VP, Global Partnerships, Golf Events

Global Sports Jobs Limited; Florida; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel opportunities

Bonus potential

Job summary

IMG Golf Events North America seeks a seasoned leader to drive corporate partnerships, sponsorships and hospitality revenue across the portfolio. You will shape annual and long-term commercial plans, lead in-market sales teams and personally close major opportunities with top brands.

You will manage senior relationships, develop compelling proposals and navigate complex negotiations, aligning partner priorities with event goals while expanding asset value and multi-event opportunities.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience with sales in sport/events.
• Extensive network of senior client relationships.
• Strong leadership and team management skills.
• Proven track record of high-value sponsorship programmes for large-scale events.
• Ability to develop and close high-value partnership opportunities.
• Excellent sponsorship and brand activation knowledge.
• Strong contract negotiation experience.
• Storytelling to engage senior executives.
• Experience in end-to-end sales process and customer buying process.

Responsibilities

• Lead corporate partnerships strategy for IMG Golf Events North America, achieving sponsorship and hospitality revenue targets across the portfolio.
• Develop annual and long-term commercial plans for each event with Senior Management and in-market teams.
• Provide leadership to in-market partnership sales personnel and guide pipelines toward closing opportunities.
• Origin, develop and close major partnership opportunities with multi-year commitments.
• Identify prospective brands and build a strong pipeline of qualified opportunities.
• Create new sellable assets and partnership platforms to increase revenue.
• Develop sponsorship proposals and customised solutions addressing partner objectives.
• Lead negotiations through contract execution with internal stakeholders.
• Develop multi-event partnerships leveraging IMG's scale and assets.
• Coordinate with Directors to align strategy with event positioning and capabilities.
• Support activation and delivery, ensuring smooth transitions from sale to delivery.
• Maintain senior relationships and renewals with key accounts.
• Represent IMG North America in cross-global sales discussions and opportunities.

Skills

Leadership

Sales

Partnerships

Pipeline management

Negotiation

Strategic thinking

Client relationships

Storytelling

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

About the Role

This role will lead commercial partnerships strategy and revenue generation for IMG Golf Events across North America. It is responsible for sponsorship and hospitality revenue across the portfolio, providing strategic leadership to event-based commercial teams while personally developing and closing significant partnership opportunities. The role will act as the primary commercial liaison between IMG Golf Events North America and the broader IMG Golf and Brand Partnerships organisations, connecting Golf's events, assets and opportunities with relationships and initiatives across IMG and TKO. It works closely with Global Brand Partnerships, Golf Events senior leadership, Event/Championship Directors, in-market sales teams and IMG's broader commercial organisation to maximise the commercial value of the golf event portfolio, develop new revenue opportunities and build long-term relationships with leading brands and partners.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead corporate partnerships strategy for IMG Golf Events North America, achieving and exceeding sponsorship and hospitality revenue targets across the portfolio.
• Develop annual and long-term commercial plans for each event with Senior Management, Event/Championship Directors and in-market partnership teams, including revenue targets, priorities, target categories and sales strategies.
• Provide leadership, direction and accountability to in-market partnership sales personnel, setting targets, reviewing pipelines, guiding prospecting and supporting the team to progress and close significant opportunities.
• Personally originate, develop and close major partnership opportunities, including title partnerships, presenting partnerships and other significant multi-year commercial relationships.
• Identify and engage prospective brands and decision-makers, generating new relationships and developing a strong pipeline of qualified commercial opportunities.
• Identify opportunities to create new sellable assets, partnership platforms and event concepts that increase commercial value and incremental revenue across the portfolio.
• Lead the development of compelling sponsorship proposals, presentations and customised partnership solutions that address prospective partners' business and marketing objectives.
• Lead commercial negotiations with prospective partners through contract execution, working with legal, finance, event leadership and other internal stakeholders.
• Develop portfolio-wide and multi-event partnerships, leveraging IMG Golf Events' collective scale and assets to create broader and more valuable brand relationships.
• Work closely with Event/Championship Directors to ensure commercial strategies and partner commitments align with each event's positioning, operational capabilities and objectives.
• Partner with account management and event teams to support the transition of new partnerships from sale through activation and delivery, helping build long-term partner relationships and renewal opportunities.
• Maintain senior-level relationships with key existing partners and participate in renewal and expansion strategies for strategically important accounts.
• Represent IMG Golf Events North America within IMG's broader commercial organisation, connecting the golf portfolio with central and global sales initiatives and identifying opportunities involving existing IMG/TKO relationships.
• Collaborate with IMG's central and global sales teams, sharing inventory, prospects, pipeline intelligence and commercial opportunities, and represent Golf Events North America in relevant commercial meetings and sales calls.
• Provide Senior Management with clear and consistent visibility into commercial performance, including revenue versus target, pipeline development, key opportunities, risks and projected closes.

Required Experience & Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience, including 10+ years of sales experience with exposure to sport and/or event sales.
• Extensive network of senior client relationships.
• Strong leadership skills.
• Demonstrable experience of developing high-value, consultative, solution-focused marketing programmes for mature and/or niche properties.
• Capable of thinking creatively with a commercially driven, entrepreneurial mindset.
• Demonstrable experience of building, managing and prioritising a pipeline to deliver effective results, with a personal track record of leveraging referrals, developing leads and securing meetings with prospective partners to close deals.
• A history of creating high-value sponsorship programmes for large-scale live events.
• Active long-term and trusting relationships with decision-makers at industry-relevant companies.
• Excellent application and knowledge of sponsorships and brand activation.
• Well-versed in complex and nuanced contract negotiations.
• Experience in initiating and driving sales and providing support and knowledge to enable a team to deliver success.
• Demonstrable experience of responding to brand needs by producing tailored propositions to suit individual companies.
• A thorough understanding of the end-to-end sales process and the customer buying process, including awareness of the emotional connections required by brands.
• Experience in effective storytelling of partnership opportunities to, and engagement of, senior and C-level executives and targeted companies and brands.
• Proven experience of initiating and executing high-value sales in either a B2B or B2C environment.

Preferred Skills

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Communications, Marketing or another related field.

Workplace

• North America.
• Permanent position.
• Regular weekend work, with travel to events in line with the existing and prospective events portfolio.
• Travel for meetings as part of the role outside event travel.

About the Company

IMG is a leading global sports marketing agency specialising in media rights management and sales, multi-channel content production and distribution, brand partnerships, strategic consulting, digital services, and event management. IMG is a subsidiary of TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TKO), a premium sports and entertainment company that owns UFC, WWE and PBR.