Manager, Account Activation

Job Description

Company: Players Era

Manager, Account Activation

Reports to: Chief Business Officer

Salary Range: $80,000 - $90,000 annually (depending on experience), plus annual discretionary bonus 

Long Term Incentives: Eligible for review for participation in the Players Era equity option plan

Start Date: Flexible

Location: New York City area preferred, but open to remote. Regular time in Las Vegas will be required for all Player’s Era events

Travel: Approximately 30%, concentrated August through December

Company Overview

Players Era is the company rewriting the economics and the experience of college sports. Founded in 2024 by EverWonder Studio and Seth Berger, Players Era built the first athlete-first event platform in the country, guaranteeing student-athletes mid-seven figures in name, image and likeness opportunities each year while delivering the best programs, matchups and coaches to a national audience.

From an eight-team men's basketball debut in Las Vegas, the platform has grown into a year-round slate of premium properties: the Players Era Volleyball Showcase (August, T-Mobile Arena), the Players Era Men's Championship (24 teams and 37 games across Thanksgiving week, the largest non-NCAA tournament in college basketball history), the Players Era Women's Basketball Showcase (December, six of the top programs in the sport) and the Eternal City Tip-Off in Rome. Games are staged at MGM Resorts venues on the Las Vegas Strip and distributed nationally by ESPN and FOX Sports.

We are a small, senior team with an outsized footprint, and we build our events with a network of best-in-class partners across production, broadcast, hospitality, sales and communications. If you want to help define what the business of college sports looks like for the next decade, this is the place.

The Role

Players Era is hiring a Manager, Account Activation to own the delivery of everything we have promised our partners. Once a sponsorship agreement is signed, this role is accountable for converting the contract into a complete inventory of deliverables, sequencing them across our event calendar, and making sure each one is executed at the standard of quality our partners and our brand demand.

Players Era produces its events with a network of execution partners: creative services, live production and game presentation, broadcast, hospitality, ticketing, venue operations, athlete and NIL programs, digital and social, and communications. The Manager is the person who knows exactly which partner asset lives in which workstream, who is responsible for it, when it is due and whether it was delivered as contracted. You will be the connective tissue between the account team, the internal Players Era functions and every third party that touches a partner deliverable.

This role works hand-in-hand with the Director, Sponsorship Account Management, who owns partner strategy and relationships, and closely with Players Era's senior leadership team and Jigsaw Labs, our lead agency, which drives strategy and execution for the entire sponsorship sales function. What Jigsaw and leadership commit to on paper, the Senior Manager makes real on the floor and on air. Where the Director is accountable for what the partnership should be, the Senior Manager is accountable for proving that it was.

What you will do:

• Own contractual delivery. Break every partner agreement into a master asset and deliverable tracker covering media units, signage and on-site presence, hospitality and tickets, athlete appearances and NIL content, digital and social, broadcast integrations and event-specific programs. Maintain the tracker as the single source of truth for fulfillment status across the portfolio.
• Run the activation calendar. Build and manage the integrated activation timeline across the Volleyball Showcase, Men's Championship, Women's Basketball Showcase and international events, including creative deadlines, production lead times, approval windows and on-site run-of-show dependencies.
• Coordinate execution partners. Serve as the day-to-day point of contact for partner deliverables with our creative services, production and game presentation, broadcast, hospitality, ticketing, venue, digital/social and communications partners. Issue clear briefs, confirm scope and specifications, and hold each partner to deadline and quality.
• Assure quality. Establish and enforce quality-assurance standards for partner execution: on-site walk-throughs and signage checks, broadcast integration verification, creative and brand compliance, hospitality and ticket fulfillment, and athlete appearance logistics. Catch issues before the partner does, and resolve them on the spot.
• Lead the approvals process. Manage the submission, review and approval of partner creative and Players Era brand usage across all channels, coordinating with league, venue and broadcaster requirements and keeping approval timelines on schedule.
• Capture proof of performance. Collect photography, broadcast logs, impressions, social metrics, attendance and hospitality data for every deliverable and package it into recap materials and season-end wrap reports that the account team can put in front of partners.
• Manage budgets and vendors. Own partner activation budgets, vendor scopes, purchase orders and reconciliation; work with finance on billing milestones tied to deliverable completion.
• Run the on-site operation. Lead partner activation on the ground during event weeks, including load-in and load-out, activation footprints, hospitality experiences, talent and athlete appearances and real-time problem-solving.
• Build the playbook. Document the procedures, templates and standards that let the activation function scale as the portfolio and event slate grow; develop and mentor coordinators and seasonal staff.
• Work with content and production. Work closely with the Players Era content and production team on all brand projects and partner deliverables, aligning creative timelines, production specs and delivery windows so partner assets are executed inside our production process and captured for proof of performance.
• Close the loop with sales and leadership. Keep Jigsaw Labs and Players Era senior leadership current on fulfillment status, delivery risks and available inventory so that what is being sold reflects what can be executed, and so that proof of performance feeds directly into renewal and expansion conversations.
• Anticipate. Flag risks to delivery early, propose practical solutions, and identify unused or under-used assets that can be redeployed to add value for partners before the term closes.

What We're Looking For

• 2-4 years in sponsorship activation, partnership fulfillment, event production or account management at a property, league, agency or brand, with direct responsibility for contracted asset delivery.
• Hands-on experience managing production, broadcast, hospitality or game-presentation vendors and holding them to scope, schedule and standard.
• Deep working knowledge of event marketing operations and logistics: credentials, signage and build, ticket and hospitality fulfillment, talent logistics, run of show.
• Experience leading creative and brand approval processes involving multiple stakeholders and rights holders.
• A reputation for organization and detail: you build trackers people actually use, and nothing falls through because of you.
• Calm, decisive and solutions-oriented under live-event pressure.
• Strong written and verbal communication; able to write a precise vendor brief and a clear partner recap.
• Advanced Excel and PowerPoint; familiarity with project-management, CRM and asset-tracking tools.
• College sports, NIL or athlete-content experience is a plus.
• Willingness to travel and to work extended hours during event weeks, including nights and weekends.