Description

The Ocean Race and our Evolution

The Ocean Race is the toughest test of a team in sport, and a leader in sustainability. The Ocean Race has been undergoing a significant transformation in the last 6-7 years, taking a new direction that is seeing the platform of the race utilised to drive impact for a healthier ocean, using the emotion, interest and global reach of sport to inspire action and drive advocacy.

The Ocean Race is also creating more on-water action than ever before. We are entering a new, ‘always on’ era, with our ongoing ocean health initiatives and two new races - The Ocean Race Europe (2025) and The Ocean Race Atlantic (2026) - building into our main, iconic, around the world event - The Ocean Race 2027.

This means we will engage with 15-18 Host Cities across each 4-year race cycle moving forward (whereas previously, this was limited to 8-10 host cities and one main event).

This new direction is now seeing the Global Partners of The Ocean Race having more opportunities to activate than ever before, and the focus on ocean health is providing a new way to communicate and drive value through these partnerships that are now “bigger than sport”. For example, Volvo Cars recently signed a new long-term extension of their 25+ year partnership with The Ocean Race, this time with biodiversity at the core of their partnership, and the importance of coastal health and mitigating impact on coastal areas being a key communications element. This partnership, extending well into the next decade, will allow both parties to work together on shared interests around Ocean health and its critical impact on people and planet. Jim Rowan, Chief Executive of Volvo Cars said “Together with The Ocean Race, we want to create a bigger voice for Ocean health and Ocean rights.” This is a concrete example of how partnerships with purpose through The Ocean Race are delivering an authentic point of difference in a crowded sports partnerships market.

Role Description

The evolution of The Ocean Race and the opportunity for more "always-on" engagement with race stakeholders has created the need for a new type of client engagement that maximizes value from innovative partnership models.

We are seeking a strategic leader for the role of Commercial Relationships Director, who will drive a proactive and value-focused approach to client management. This leader will oversee The Ocean Race’s partnership management strategy, ensuring the delivery of commercial value to race partners, host cities, teams and team sponsors and, maximizing value from these relationships.

The primary objective of this role is to secure stakeholder contract renewals and foster contract growth by providing outstanding client service, fulfilling rights and benefits, and demonstrating a return on investment that exceeds expectations.

The Commercial Relationships Director's success will be measured through stakeholder contract renewals, client servicing assessments, additional value and revenue generated, as well as contributions to broader organizational goals. Cultivating a positive, professional, and proactive client service culture throughout the organization is essential for this role.

This role will be based in Alicante, and we are looking for a start date at the beginning of January 2025 or as early as possible for a permanent, full-time position.

Candidate Profile

The Commercial Relationships Director must possess the following key personal skills and attributes:

• Strategic, commercially minded and value-driven
• Inspiring commercial leadership, proactive thinking and self-motivate attitude
• Excellent communication and relationship building skills
• Strong entrepreneurial spirit, with a creative and innovative approach.
• Strong planning and operational management
• Outstanding collaborative skills, to drive and influence complex stakeholder relations at a senior level and to unlock commercial opportunities.
• Outstanding social skills.

Responsibilities

General Commercial Support for Race Stakeholders:

• Oversee and deliver Partner rights and benefits inventory, allocate resources, and drive creative concepts for Partner activation.
• Provide commercial support for racing teams.
• Manage commercial relationships with Host Cities, enabling value generation for their local sponsors while safeguarding the value for Global Race partners.

Stakeholder Relations:

• Deliver comprehensive client servicing for partners and race stakeholders across all business areas per contractual agreements, including brand visibility, communications, purpose-based initiatives, B2B interactions, client hosting, and commercial activations.
• Identify ways for Partners to support The Ocean Race’s ‘Racing With Purpose’ sustainability initiatives.
• Coordinate stakeholder communications.
• Offer activation consulting, strategic advice, and best practices to stakeholders.
• Maintain an overview of stakeholder objectives and define a cross-company stakeholder relationship strategy.
• Manage client servicing programs, processes, and systems (e.g., RaceNet).
• Foster cross-partner relationships and networking among stakeholders, including premier partners, official partners and suppliers, host cities and their partners, teams and team partners, and key stakeholders such as WBD and purpose-driven organizations.

Value Creation:

• Focus on embedding The Ocean Race within each Partner’s organization.
• Assist Partners in developing innovative activation strategies to maximize reach, visibility, and impact.
• Promote the sale of hospitality services and licensed merchandise within stakeholder groups.
• Identify upselling opportunities to enhance stakeholder value.

Others:

• Management of People: Participate in the hiring process for department members and lead, manage, and inspire the department members.
• Financial Management: Create and manage the department’s budget.
• Research:
  • Continuously monitor and analyze partnership performance to demonstrate value and ROI, fostering stakeholder renewals.
  • Collaborate with the research team on impact studies and media reports, creating case studies of successful activations to support partners and aid the Partnership Development team in securing new agreements.
• Sales Materials: Work with the sales and marketing teams to develop new sales collateral and marketing materials.
• Hospitality and Merchandise Sales: Promote hospitality services and official merchandise sales within stakeholder groups.
• Host City Management: Guide host cities’ commercial activities, ensuring alignment with partner categories and avoiding overlap.
• Media, PR, and Branding: Contribute to targeted media and PR initiatives as well as marketing and branding efforts.

Minimum requirements

• Experience in Commercial Account and Project Management: Over 10 years of experience in commercial account management or project management, ideally within the professional sports sector.
• Commercial Partnerships and Event Expertise: Extensive background in managing commercial partnerships, events, and hospitality within global sports events, delivering value for B2B and B2C brands.
• Sports Marketing Knowledge: Strong understanding of sports marketing principles, with experience tailoring strategies for both B2B and B2C audiences.
• Large-Scale Sporting Event Experience: Proven experience working on high-profile, large-scale sporting events.
• Agency and Client Management Background: Prior experience in an agency setting, successfully managing projects across multiple clients and delivering “big brand” campaigns.
• Purpose-Driven Mindset: Genuine interest in working with an organization that prioritizes purpose and positive impact.
• Language Skills: Proficiency in English is required; knowledge of additional languages, particularly Spanish, French, German or Italian, is a plus.
• Presentation and Communication Skills: Excellent presentation and communication skills, with the ability to engage diverse stakeholders.
• Technical Proficiency: Strong IT skills, including expertise in the Mac environment, Keynote, and Google Sheets.
• Legal requirements: EU national or ability to obtain necessary EU working permits.
• Location and Travel: Willingness to be based in Alicante, with occasional travel during non-race periods and intensive travel during event periods.

Details

CATEGORY Other SUBCATEGORY Unspecified SECTOR Advertising, PR and events WORKDAY Full Time PROFESSIONAL LEVEL Management DEPARTAMENT Customer Service

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