Sponsorship & Private Events Director

Saunter; New York (NY); On-site; USD 95,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Paid time off

Founding commercial seat

Opportunity to help shape a national/h

Job summary

Saunter in New York is building a revolutionary venue concept with a pre-opening sales mandate. You will own the commercial seat, manage the full cycle from prospecting to renewal, and drive revenue for corporate events and brand partnerships before the venue opens.

You will establish a book of business, build relationships with event planners and agencies, and relentlessly pursue targets. The role requires rigorous pipeline management and a capacity to work evenings and weekends as needed.

Qualifications

• You have sold physical space or another capacity-constrained hospitality or event product.
• Experience selling before a venue exists or into an hours-d nobody wanted, and you liked it.
• You run the full cycle yourself and own the revenue.

Responsibilities

• Pre-sell the venue and build a qualified pipeline with deposits secured before opening.
• Build the book by developing relationships with corporate event planners and brand partnerships.
• Own the number by delivering multi-hundred thousand in revenue within 12 months and maintain forecast accuracy.

Skills

Close deals

New York buyers

Pre-opening sales

Relationship building

Job description

The way we gather is broken. Modern culture trades presence for digital sedation, and nightlife makes good health the price of admission.

We're building the successor to the bar - a new kind of third space, designed from first principles for how people want to gather today. Our first location opens in Williamsburg in early 2027, and the model is built to scale nationally.

We're artists and serial entrepreneurs - builders of creative and nightlife communities, consumer brands, and technology companies. We've spent our careers pushing culture forward, and this is our biggest swing yet.

We're backed by founders of some of the most influential technology companies of the past two decades, alongside one of the most followed voices in health.

From first dawn to last call, a quick reset or a whole afternoon, our mission is to make room for warmer ways to gather.

About Saunter

The way we gather is broken. Modern culture trades presence for digital sedation, and nightlife makes good health the price of admission.

We're building the successor to the bar - a new kind of third space, designed from first principles for how people want to gather today. Our first location opens in Williamsburg in early 2027, and the model is built to scale nationally.

We're artists and serial entrepreneurs - builders of creative and nightlife communities, consumer brands, and technology companies. We've spent our careers pushing culture forward, and this is our biggest swing yet.

We're backed by founders of some of the most influential technology companies of the past two decades, alongside one of the most followed voices in health.

From first dawn to last call, a quick reset or a whole afternoon, our mission is to make room for warmer ways to gather.

The Role

You'll sell the room.

This is the founding commercial seat inside our first location, and you'll hold it from before the doors open. Private events and brand sponsorships are yours - two revenue lines you'll build from zero, own from first prospect through final payment and renewal, and grow.

Saunter is a highly designed, all-day social venue combining high-touch hospitality, food and beverage, and live programming, with a space built for everything from an intimate corporate offsite to a full buyout. The room already has a history as a sought-after event venue. Your job is to turn that potential into a meaningful, repeatable revenue line.

Weekend nights will create their own energy. The harder - and more valuable - job is filling weekday daytime with corporate gatherings, offsites, and celebrations, and structuring brand partnerships that add to the guest experience rather than interrupt it. You'll start selling before the venue exists, from renders and hard-hat walkthroughs, so we open with a book of business already signed.

You'll report to our operating partner and work directly with the CEO, GM, and founding team on how partnerships show up in the room. You'll own the sale, the commercial relationship, and the economics; the venue team will own four-wall execution. Because everything here is being built for the first time, the pricing, playbook, and standards for what a Saunter partnership means will carry your fingerprints for years as we expand.

This is a full-time, in-building role. Pre-opening will be heavily outbound. Once we're open, you'll maintain the senior client relationship around major events, including some evenings and weekends, while the venue team leads execution. Over time, your job is to build a repeatable commercial engine—not a business that depends on one person’s relationships and heroics.

What You'll Do

Pre-sell the venue. Build a qualified pipeline and close signed contracts with deposits before opening day, selling the vision from renders, walkthroughs, and the strength of your own credibility.

Build the book. Develop and activate relationships across corporate event planners, experiential agencies, executive assistants, people and culture leaders, and brand partnership teams. Personally own the full commercial cycle, from prospecting through collection and renewal.

Own the number. Deliver at least $250,000 in private-event revenue and $100,000 in cash sponsorship revenue during the first 12 operating months. Maintain a disciplined pipeline, forecast, and collections process so leadership always knows where the number stands.

Fill the quiet hours. Direct your energy where capacity is most perishable: weekday daytime and early evenings. Every empty Tuesday afternoon is revenue that never comes back.

Build brand partnerships. Structure integrations, activations, supported series, and product placements that guests are glad exist. We don't sell logo wallpaper, and every deal passes brand review.

Sell the tentpoles. Pursue marquee buyouts and calendar moments capable of materially outperforming the base plan.

Protect the room. Price every deal against contribution margin, operating cost, payment risk, and what the space would earn on its own. Create clean handoffs and stay accountable for the client relationship without becoming the event producer.

Create the playbook. Codify the pricing tiers, collateral, contracts, pipeline process, partnership standards, and account-development practices that allow the first venue to excel and future Saunter locations to sell from day one.

Who You Are

You are a closer with a real book of New York buyers - corporate event planners, brand and agency partnership leads, and other decision-makers - you can begin activating immediately. You know the first calls you would make.

You have sold physical space or another capacity-constrained hospitality or event product. You understand buyout math, minimums, displacement, event contracts, and clean operational handoffs.

Your revenue was yours. You can walk us through what you sold, from what to what, what the business kept, and exactly which part was yours. Your references will say the same.

You have sold something before it existed, or into hours nobody wanted - and you liked it.

You run the full cycle yourself. You don't wait for inbound, and you don't hand the hard parts to someone else.

You are rigorous with numbers. You understand how pricing, margin, capacity, payment terms, cancellation exposure, and collections determine whether a deal is genuinely valuable.

You work inside a strong brand without flattening it. You understand that the fastest way to devalue a great room is to sell it cheap - or to the wrong partner.

You lead with warmth and directness, and you're genuinely interested in the people, brands, and ideas that make a partnership feel alive rather than transactional.

Experience selling for independent venues, lifestyle hotels, private clubs, cultural spaces, experiential agencies, or event-led hospitality in New York is a plus. Pre-opening sales experience is strongly preferred.

What We Offer

• Base salary of $95,000-$120,000, depending on experience
• This is a commission-eligible role. Your incentive plan is tied to the sponsorship and private-event revenue you close and collect, with accelerators above target and no cap on upside
• At target, total annual earnings of approximately $150,000
• Comprehensive health benefits and paid time off
• A founding commercial seat with real influence over how partnerships and private events shape Saunter's first venue
• The opportunity to help build a new national hospitality category from its first location

Saunter is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of every background and meet people where they are.