Job Description:

Rakuten International oversees 7 businesses with over 4,000 employees globally. The brand is recognized for its leadership and innovation in e-commerce, digital content, advertising, entertainment and communications, bringing the joy of discovery and access to more than 1 billion members across the world. Our teams deliver on the company’s mission to delight merchants and customers through innovation, optimism, and teamwork.

Rakuten Rewards is a leading e-commerce company that enhances the way people shop by offering Cash Back, deals and rewards from more than 3,500 merchants. Founded in 1999, Rakuten has grown to become the go-to shopping destination for consumers, having paid out nearly $2 billion in Cash Back to its 15 million members. The company also operates ShopStyle, a leading fashion discovery destination, and Cartera Commerce, a top rewards platform for airlines and banks. For more information, visit www.rakuten.com.

SUMMARY:

The Rakuten Sports & Entertainment (S&E) team is seeking a highly capable and motivated individual to successfully manage the day-to-day operations of marquee partnerships to drive brand awareness and leverage the national sports and entertainment partnerships. 

In this role, the team member will report to the Director, Sports & Entertainment. This role can be located in our San Mateo or San Francisco offices.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES  

Directly manage the day-to-day operations and relationship management of assigned Sports & Entertainment partnerships

• Collaborate with internal teams to ensure proper tracking and reporting is in place

• Day-to-day agency management responsibilities to include reporting and tracking of agency hours, reviewing, and processing SOWs with legal and finance, creating supporting documents for budget approvals

• Support Director in the creation of annual activation plan in partnership with SVP and sports & entertainment team to align with the Rakuten brand and to authentically reach each partnership audience in unique ways

• Manage coordinator assigned to support managed partnerships. Ability to clearly define roles and responsibilities and delegate as necessary. 

• Guide direct report and internal teams on asset tracking best practices and ensure recapping and reporting is in place for each partnership

• Drive cross functional teams (creative, business intelligence, brand, legal, social, email etc.) to successfully integrate partnership campaigns

• Support Director and SVP in renewal and new partnership negotiations including reviewing deal structures and contracts and creating sell-in documents under guidance of Director and SVP for leadership

• Achieve mutual KPI goals for acquisition and brand awareness with strategic partners

• Establish partner-specific KPIs; assure constant reporting and tracking; requires an objective assessment of the overall partnership portfolio, to determine lifetime value and efficacy

• Possessing the innate ability to collaborate/motivate internal & matrixed teams, to design and implement singular partnership opportunities, and achieve annual acquisition & revenue goals

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Direct experience managing multiple sports & entertainment partnerships simultaneously on behalf of a brand (agency, property, or brand side) and experience with high visibility properties and athletes or celebrities

• Strong industry knowledge of brand partnerships in the sports and entertainment space and talent management experience

• Experience in managing productions and campaigns with celebrity talent/athlete integration

• Highly organized with an attention to detail

• Highly developed verbal and written communication skills, including communications to senior management and strong conflict resolution skills

• Comfortable navigating legal and commercial frameworks

• Comfortable working events that require time in the evenings and on weekends

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 8 - 10 years of experience in the sports & entertainment industry with experience directly managing partnerships

• BA degree (or similar); sports marketing or business focus preferred

#LI-TL2

Five Principles for Success
Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.

Always improve, Always Advance - Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen
Passionately Professional - Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best
Hypothesize - Practice - Validate – Shikumika - Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory
Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the base compensation for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors, including the skills, qualifications, and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location. The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for discretionary bonus, health, vision, dental insurance, 401k matching, PTO, Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements.

USD $99,306.00 - $171,612.00 annually