Country Manager - Australia

POLITICO; Sydney; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

POLITICO seeks an entrepreneurial Country Manager to establish and grow POLITICO's presence in Australia, based in Sydney. You will lead commercial strategy and sales, serve as senior representative and drive revenue growth in government, corporate, and public affairs sectors.

Working with editorial and product teams, you will expand POLITICO Pro in Australia and the Indo-Pacific, build strategic partnerships and recruit a high-performing local team as the business scales.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in business leadership or market expansion, with a track record in media, SaaS or policy intelligence.
• Strong knowledge of Australia’s political and regulatory landscape and senior stakeholder networks.
• Excellent communication, negotiation and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Entrepreneurial, autonomous leader capable of building from scratch.

Responsibilities

• Lead commercial strategy and operations in Australia to grow the business.
• Deliver financial goals with planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting.
• Act as senior representative and primary contact for global teams.
• Lead enterprise sales for POLITICO Pro and manage key customers.
• Build long-term market position through partnerships and local team leadership.

Skills

Leadership

Commercial strategy

Business development

Stakeholder management

Negotiation

Job description

Job Description

Based in Sydney Australia

POLITICO is the essential source of policy intelligence and political journalism for professionals who shape public policy and business decisions. As we continue to expand our global footprint, we are seeking an entrepreneurial Country Manager to establish and grow POLITICO's presence in Australia.

The Country Manager for Australia will lead POLITICO's business in Australia, serving as the company's senior commercial and sales representative in the market. This is a high-impact leadership role combining commercial strategy and delivery, market development, strategic partnerships and audience growth. The successful candidate will play a central role in shaping, launching and expanding POLITICO's presence in Australia, driving the adoption of a premium policy intelligence offering to the Australian and broader Indo-Pacific market.

Working in close partnership with POLITICO's Launch Editor for Australia, the Country Manager will serve as the commercial counterpart to editorial leadership, ensuring strong alignment between editorial excellence and business growth. Together, they will define POLITICO Australia's long-term strategy, identify opportunities for expansion and build a sustainable, market-leading business.

The Country Manager will collaborate closely with colleagues across editorial, product, marketing and commercial teams to develop and execute POLITICO Australia's growth strategy. The role will focus on building strong relationships with government, corporate and public affairs leaders, identifying new business opportunities, and driving the revenue growth, including finding a market for our existing POLITICO Pro business in Australia and the Indo-Pacific. As the market's senior commercial leader, the Country Manager will also serve as POLITICO's primary enterprise seller in Australia, leading strategic sales efforts, managing key customer relationships and personally driving major subscription opportunities. The Country Manager will have full responsibility for delivering the commercial and financial objectives of the Australian business. Success for this role will manifest in individual and shared commercial outcomes that meet or exceed targets.

The role will be based in Sydney, Australia's leading commercial and corporate hub. Regular travel to Canberra will be expected during Parliamentary sitting weeks to maintain a strong presence with policymakers, government stakeholders and the broader public affairs community, ensuring POLITICO remains embedded at the centre of Australia's political and policy ecosystem.

What You’ll Do

• Lead POLITICO’s commercial strategy and operations in Australia, identifying opportunities to grow the business, strengthen the company’s market presence and ensure the Australian perspective is reflected across global priorities.
• Deliver the financial goals set out in the Australian business plan, with responsibility for annual planning, budgeting, forecasting and monthly and quarterly performance reporting.
• Serve as POLITICO’s senior representative in Australia and the primary point of contact for global teams and providing leadership with regular strategic updates, market intelligence and recommendations.
• Serve as POLITICO's primary enterprise seller in Australia, leading strategic sales opportunities for POLITICO Pro while building and managing a strong enterprise pipeline. Personally cultivate and close key customers, drive subscription sales, renewals and account expansion, and work closely with POLITICO's commercial partner and global teams to accelerate growth across government, corporate, consultancy, legal and public affairs organisations. Drive media commercial growth by working with POLITICO’s commercial partner and global teams.
• Build POLITICO’s long-term position in the market by developing senior stakeholder relationships, identifying strategic partnerships and commercial opportunities, representing the company at high-level events, monitoring political and regulatory developments, and helping recruit and lead a high-performing local team as the business grows.

What You’ll Need

• An entrepreneurial leader with a proven ability to build from scratch, operate with autonomy and turn new ideas into scalable businesses, products or market propositions.
• At least 15 years of experience in business leadership, commercial strategy, business development or market expansion, ideally within media, information services, B2B subscriptions, SaaS or policy intelligence, with a strong commercial track record of developing new markets, launching products, growing strategic business lines and driving revenue through enterprise partnerships and subscription models.
• Strong knowledge of Australia’s political, regulatory and corporate affairs landscape, combined with the credibility to build trusted relationships with senior leaders across government and industry.
• Excellent communication, negotiation and stakeholder-management skills, with demonstrated success working across matrixed, international organisations and navigating shared accountability and cross-functional decision-making.

About Us.

POLITICO illuminates the forces shaping global power. Since 2007, we have delivered intelligence that anticipates tomorrow's headlines, not reports on yesterday's news. As politics has increasingly become the defining force of our era, our work has never been more vital.

Cabinet secretaries and Ministers start their mornings with our analysis. CEOs shape strategy around our reporting. Advocacy leaders rely on our insights to move policy. We deliver the straightforward facts and clear-eyed analysis they need to navigate the most complex political landscape of our lifetimes.

Our 1,100+ publishing professionals across the world's key democratic capitals—Washington, Brussels, London, Paris, Berlin, Sacramento, and New York—form the world's premier politics and policy newsroom. We tell the story of how power really works by explaining who wields it and how they plan to exercise it, connecting dots others miss and delivering scoops from sources others don't even know exist.

Innovation has always been a core tenet of our story. At launch, we bet that depth would trump scale, that talent would trump traffic, and that politics would become central to modern life. In 2011, we made another bet and launched POLITICO Pro to help decision-makers understand the business of government, transforming both how they shape government action and the business of journalism itself.

These bets have made POLITICO the most successful digital news startup of its generation and the indispensable resource for leaders who shape the future. Today, we are a rarity in media: a growing, profitable, and sustainable news organization.

POLITICO is a subsidiary of Axel Springer SE, a family-owned transatlantic media company headquartered in Berlin and New York. Axel Springer is dedicated to shaping the future of journalism in the free world, believing that a free and informed society is essential to democracy. The company’s guiding principles - first articulated as The Essentials by founder Axel Springer in the aftermath of World War II - remain a cornerstone of the company’s foundation today. Learn more about Axel Springer.

Country Manager - Sydney, Australia