Senior Director, Partnership Sales

Role Overview

We’re looking for a strategic, proactive, and solutions-oriented Senior Director of Partnership Sales to drive new business across RTS, Evo, and our broader portfolio of capabilities. This is not a transactional sponsorship sales role. We’re looking for an experienced seller who leads with a marketing mindset, understands how brands and agencies define success, and can translate business objectives and KPIs into compelling, integrated partnership solutions.

The ideal candidate brings a strong understanding of sponsorship sales, intellectual property, and integrated marketing across digital, media, content, experiential, creators, and live events. They will have deep experience and a proven track record of opening doors, diagnosing client challenges, building a strategic narrative, and leading a sophisticated pitch from first conversation through negotiation and close.

Reporting Structure

You will report to the VP, Partnership Sales/marketing and work closely with the Head of Sales and the broader Global Partnership Sales & Marketing team.

Key Responsibilities

New Business & Revenue Growth

• Tap into individual network of live event sponsorship and media buyers to own and grow a high-quality pipeline of non-endemic brand and agency prospects.
• Prospect proactively and build relationships with senior decision-makers across brands, agencies, media buyers, and marketing organizations.
• Develop new partnership opportunities across live event sponsorship, media, content, experiential, creators, gaming programs, production, consulting, and other RTS capabilities.
• Manage the full sales cycle from prospecting and discovery through proposal development, negotiation, contracting, and handoff.
• Consistently deliver against individual revenue targets while contributing to broader team goals and commercial priorities.
• Identify whitespace across categories, markets, and client portfolios and turn those opportunities into actionable sales strategies.

Client Strategy & Solution-Oriented Selling

• Lead discovery with a strong understanding of the client’s business, marketing objectives, audience priorities, challenges, and KPIs.
• Break down client and agency KPIs to identify the role RTS, Evo, and our capabilities can play in delivering against those goals.
• Move beyond asset-led selling by developing customized, insight-driven solutions that connect client objectives to the right combination of IP, audience, platforms, and experiences.
• Build compelling sales narratives that clearly articulate the strategic 'why,' the consumer opportunity, the activation idea, and the measurable business value.
• Challenge traditional event sponsorship thinking and proactively bring clients ideas they may not have asked for but that solve a real marketing or business need.
• Balance creativity with commercial discipline, ensuring recommendations are differentiated, executable, scalable, and aligned with client budgets.

Integrated Partnerships & IP Commercialization

• Demonstrate a strong understanding of how to commercialize intellectual property and translate rights and assets into meaningful brand programs.
• Develop integrated partnership programs spanning digital, social, content, media, experiential, creators, talent, hospitality, live events, and branded activations.
• Understand the role of media, content, and experiential extensions in increasing the reach and value of a core sponsorship platform.
• Identify opportunities to connect Evo with the broader RTS ecosystem to create larger, more strategic partnerships.
• Work with internal teams to develop new commercial products, packages, and scalable offerings based on market demand and client needs.

Agency & Client Leadership

• Build trusted relationships with senior client and agency stakeholders and establish RTS as a strategic marketing partner, not simply an inventory provider.
• Navigate complex agency and client structures, including brand teams, media agencies, creative agencies, experiential agencies, and sponsorship decision-makers.
• Lead high-level presentations, strategic workshops, negotiations, and partnership discussions with confidence and credibility.
• Maintain an informed point of view on the client’s category, competitive landscape, consumer trends, and business priorities.
• Create long-term relationships that generate repeat business, renewals, upsells, and introductions across additional brands and business units.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner closely with Partnership Marketing, Strategy, Creative, Production, Operations, Finance, Legal, Talent, and other internal teams to develop strong and executable solutions.
• Bring internal subject-matter experts into the sales process at the right moments while maintaining clear ownership of the client relationship and commercial opportunity.
• Provide clear, thoughtful handoffs to Partnership Marketing following the close of a deal, including client objectives, KPIs, commitments, expectations, and renewal opportunities.
• Share market intelligence, client feedback, category trends, and competitive insights to help evolve RTS’s commercial story and product offering.
• Mentor junior team members and contribute to a collaborative, accountable, high-performance sales culture.

Sales Management & Commercial Discipline

• Maintain accurate pipeline management, forecasting, opportunity stages, and next steps within the company’s CRM.
• Build thoughtful account plans for priority prospects and identify the stakeholders, timing, budgets, and business triggers required to advance opportunities.
• Prioritize opportunities based on revenue potential, strategic fit, probability, and resource requirements.
• Partner with leadership on pricing, packaging, deal structure, and negotiation strategy.
• Use data, insights, and performance learnings to continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of the sales process.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in sponsorship sales, partnerships, integrated media sales, entertainment, sports, gaming, experiential, or a related commercial role.
• Proven track record of generating meaningful new business revenue and closing complex six-to-seven figure deals across multiple platforms.
• Strong understanding of sponsorship, intellectual property, integrated marketing, digital media, experiential marketing, content, and live-event sales.
• Demonstrated ability to uncover client needs, understand KPIs, and translate marketing objectives into strategic partnership solutions.
• Existing relationships with major brands, agencies, and senior marketing decision-makers.
• Strong presentation, storytelling, negotiation, and consultative selling skills.
• Ability to think like a marketer while operating with the urgency and accountability of a seller.
• Strong commercial judgment and comfort working across both strategic and executional details.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, remote-first environment.
• Excellent collaboration skills and experience working cross-functionally across sales, marketing, creative, production, operations, finance, and legal.
• Based in the United States.
• Available for event and client-related travel.

Bonus Points

• Experience selling live events within gaming, esports, sports, entertainment, media, creator, or enthusiast-culture businesses.
• Experience representing or commercializing major live events, leagues, properties, or entertainment IP.
• Experience developing seven-figure, multi-year integrated partnerships.
• Deep relationships across major holding companies, agencies, and Fortune 500 brands.
• Passion for gaming, fighting games, live events, and the communities RTS serves.

Our Culture

We’re very proud of the culture we’ve nurtured within RTS. We enjoy a high retention rate and value the relationships our employees build with one another, even in a fully remote environment. As a senior member of the commercial organization, we want you to embody and perpetuate the following values:

• Lead with empathy — Ensure clients and colleagues feel heard, especially when navigating difficult decisions or competing priorities.
• Challenge everything — Bring critical thinking to ideas in their earliest stages, help shape them into stronger concepts, and encourage creative experimentation in a safe and supportive environment.

Compensation

The compensation for this role is $140k to $160k, plus commission.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, Vision and Life Insurance
• 401k plan available for employee contributions
• Flexible work schedule
• Generous PTO and company-observed holidays
• Remote-first culture