Director, Sponsorship Account Management

Valid8 Financial, Inc.; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Players Era is hiring a Director, Sponsorship Account Management to own the relationships at the center of our commercial business. You will be the primary day-to-day counterpart for the senior brand and agency decision-makers across our partner portfolio, accountable for how each of those partnerships performs, grows and renews.

This is not a coordination seat. Our partners are buying a multi-event platform and a national media footprint, and deserve a strategic voice who understands their

Qualifications

• 7–10 years sponsorship account management experience at sports property, agency or brand.
• Direct experience negotiating sponsorship agreements, including rights and media commitments.
• Fluency in the business of sports and sports media, with strong brand understanding.
• Experience managing senior client relationships and multi-property expansions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, persuasive deck creation and relationship management.

Responsibilities

• Own the relationships. Serve as senior day-to-day contact for brand, agency and league stakeholders.
• Set account strategy. Develop annual plans linking brand objectives to Players Era platform.
• Drive expansion and renewal. Lead growth and renewal strategy with leadership and agency.
• Be a strategic voice. Advise partners on category trends and opportunities in college sports.
• Produce client-ready thinking. Create POVs, activation plans and performance reports.
• Protect the brand and contract. Oversee partner creative and use of Players Era marks.
• Orchestrate internally. Align partner priorities across teams and external partners.
• Partner with Jigsaw Labs and senior leadership. Coordinate pricing, packaging and strategy.
• Work with content and production. Ensure brand programs integrate with digital and on-site.
• Lead people. Mentor and develop account team members.

Skills

Sponsorship account management

Client relationship management

Strategic planning

Negotiation

Presentation & storytelling

Tools

PowerPoint

Excel

Job description

Title: Director, Sponsorship Account Management

Reports to: Chief Business Officer

Salary Range: $150,000 - $175,000 annually (depending on experience), plus annual discretionary bonus

Long Term Incentives: Eligible for review for participation in the Players Era equity option plan

Start Date: Flexible

Location: New York City area preferred, but open to remote. Regular time in Las Vegas will be required for all Player’s Era events

Travel: Approximately 25-35%, concentrated August through December

Company Overview

Players Era is the company rewriting the economics and the experience of college sports. Founded in 2024 by EverWonder Studio and Seth Berger, Players Era built the first athlete-first event platform in the country, guaranteeing student-athletes mid-seven figures in name, image and likeness opportunities each year while delivering the best programs, matchups and coaches to a national audience.

From an eight-team men's basketball debut in Las Vegas, the platform has grown into a year-round slate of premium properties: the Players Era Volleyball Showcase (August, T-Mobile Arena), the Players Era Men's Championship (24 teams and 37 games across Thanksgiving week, the largest non-NCAA tournament in college basketball history), the Players Era Women's Basketball Showcase (December, six of the top programs in the sport) and the Eternal City Tip-Off in Rome. Games are staged at MGM Resorts venues on the Las Vegas Strip and distributed nationally by ESPN and FOX Sports.

We are a small, senior team with an outsized footprint, and we build our events with a network of best-in-class partners across production, broadcast, hospitality, sales and communications. If you want to help define what the business of college sports looks like for the next decade, this is the place.

The Role

Players Era is hiring a Director, Sponsorship Account Management to own the relationships at the center of our commercial business. You will be the primary day-to-day counterpart for the senior brand and agency decision-makers across our partner portfolio, spanning the Players Era Volleyball Showcase, the Women's Basketball Showcase and the Men's Championship, and you will be accountable for how each of those partnerships performs, grows and renews.

This is not a coordination seat. Our partners are buying a multi-event platform, a national media footprint and direct access to the biggest names in college sports, and they expect a counterpart who understands their business objectives as well as they do. The Director sets the strategic agenda for each account, translates contracted rights into programs that matter to the brand, keeps leadership on both sides aligned, and builds the case for expansion long before the renewal conversation begins. You will work daily with Players Era's senior leadership team and with Jigsaw Labs, our lead agency, which drives strategy and execution for the entire sponsorship sales function; the Director is the connective point between what Jigsaw sells, what leadership commits to and what the partner experiences. You will also work in close partnership with the Senior Manager, Account Activation, who owns contractual delivery and execution quality.

The right candidate has run sponsorship accounts on the agency or property side, is comfortable in the room with CMOs and agency leads and thinks about a partner's twelve-month plan the way an owner would.

What you will do:

• Own the relationships. Serve as the senior day-to-day contact for brand, agency and league-side partner stakeholders across the Players Era portfolio, setting the cadence of weekly calls, quarterly business reviews and executive touchpoints, and ensuring every conversation moves the partnership forward.
• Set account strategy . Develop an annual partnership plan for each account that connects the partner's brand and business objectives to Players Era's platform: media, on-site presence, athlete and NIL content, hospitality and digital. Own the plan, the timeline and the budget.
• Drive expansion and renewal . Build the commercial narrative for growth from the first day of the term. Identify white-space within each relationship, package incremental opportunities across events, and lead renewal strategy and negotiation in partnership with the Chief Business Officer and Jigsaw Labs.
• Be a strategic voice . Provide proactive counsel to partners on how to show up in college sports, and bring the outside-in view back to Players Era: category trends, competitive activity, best practices from other properties, and the corporate moves that signal risk or opportunity within the portfolio.
• Produce client-ready thinking. Author points of view, recommendations, activation plans, mid-season updates and end-of-year wrap reports that demonstrate the partnership delivered against its objectives, with measurement and proof of performance supplied by the activation team.
• Protect the brand and the contract. Oversee the review and approval of partner creative, communications and use of Players Era marks, ensuring partners are represented accurately and in line with contractual provisions and league, venue and broadcaster requirements.
• Orchestrate internally . Represent the partner's priorities across Players Era's team services, marketing, content, ticketing and communications functions, and with our external creative, production, hospitality and sales partners, so that the partner experiences one coordinated organization.
• Partner with Jigsaw Labs and senior leadership. Operate as the account-side counterpart to Jigsaw Labs on sales strategy, pipeline, proposals and term sheets, bringing live account insight to pricing, packaging and category decisions, and keeping Players Era's senior leadership team informed and aligned on the health of every partnership.
• Work with content and production.Work closely with the Players Era content and production team on all brand projects and partner deliverables, from athlete and NIL content to broadcast integrations and on-site creative, so that partner programs are integrated appropriately in our digital content.
• Lead people. Mentor and develop account team members and coordinators, set expectations, and model the standard of client service the portfolio requires.

What We're Looking For

• 7–10 years of sponsorship account management experience at a sports property, league, agency or brand, with at least three years leading senior client relationships directly.
• A track record of growing accounts: measurable renewals, upsells or multi-property expansions that you can speak to specifically.
• Direct experience negotiating sponsorship agreements, including rights, categories, media commitments and make-goods.
• Fluency in the business of sports and sports media: how brands value inventory, how media is measured, and how a property's platform competes for marketing dollars.
• Strong understanding of college athletics, NIL and the current landscape of athlete-driven marketing is strongly preferred; global or major-league sponsorship experience is a plus.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, and the ability to build a persuasive deck, a crisp email and a difficult phone call with equal skill.
• Comfort operating with autonomy inside a small, fast-moving company, managing multiple accounts and deadlines in parallel without losing the details.
• Advanced proficiency in PowerPoint and Excel; experience with CRM systems and partnership measurement platforms.
• Willingness to travel and to work event weeks, nights and weekends between August and December.