Senior Partnerships Manager

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The Club is one of the leading professional football clubs in Scotland. Based at Easter Road Stadium in Scotland's Capital City, Edinburgh the Club is a stones throw away from the hustle and bustle of the City Centre. Over the course of its history Hibernian Football Club has won all of the major domestic titles, most recently winning the Scottish Cup in 2016. Hibernian was the first British team to play in European competition in the 1956; reaching the semi-finals.

Role Overview:

Hibernian Football Club is a proud and ambitious Scottish football club with a rich history and a passionate fanbase. We are seeking a strategic, creative, and commercially driven Senior Partnerships Manager to lead the development, activation, and management of key club partnerships.

This role is integral to building long-term relationships with partners, ensuring the successful delivery of rights, and creating innovative activation campaigns that meet partner objectives and KPIs to ensure retention. You will also play a key role in gathering insights, creating case studies, and demonstrating the commercial impact of partnerships - both to support new sales and to retain existing partners.

Key Responsibilities:

Partnership Acquisition

• Identify, target, and secure new commercial partnerships across key categories and sectors.
• Develop tailored sponsorship proposals and pitch materials that align with partner goals and brand positioning.
• Use relevant audience insights and past partnership success stories to support the sales process.
• Lead contract negotiations in collaboration with the Commercial Director, Head of Business Development and legal advisors.

Relationship Management

• Act as a point of contact for key commercial partners, delivering a high level of service and responsiveness.
• Build strong, long-term relationships based on trust, transparency, and value creation.
• Conduct regular review meetings to ensure alignment with partner expectations and KPIs.

Partnership Activation

• Lead the planning, execution, and evaluation of partnership activation strategies.
• Create innovative campaign concepts and activation ideas that align with both club objectives and partner KPIs - including branding, fan engagement, digital, community, and matchday experiences.
• Work cross-functionally with internal teams (marketing, digital, media, operations) to deliver activations effectively and on time.
• Collaborate with partners to co-develop engaging campaigns and content based on shared objectives.

Insights, Reporting & Case Studies

• Gather and analyse performance data, fan engagement metrics, and digital analytics to provide regular reporting to partners.
• Produce insightful post-campaign and end-of-season reports that clearly demonstrate ROI and the overall impact of the partnership.
• Create compelling case studies and success stories to support renewal conversations and future sales pitches.
• Leverage data to refine activations and ensure continuous improvement in delivery and results.
• Strategy & Growth
• Support the development of the club's long-term partnership and sponsorship strategy.
• Stay up to date with industry trends, competitive landscape, and partner categories to identify growth opportunities.
• Use fan insights and sponsorship performance data to help shape commercial offerings and packaging.

Events & Hospitality

• Deliver exceptional partner experiences on matchdays, at club events, and within hospitality.
• Work with the events and operations team to coordinate bespoke activations and hosting opportunities that deepen partner engagement.

Key Requirements:

• Minimum 3 years' experience in a sponsorship, partnerships, or commercial role, ideally in sport, media, or entertainment.
• Demonstrated success in managing and growing commercial partnerships.
• Creative mindset with experience developing and activating partnership campaigns based on partner KPIs.
• Strong analytical skills, with experience using insights and data to demonstrate value and create compelling case studies.
• Outstanding interpersonal and relationship management skills.
• Strong commercial acumen and understanding of brand marketing.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and project management skills.
• Ability to work flexibly, including matchdays, evenings, and weekends as required.

Desirable:

• Experience in football or the wider sports industry.
• Familiarity with the Scottish and UK sponsorship landscape.
• Knowledge of digital and social media sponsorship activations.

Hibernian FC is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity.

Hibernian FC is also committed to the safeguarding of vulnerable groups.