Senior Partnership Manager

JOB TITLE: Senior Partnership Manager

DEPARTMENT: Partnerships (Commercial)

DIRECT REPORTS: Partnership Executive

LOCATION: Stamford Bridge, London

CONTRACT: Permanent, Full Time

Closing date: 26th October

We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. In the event that we receive a large number of applications, the position may be filled before the listed closing date. To avoid missing out, please submit your application at your earliest convenience.

JOB FUNCTION:

Chelsea FC is seeking an experienced and commercially minded Senior Partnership Manager to support the management of a portfolio of the club’s Principal and Global Partners, delivering exceptional service, innovative activations, and long-term strategic value.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment, enjoys building senior stakeholder relationships, and has a proven track record of delivering best-in-class sponsorship programmes. Working across the club, you will play a key role in bringing partnerships to life, driving partner satisfaction and retention, and identifying new opportunities to maximise the value of our relationships.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage a portfolio of Principal and Global Partners, ensuring exceptional relationship management, delivery against contractual rights, and achievement of partnership objectives and KPIs.
• Develop a strong understanding of partners’ core businesses and partnership objectives to ensure optimum alignment and results.
• Implement efficient delivery processes to ensure consistent and high-quality fulfilment of contractual rights.
• Develop and deliver best-in-class partnership activation strategies across, creating measurable value for partners and the club.
• Lead the planning and execution of integrated campaigns, events, player appearances, content shoots, and matchday activations.
• Build trusted relationships with senior partner stakeholders, agencies, and internal departments, acting as a strategic advisor and key point of contact.
• Lead partner review meetings, activation planning, reporting, and performance evaluation, demonstrating partnership impact and ROI.
• Line manage and develop Partnership Executives, fostering a high-performance, proactive, and commercially focused team culture.
• Contribute to the continual improvement of partnership servicing standards, championing best practice and supporting a world-class partner experience.

MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE:

• Delivery against partner KPIs, contractual commitments, and business objectives.
• Partner satisfaction, retention, and account growth.
• Quality and effectiveness of partner activation plans and campaigns.
• Strength of internal stakeholder relationships and cross-functional collaboration.
• Development and performance of direct reports.
• Consistent demonstration of Chelsea FC values and world-class servicing standards.

PERSON SPECIFICATION:

• Significant experience within the sponsorship/sports marketing industry.
• Experience of account managing brands on a global scale.
• Experience of activating brand campaigns across social media.
• Strategic and analytical capability.
• A commercial, results driven individual with entrepreneurial capabilities.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with confidence engaging a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.
• An experienced team leader, capable of working with less senior team members to manage workflow and ensure team resources are utilised efficiently.
• A proven team player who is calm, professional, works well under pressure and is diligent and detail orientated.
• Willing to work between locations and to be flexible with working hours (including working weekends and international travel).

Our Expectations:

• To embody the club’s BLUE behaviours (Brave, Lead, Unity, Edge) in the approach to work and interaction with others
• To adhere to the club’s policies and procedures, including Health & Safety, Financial Authorisation, Confidentiality and GDPR.
• To act as an ambassador for diversity, equality, and inclusion, and demonstrate a positive commitment by treating others fairly in line with our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy and reporting any acts of discrimination through appropriate channels
• To create a safe environment and act to protect all young people and vulnerable adults that are either in your care or attending club premises, and report any concerns to the Safeguarding Lead
• To report any misconduct or suspected misconduct to the HR Department

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

At Chelsea we recognise that the diversity of our people is one of our greatest strengths and we are taking positive action to ensure our existing colleagues and job applicants can fully be themselves and bring their own unique experiences and perspectives to Chelsea FC. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.

If you need reasonable adjustments made to the recruitment process, please reach out to your recruiter, who will be able to advise and support you.

Chelsea FC is fully committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all children, young people and adults at risk (vulnerable groups). We therefore require all successful applicants to complete a DBS Check prior to starting employment. Depending on the role, successful applicants may also be required to undergo other child protection screening where appropriate.

This Job Description is not intended to be exhaustive; the duties and responsibilities may therefore vary over time according to the changing needs of the Club.