Account Director, College Sports Partnerships & Strategy

Creative Artists Agency; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 115,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is seeking a Brand Consulting Account Director to lead senior management of collegiate sponsorships, creating strategy, negotiating agreements, and driving activation across NCAA properties. You will mentor a junior team and collaborate with cross-functional partners to deliver measurable business results.

This role will be located in New York or Los Angeles, with on-site requirements three days per week and a flexible schedule for campus activations and events.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree preferably in Marketing, Communications, Business or similar discipline.
• 8–10+ years of experience in sports marketing, sponsorship consulting, brand partnerships, collegiate athletics, media rights, or a related agency, property, conference, or brand environment.
• Extensive experience developing and managing college sponsorship programs across NCAA institutions, conferences, athletic departments, or collegiate media rights organizations.
• Demonstrated experience managing bowl game entitlement sponsorships, including strategic planning, contract negotiation, rights management, activation execution, stakeholder coordination, hospitality, and partner fulfillment.
• Established relationships throughout the collegiate sports landscape, including universities, conferences, athletic administrators, multimedia rights holders, and industry partners.
• Proven ability to develop partnership strategies that drive client investment and long-term commercial success.
• Demonstrated experience negotiating complex sponsorship agreements and managing partnerships from contract execution through activation and renewal.
• Exceptional client service and relationship management skills across clients, partners, internal stakeholders, and external agencies.
• Experience leading, mentoring, and developing high-performing teams.
• Strong understanding of collegiate athletics, NCAA regulations, NIL opportunities, student-athlete marketing, and the evolving college sports landscape.
• Proficiency in Google Workspace and Microsoft Office Suite.
• Experience managing sponsorship budgets, forecasting, and financial reporting.
• Ability to lead and execute integrated sponsorship programs across universities, conferences, governing bodies, student organizations, and talent partnerships.
• Recognized as a strategic thought leader capable of influencing clients and senior stakeholders with data-driven recommendations.
• Highly collaborative, solution-oriented, and able to thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• Willingness to travel extensively and work evenings and weekends as required by collegiate sporting events and client activations.
• Outstanding verbal, written, presentation, and executive communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead senior partner management for collegiate sponsorships across NCAA, conferences, universities, athletic departments, NIL initiatives, and campus engagement platforms.
• Develop and lead comprehensive partnership strategies, identifying, communicating, and maximizing sponsorship assets to deliver measurable value for clients and secure stakeholder buy-in.
• Leverage relationships across the collegiate athletics ecosystem, including universities, conferences, multimedia rights holders, agencies, and governing bodies.
• Lead negotiations for sponsorship agreements, marketing rights, naming rights, and partnership renewals, demonstrating a proven history of delivering successful commercial outcomes.
• Direct management of collegiate sponsorship portfolios, serving as the primary point of contact for university partners, conference leadership, rights holders, clients, and agency partners at the executive level.
• Own and manage senior client relationships, serving as a trusted strategic advisor throughout the partnership lifecycle.
• Lead cross-functional planning and execution of integrated sponsorship campaigns, campus activations, hospitality programs, student engagement initiatives, and experiential marketing efforts.
• Partner with Data & Analytics teams to establish partnership KPIs, measurement frameworks, ROI reporting, and optimization strategies.
• Collaborate with Creative, Experiential, Social, PR, Digital, and Insights teams to ensure all partnership objectives are achieved.
• Identify new collegiate sponsorship opportunities across athletics, campus life, NIL, women's sports, esports, and emerging properties that align with client objectives.
• Mentor, develop, and manage junior team members while fostering a collaborative, high-performing culture.
• Attend collegiate sporting events, championship tournaments, conference meetings, sponsorship summits, and client activations throughout the year.
• Lead the planning and execution of bowl game entitlement programs, ensuring contractual rights are fulfilled across branding, hospitality, media, digital, on-site activations, and executive stakeholder engagement.
• Serve as the senior lead on multi-agency activation teams for major collegiate events, coordinating with university stakeholders, conference partners, production teams, and experiential agencies to ensure flawless execution.
• Oversee sponsorship activation planning from concept through execution, ensuring all contractual assets are fulfilled and client objectives are exceeded.
• Support hospitality programming, VIP experiences, on-campus events, and student engagement initiatives tied to partnership objectives.

Skills

Sponsorship strategy

Negotiation

Team leadership

Client relationship management

Data-driven decisions

Google Workspace

Microsoft Office

Travel readiness

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Marketing/Business

Tools

Google Workspace

Microsoft Office Suite

Job description

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is seeking a Brand Consulting Account Director to lead senior management of collegiate sponsorships, creating strategy, negotiating agreements, and driving activation across NCAA properties. You will mentor a junior team and collaborate with cross-functional partners to deliver measurable business results.

This role will be located in New York or Los Angeles, with on-site requirements three days per week and a flexible schedule for campus activations and events.