Global Senior Director, Nike Entertainment and Celebrity Partnerships

Information about benefits can be found here.

Based in Los Angeles, as the Entertainment and Celebrity Senior Director you will be part of the Global Entertainment and Celebrity Partnerships team.  This team is responsible for the management of the relationships with entertainers, stylists, models, streamers and fashion/style trendsetters and will be accountable for:

• Humanizing our brand through relationships with people of influence who are moving culture forward, keeping Nike at the center of popular culture conversations and energizing the business and brand
• Providing outstanding service and brand management for these external relationships 
• Providing thoughtful insights to our cross functional partners to ensure that we integrate our relationships into the brand plans in authentic, meaningful and impactful ways
• Driving Nike’s ground game (alongside our cross functional partners in the Energy Marketing function) to ensure we have constant, meaningful traction within the most influential communities within our most important cities

Who are we looking for? 

We are looking for an experienced and talented senior director who is a curious, connected, active participant in various subculture communities. You see unique opportunities to take risks, expand perception, celebrate brand values, accelerate the business and advance the notion of sport culture through thought provoking intersections with cultural influencers.

In this role you will input into the strategy to build and maintain Nike’s presence in popular culture and ensure that we are always at the center of the intersection of culture and sport.  This will include the ways in which we engage within the cultural communities and how we deepen the relationships with innovative cultural leaders. You will work with the Vice President of the team to identify and engage with a portfolio of talent in North America and will lead and drive discussions with our cross functional partners to define integration opportunities, develop the overarching positioning, strategic intent, and other business-critical components for a successful partnership. You will oversee high level aspects of our projects and partnerships and lead the team to deliver best in class service to our external partners. 

What will you work on? 

The shape of your day-to-day work will vary significantly, and therefore your style and influence will have to adapt accordingly. You must be consistently collaborative and open to the opinions and expertise of those you engage with.

In this role your core duties will include: 

• Serve on the Global Entertainment and Celebrity Partnerships Leadership team where you will input into overall functional portfolio planning and ways of working
• Collaborate with the Los Angeles City Marketing and Energy Marketing teams to ensure connectivity into the city plans, finding ways to integrate our partners in impactful and meaningful ways
• Collaborate and serve as thought partner to the North America sport leads to understand all GEO needs for entertainment and cultural influencers and integrate the portfolio accordingly
• Drive and maintain a powerful network and portfolio of cultural influencers, to keep Nike relevant in popular culture and energize the brand
• Develop the mapping for your region, including overarching positioning, strategy, and objective behind the partnership
• Serve as a leader and mentor to a team of directors and manager(s) who will carry out the day-to-day management of our external partners
• In partnership with your VP and our Product Operations team, drive the strategy and oversight of our community space in Los Angeles 
• Develop, in partnership with the Global Leadership Team, and carry out the COE’s best practices
• Provide creative and strategic acumen to input into brand and partnership plans
• Gather structured and continuous insights to allow us to better serve the enterprise needs
• Gain insights from external partner and share back to all relevant teams to input into strategic planning, marketing plans and overall management of the project
• Communicate with internal partners for all questions, needs, concerns and requests of external partner - balance and assess asks/needs in conjunction with overall strategy, business objectives and project scope
• Develop (in partnership with your VP) and adhere to a fiscal year budget for all contract fees, servicing needs, demand creation, T&E
• Negotiate all contracts with our partners and work closely with legal through execution

Who will you work with?

You will be part of Global Entertainment and Celebrity Partnerships function, reporting directly to the VP of Entertainment and Celebrity Partnerships. In this role you will work with the Energy and City teams in LA as well as the sport teams across North America, always with a growth mindset to contribute towards a World-class team.

And you will of course build very strong external relationships with key cultural influencers in the city.

What you bring to Nike?

• Minimum 10 years of experience developing and maintaining relationships with cultural leaders (particularly across music, tv, film) and integrating them into brand plans
• Bachelor Degree in Marketing or related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education, experience and training.
• Deep passion and knowledge of entertainment, fashion, design and pop culture and the Nike brand
• Strong inter-personal, communication and organizational skills required
• Proven leadership skills in managing/influencing teams and implementing key business initiatives
• Ability to work collaboratively and influence cross-functional teams
• Previous experience applying knowledge of business drivers to identify key indicators including budget development and tracking, and financial forecasting
• Proven connections with influential Cultural Influencers and thought leaders (Entertainment—Film/TV/Music, and Style).

We offer a number of accommodations to complete our interview process including screen readers, sign language interpreters, accessible and single location for in-person interviews, closed captioning, and other reasonable modifications as needed. If you discover, as you navigate our application process, that you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please complete the Candidate Accommodation Request Form.