team.
  
  

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree
• 6-8 years’ experience in sports or partnership innovation roles (either with a property, an agency, or at a brand in a similar role)
• Significant experience in sponsorship, brand, or marketing strategy
• Comfort with consumer insights tools and data with an ability to connect insights to actions
• Familiarity with industry agencies and data/research providers (i.e., Wasserman, Nielsen Sports, Vision Insights, Blinkfire, etc.)
• Experience working in cross-functional environments with several stakeholders
• Capable of working in fast-paced and demanding environments
• Must be able to connect “micro” details to the “macro” vision and mission
• Proficient experience with Microsoft Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook)
  
  

Desired Qualifications

• Passion for soccer
• A proven innovation track record with strong industry and third-party relationships and alliances
• Demonstrated strategic hustle and work ethic with diversity of thought
• Proven track record of constructing sophisticated platforms and partner solutions
• Show innate curiosity, proactive thinking, and ability to think creatively when planning strategy, considering partner objectives and new growth processes
• Experience advising brands or rights holders on corporate sponsorship strategy, measurement analytics, and/or strategic decision-making
• Excellent presentation, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Experience in sports properties (team or league side)
• Experience working with multi-disciplinary teams and external agencies finding and having to connect insights to inform and optimize partnerships and campaigns
• Knowledge and expertise in the sports property, entertainment, or events space
• Proven track record of innovation experience, taking high level conceptual-creative ideas from inception to execution
• Familiarity with the media space inclusive of social and digital content strategy and distribution
• Ability to story-tell, collaborate to build presentation materials and present to senior level audiences
  
  

U.S. Soccer is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, citizenship, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, genetic information, military status, political belief, or any other characteristic protected under the law. This policy applies to all our employment practices within our organization.

We strongly encourage women, people of color, LGBTQIA, veterans, parents, and persons with disabilities to apply.