Director, Global Partnerships, Tennis

The Director, Global Partnerships, Tennis is responsible for brokering sponsorship deals with brands globally on behalf of rights holder clients in tennis, including mandated clients such as the AELTC (Wimbledon) and non-mandated clients such as the US Open, Roland Garros, Australian Open, ATP and WTA. The role sits within IMG's global partnerships function and works closely with rights holders, internal teams and the global Brand Partnerships Team across all sports and regions. It focuses on developing and executing a global sales strategy for tennis sponsorship opportunities, originating and converting senior brand relationships into commercial partnerships.

• Support the development and execution of the global sales strategy for tennis sponsorship opportunities, with Wimbledon as the primary mandated exclusive client.
• Identify, originate and broker sponsorship opportunities across a portfolio of major tennis rights holders, including the other Grand Slams, ATP Tour, WTA Tour and leading tournaments such as Miami Open, Madrid Open, Indian Wells and Cincinnati Open.
• Build, maintain and develop senior relationships with rights holders globally, acting as a trusted commercial partner and ensuring a clear understanding of their objectives, assets and partnership priorities.
• Develop and maintain a strong understanding of the global tennis landscape, including the commercial positioning, audiences, inventory and strategic priorities of key tours, tournaments and governing bodies.
• Identify and cultivate prospective brand partners whose objectives, target audiences and geographic priorities align with available tennis sponsorship opportunities, and build and manage a high-quality pipeline of international sponsorship prospects across relevant sectors and markets.
• Lead and support the full sales process, from prospect identification and relationship development through to opportunity creation, proposal development, negotiation, contracting and implementation handover.
• Create compelling commercial propositions, sales presentations and partnership packages tailored to individual brand objectives and rights-holder requirements.
• Work closely with internal teams, rights holders and the global Brand Partnerships Team across all sports and regions to ensure that partnership proposals are commercially robust, deliverable and aligned with agreed rights frameworks.
• Negotiate commercially attractive sponsorship agreements for clients, balancing rights value, partner objectives, term, territory, category and broader deal economics, and deliver agreed revenue and business-development targets with accurate pipeline reporting
• Forecasting and market intelligence to senior leadership.
• Represent the business professionally at major tennis events and industry meetings, and share market insight on brand investment priorities, competitor activity, sponsorship trends and developments across the global tennis ecosystem.

• At least 10 years' experience in sponsorship sales, commercial partnerships or a related sports-marketing role.
• Proven experience delivering sponsorship and commercial partnership deals for rights holders.
• Knowledge of the global tennis landscape, including the Grand Slams, ATP Tour, WTA Tour, major tournaments, key stakeholders and the structure of tennis sponsorship rights.
• Demonstrable understanding of how to package, value and sell sponsorship rights across multiple markets and territories.
• An established network of senior-level contacts within global brands, particularly across marketing, partnerships, sponsorship, communications and commercial functions.
• A track record of originating new business, converting senior relationships into commercial opportunities and delivering completed partnership agreements.
• Experience managing complex, multi-market and multi-year sponsorship negotiations with international brands and rights holders.
• Strong understanding of brand objectives, consumer audiences, activation requirements and the commercial rationale for sports sponsorship.
• Experience preparing sales strategies, account plans, revenue forecasts, proposals and partnership valuations.
• Excellent communication, influencing and relationship-management skills, with the confidence to engage senior executives at global brands and rights-holder organisations.
• Highly effective presentation skills, with the ability to develop and deliver compelling, commercially focused presentations to senior stakeholders.
• Strong sales, negotiation and closing skills, with the tenacity to develop opportunities over extended decision-making cycles.
• Ability to translate a rights holder's assets and objectives into clear, relevant and persuasive brand propositions.
• Commercially astute, with the ability to assess deal value, pricing, rights, inventory, guarantees, revenue share and wider partnership economics.
• Strategic and analytical approach to prospecting, pipeline development and account management.

• Experience in tennis or wider sport.
• Experience working across both exclusive and non-exclusive client mandates would be advantageous.

• Based at IMG's offices in London Chiswick Park or potentially at IMG's offices in New York.
• Expectation of four days per week in the office unless travelling.
• International travel required for brand/right holder meetings and tournament hosting on an ad-hoc basis.

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.