Partnerships Manager - London

About us

At MatchWornShirt, we connect fans around the world to the ultimate piece of sporting memorabilia: match worn and signed shirts from the world’s biggest athletes and brands. We accelerate engagement, interaction and revenue by enabling our customers to access pieces of sporting history, whilst raising funds for the causes that matter most to our partners.

With more than 280 partners globally, we are the outright market leaders in our industry and are proud of the role that we play in encouraging consistent engagement between our network, fans and customers. We see ourselves as innovators, both with the platform that we have created and the items that we feature on it – and we are constantly looking for new ways to surprise and delight our audience.

Having established a regional office in Melbourne in 2023, this presents an exciting opportunity to join a rapidly scaling team within a key market of MatchWornShirt’s wider operation.

The main focus of this role will be nurturing current relationships with our expanding network of partners in the UK region to ensure trust, positivity and profitability, whilst simultaneously working to develop our portfolio of partners within the region.

About the team

The Business Development & Partnerships team consists of more than 20 people split between our offices in Amsterdam, London, Istanbul, Sao Paulo and Melbourne.

Our team is an encapsulation of everything that MatchWornShirt is about and as such should be exemplary in the way that we work and manage stakeholders internally and externally.

About you

For this role, you will directly report into the Head of Partnerships and work closely with the wider Partnerships and Business Development team.

Your roles and responsibilities include:

• Full responsibility for best-in-class partnership management of the partners in your portfolio

• Immersing yourself within your partnership network; understanding each rights holder and developing a deep understanding of the clubs and individuals that you work with utilising that understanding to identify and execute opportunities within our partnerships to maximise financial performance

• Adding maximum value to our partners by building trust and strengthening personal relationships

• Work with the wider Business Development team to support the formulation of commercial deals to expand the business

• Offer support across multiple departments to learn how MWS operates and understand the full-service solution that we offer in order to facilitate positive and sustainable partnerships
  
  

We are looking for the following skillset:

• Excellent English language skills, both written and verbally

• Highly driven and an efficient communicator. You must be able to effectively articulate your thoughts, initiatives and feedback to both internal and external stakeholders

• Able to work in the very dynamic (or even hectic!) world of sports across many different cultures and languages

• Energetic personality, willing to roll up your sleeves and drive success for our partners

• Ability to work efficiently on your own and under strict deadlines

• You must be proactive rather than reactive. We need to be one step ahead for our partners and it’s imperative that you bring this mentality to each and every one of them

• Strong commercial acumen

• You must be a team player and be comfortable in holding internal and external conversations at every level of the partnership hierarchy

• Our business is built on transparency, loyalty and trust – and we need to consistently demonstrate all three of these traits to our partners

• A good understanding of our business and the market in which we operate

• Problem-solving mindset. For many of our partners, our concept is new and brings up a lot of questions. You need to able to think solutions and to provide reassurances that they are in good hands

• Self-motivating with a self-starter mentality

• Can-do mentality. This may sound like a 'given', but it is an essential trait across our business. We always find a way to make it work
  
  

Experience, qualifications & paperwork:

• At least 3-4 years of experience in a sports commercial role

• University degree in relevant field

• British native or a valid work permit for the UK. We do not provide visa sponsorship for this position.
  
  

The fun stuff you will be working on when you join the team:

• Building long-term relationships with the biggest brands in sport, including Premier League teams

• Be part of a bright and ambitious team with many different backgrounds and nationalities

• Regular travel to partners across the region

• Travel to our Headquarters in Amsterdam for one week per month
  
  

Benefits

• Competitive remuneration

• Healthy lunch provided daily

• Macbook

• 25 days holiday allowance, on top of bank holidays

• Working with A-level (sports) brands all over the world

• Making direct impact and supporting incredible charities globally

• Central London office

• Allowance for a gym membership
  
  

Our hiring process

1. Introductory video call with our recruiter (± 20 min)

2. Partnerships related assessment (remote (±90-120 min)

3. In-office interview round 1 (± 60 min)

4. In-office interview round 2 (± 60 min)

If all goes well, we will provide you with an offer letter and we can welcome you to the team!

Grab this opportunity and conquer the international sports world with us!

Don’t hesitate to reach out to Ruben Boerefijn directly.

Email: [email protected]