Description With the Women's Rugby World Cup taking place here in England this year, it's an incredibly exciting time to join the RFU and working at the RFU means being part of the ‘bigger picture’ at England Rugby: to be rooted in our purpose, which is to enrich lives, introduce more people to rugby union & develop the sport for future generations. If our purpose resonates with you, and you recognise the value that sport can bring to people’s lives, we’d love to work with you. An opportunity has arisen for an exceptionally driven Commercial Partnerships Director to join our Commercial Partnerships team on a permanent basis. Job Title : Commercial Partnerships Director Department : Commercial Partnerships Reports to : Executive Director of Commercial & Marketing Direct report : 5x direct reports Salary Banding : Competitive Job Level : Lead Location : HQ - This role is contractually based at Allianz Stadium, offering some flexibility to work from home Employment Type : Permanent Working Hours : This is a full-time role, covering 35hrs per week Role-specific Benefits: Opportunity to earn a performance-related bonus of (currently) up to 25% £4,000 car allowance Application Information: Please submit an anonymised CV (i.e. please exclude personal details). The closing date for applications is 9pm on Sunday 2nd March 2025 The RFU reserves the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications. Applications may be considered whilst this vacancy is advertised. The Role: The Commercial Partnerships Director role reports into the Executive Director of Engagement & Business Growth and is accountable for growing and managing commercial revenues. The role will be responsible for implementing the long-term strategy for the department to drive revenue growth through partnerships, retail & licensing and new revenue sources such as digital inventory from new platforms. The role will oversee the business development processes with the newly appointed agency and all contractual obligations, develop new and creative ways to optimise partner relationships and create value for both parties as well as drive the Retail & Licensing business. The role requires a leader who can build, inspire and manage a team, setting high standards of performance. What will you be doing? Some key responsibilities include: Business Development Work directly with our in-house agency to lead the organisation’s end to end sponsorship sales process to achieve and exceed agreed revenue targets. Shape a storytelling and data driven sales process, including category and rights assessment, lead development, pipeline management, profitability analysis and robust contracting. Ensure the RFU generates significant commercial partnerships support for key growth areas that include Women & Girls game, Stadium redevelopment, Community Rugby & Digital inventory. Work closely with key internal stakeholders to create new assets from our key growth areas that can be packaged and sold with our Sales Agency Work closely with Six Nations to drive media and sponsorship revenue growth while balancing central rights programmes with domestic Union initiatives. Collaborate with Premiership Rugby (PRL), Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR), Team England, Tier 2 & National League Rugby (NLR) to help grow revenues into rugby creating relationships and coordinated propositions in key categories. Leverage strategy & insights research and business development intelligence support to drive lead prospecting and sales presentations. Explore strategies for further commercialisation of the England Rugby brand, sponsorship assets and core properties globally through international partnerships. Work with Finance to create and manage the annual commercial budget, cost of sales budget, annual business planning processes and budget tracking processes. Build senior relationships with key sports marketing sales agencies and media valuation agencies, projecting the RFU as a top tier rights holder in the market. Including, but not limited to, attending events, speaking at conferences, and representing the RFU at awards events. Partnerships Management Develop long term individual partnership strategies that focus on quality of experience and high value client servicing of each partner. Build and maintain strong Partner relationships, regularly interfacing with senior stakeholders and involve senior management from the RFU when appropriate. Provide management support and guidance to the Senior Partnership Managers and team of Account Mangers and Account executives. Ensure that all aspects of the relationship are effectively managed through the team, including establishing clear and agreed campaign plans and objectives against each of their core rights. Be the external interface with senior partner contacts for new business and renewal negotiations, leading where appropriate. Working with the Account Managers to create opportunities to upsell our current partners digital inventory and Community Game initiatives. Oversee the commercial interface between the player representative group Team England Rugby Ltd (TER), RFU partners and Rugby Stakeholders (PRL & PWR) Ensure that the RFU’s brand and corporate identities are fully implemented and correctly used across all Partner activation. Ensure that all RFU departments are engaged in the partnerships and provide the necessary support to deliver against Partner objectives, with constant communication and collaboration. Retail & Licensing Drive the growth of the online, store and matchday units retail business with the relevant agencies and retail partners. Manage and develop the Retail and Licensing team to expand revenues into new and non-traditional areas to grow the England Rugby brand. Ensure alignment between official partners and licensed product opportunities and look to expand the value and structure of licensing partnerships. Support Retail & Licensing lead in managing senior relationships with RFU’s retail & licensed partners. Create new and incremental licensing categories. Oversee the creation of a new player licensing programme. Other Ensure close alignment on strategy and priorities between Business Development, Partnerships Management, Retail and Licensing as well as the wider organization (e.g. Rugby Development). Manage the operations of the Commercial team, including department budget planning and control, overseeing the team and ensuring all partnerships are managed effectively. Identification and analysis of new market trends that may create additional revenue opportunities. Work closely with the Marketing & Digital team to deliver and develop new partner and retail activations. Liaise fully with other members of the Commercial, Communications, Venue and Rugby Development teams on a regular basis to ensure the widest dissemination of news and information and asset development. Develop, maintain and grow relationships with the wider Rugby network that includes PRL, PWR, RPA, Tier 2, NLR, World Rugby, 6 Nations and individual National Unions ensuring the creation of collaborative processes, understanding of the wider objectives of the network whilst protecting the interest of England Rugby. Be on duty at Allianz Stadium event days to oversee Partner rights and host & entertain clients. As a RFU employee, you will Actively collaborate with colleagues to contribute to the development and delivery of the current strategic, business and operational plans. Act as an ambassador for, and promote the best interests of the RFU, including the promotion of our culture and core values – This Rose Means Everyone: Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other. Undertake other duties as may be required from time to time as are consistent with the responsibilities of the post and the needs of the organisation. QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE The skills and attributes outlined in this description are not exhaustive and we welcome candidates who can bring different relevant experiences to the role. Essential: Proven leadership experience, including setting of and delivering against strategic and annual business plans. Credible and relevant experience in a similar role, preferably from a sponsorship or marketing background, either for a rights holder, brand or within an agency. Commercially focused and capable of leading and managing large sponsorship deals. Experience in outreach, lead prospecting and category evaluation. Experience in working with partnerships sales agencies. Experience in structuring rights packages and commercial programmes. Substantial experience of managing high level client accounts, including negotiating high profile sponsorship contracts. Outstanding, demonstrable negotiation and influencing skills, alongside the ability to engage with senior sponsor stakeholders. Understanding of digital rights and how digital channels can be used to leverage commercial objectives. Thorough understanding of women’s sport and the commercial opportunities behind it. Experience in measuring and articulating ROI and sponsorship performance. Strategic thinker and planner with the ability to draw a wider variety of elements into a common strategy and purpose. Ability to present a highly professional image when representing the RFU with all stakeholders on a global basis. Experience of working with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders and proven success at building and maintaining excellent working relationships with these stakeholders. Proven experience in working with a complex stakeholder environment to drive meaningful change, progress and collaboration. Positive mindset: resilient, able to balance multiple priorities and remain focused and clear. Committed to embodying the ethos our culture by using our three core values – Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other – to guide your day-to-day decisions, actions and interactions. Committed to actively contributing and building an inclusive culture in your role and day to day behaviours. Additional Information: We want you to have every opportunity to demonstrate your skills, ability and potential. If there is anything we could do to support you through your application or to provide the best environment for your interviews, including assistance or adjustment, please reach out to recruitmentrfu.com. During your application, we will ask questions about your identity. This information is considered highly confidential and will not be seen by hiring managers. You can find out more about why we ask these questions here. Personal circumstances must allow the candidate to work extended hours on occasion during times of peak activity including evenings and weekends. Please download the job description here for full details of this role. We recommend keeping a copy of the JD to hand as you may wish to revisit the role requirements in the event you are invited to interview.