Senior Partnerships Manager - USA

About us 

At MatchWornShirt, we connect global fanbases to the ultimate fan item: match worn and signed shirts from the world’s biggest athletes and brands around the world. We accelerate engagement, interaction and revenue by enabling our customers to access pieces of sporting history, whilst raising funds for the causes that matter most to our partners. What’s more? We do it all live from kick-off.  

With more than 300 partners globally, we are the outright market leaders in our industry and are proud of the role that we play in encouraging consistent engagement between our network, fans  and customers. We see ourselves as innovators, both with the platform that we have created and the items that we feature on it – and we are constantly looking for new ways to surprise and delight our audience.  

We feature across many of the fundamental touchpoints within a footballing consumer journey and  enable our partners to achieve against a number of important metrics; commercial, local & global fan engagement, CSR, GDI and Club Foundation and Charity revenue. 

As our partnership model and network has evolved, we have been able to guarantee a significantly higher financial commitment to our partners, which has helped us to transition from a service  provider to a genuine partner for the clubs that we work with. This evolution has strengthened our  relationships across the board and enabled us to grow our business from within.  

This year we have expanded into the US market, with partnerships already secured with top tier NBA teams and high profile soccer teams and leagues. This is an exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of the growth and development of this incredibly promising market and lead the way to success in the region. 

The main focus for this role will be in nurturing and developing relationships with our US network of partners to ensure trust, positivity and profitability and delivering best-in-class partnership management at every level. Your focus will be on securing consistent commercial growth across our US partnership network. 

About the team 

The partnerships team consists of 18 people split between our offices in Amsterdam, Manchester, Istanbul, Sao Paulo, Melbourne and Dallas. 

Our team is an encapsulation of everything that MatchWornShirt is about and as such should be exemplary in the way that we work and manage stakeholders internally and externally. As Senior Partnerships Manager, you will be responsible for managing the current US partnerships, working closely with the Head of Partnerships. You will also work closely with other areas of the business (marketing / BD / tech / finance) to maximise performance. 

As our portfolio in the region grows there will be opportunity to hire and build your own team in the coming 12 months. 

About you 

For this role, you will directly report into the Head of Partnerships and will be a senior member of the company working closely with senior counterparts in other departments. 

Your roles and responsibilities include:

• Full end to end responsibility for developing our existing US partnerships

• Direct line management of the US partnership team members in the coming 12 months

• Working with the Head of Partnerships to develop and maintain a robust process and structure for the management of US partnerships 

• Identifying and executing opportunities within our US partnerships to maximise financial performance 

• Adding maximum value to our US partners by building trust and strengthening personal relationships 

• Identifying, engaging and developing relationships with stakeholders and brands within the wider relevant sporting landscape 

• Ensuring and enabling smooth cooperation between the US partnerships team and other teams within the company  

• Integration and development of new business concepts within the MWS group (Frame The Game, Fabricks etc) within partnerships network  

• Leading by example and being an ambassador of the company vision and values 

We are looking for the following skillset 

• Highly driven and an efficient communicator, you must be able to effectively articulate your thoughts, initiatives and feedback to the other stakeholders in the organisation 

• Able to work in the very dynamic (and often hectic!) world of sports across many different cultures and languages  

• Able to work efficiently on your own, but also utilise and enable the team, by providing them with a strong vision and positive leadership 

• You must be a team player and be comfortable in managing internal and external relationships at every level of the partnership hierarchy 

• Strong commercial acumen 

• Natural negotiation skills and willingness to take on more challenging conversations with partner counterparts at every level 

• An excellent understanding of our business and the market in which we operate is key: your passion must lie at the intersection of sports, fan culture and commercial growth 

• Develop and position new revenue and growth opportunities within our partner network

• Specific ideas about how you see a route to success for MatchWornShirt  

• Problem-solving mindset. For many of our partners, our concept is new  and brings up a lot of questions. You need to able to proactively find solutions and build trust by developing and  

• implementing consistent best-practise 

• Pro-active and self-motivating mindset and self-starter mentality  

• Can-do mentality. This may sound like a 'given', but it is an essential trait across our business.

• Proven track record in the partnerships space with direct experience in activating from either/all of a rights holder, brand or agency. 

• We always find a way to make it work 

Qualifications & Paperwork

• Valid working rights for the USA

• 8+ years experience in a sports commercial role

The fun stuff you will be working on when you join the team

• Development of our US partnership strategy alongside the Head of Partnerships

• Regular travel to visit partners across the region 

• Regular travel to our HQ in Amsterdam 

• Expansion into new sports and bridging of cross-cultural barriers  

• Work closely with the marketing team to effectively communicate how our partnerships work

• Guide the team through a rapid scaling phase and building a solid structure whilst maintaining the wider team’s identity and team spirit 

• Sculpting and nurturing a young and extremely bright international team and hiring new team members to fuel the expansion plans 

What We Offer

• Informal and Sporty Environment: An informal, international, and sports-focused work environment

• Room for Initiative and Impact: Plenty of room for your ideas and the opportunity to make a real impact

• Hospitality seats: Enjoy a great match at one of our business seats at football clubs all over the world

• All equipment you need: We provide you with a MacBook, mouse and keyboard of choice. Need anything else? Let’s talk!

• Company events: Multiple times per year you will travel to Amsterdam to visit our offices and join the festivities during our Company Week

Our procedure consists of the following rounds:

1. Introductory video call with our Talent Acquisition Manager (± 20 min)

2. Assessment and personality questionnaire (± 120 min)

3. Online interview round 1 (± 45-60 min)

4. In-office interview round 2 (± 45-60 min)

Before the in-office interviews we request every candidate to complete a personality questionnaire, which gives us insight as to how your personality could add value to the team. 

If all goes well we will provide you with an offer letter and we can welcome you to the

team!

Grab this opportunity and conquer the international football world with us!

Don’t hesitate to reach out to Ruben Boerefijn directly.

Email: Ruben@matchwornshirt.com