Director, Brand Partnerships

Zillow

23h • $166,400 - $279,800 • Remote

About The Position

As the Director, Brand Partnerships within the Brand and Growth team, you’ll join a highly cross-functional group focused on building Zillow’s brand, accelerating growth, and creating culturally relevant moments that move our business forward. This team sits at the intersection of brand, media, content, and sales, designing programs that show up where our customers already are and deepen engagement across Zillow’s ecosystem. The Director, Brand Partnerships will be a senior leader and visible partner across marketing, product, and revenue teams. We are hiring a Director of Brand Partnerships to build and lead Zillow’s partnership ecosystem from the ground up. In this foundational leadership role, you will define the vision for how Zillow shows up through partners in culture, communities, and moments that matter—then roll up your sleeves to bring that vision to life. You will own Zillow’s partnership strategy end-to-end: identifying and prioritizing opportunities, structuring and negotiating complex deals, designing scalable monetization models, and ensuring that every partnership delivers measurable impact across Zillow’s lines of business.

Requirements

• Culture-first partnerships expert. You have deep experience leading culture-driving partnerships (e.g., sports, entertainment, music, lifestyle, platforms) and understand how brands can show up authentically in fandoms, communities, and cultural moments.
• Commercially minded leader. You are comfortable with revenue accountability and have experience designing monetization models, forecasting partnership-driven revenue, and partnering closely with Sales, Finance, and Marketing to hit aggressive targets.
• Exceptional dealmaker. You bring extensive experience leading complex, multi-year negotiations, managing large financial commitments, and structuring win–win agreements that balance brand, partner, and commercial objectives.
• Builder who thrives in ambiguity. You are energized by build mode—creating something foundational for the company rather than inheriting an existing playbook—and can move from vision to detailed execution.
• Cross-functional influencer. You are skilled at aligning diverse stakeholders (e.g., Brand, Sales, Rentals, Product, Elevate, Legal, Finance, Media, Content) around a shared partnership strategy and go-to-market plan.
• Experienced partnerships leader. You have 12+ years of experience in partnerships, business development, media, sponsorship, or growth leadership roles, with a track record of building and scaling impactful partnership programs.
• Inclusive, growth-minded collaborator. Here at Zillow, we value the experience and perspective of candidates with non-traditional backgrounds. We encourage you to apply if you have transferable skills or related experiences, even if you don’t meet every qualification listed above.

Responsibilities

• Lead and operationalize flagship partnerships—own Zillow’s largest and most strategic relationships (e.g., MLB) end-to-end, from strategy and negotiation through activation and optimization.
• Serve as a senior external face of the brand—build and deepen executive-level relationships with leagues, platforms, IP owners, and brand partners that can meaningfully move Zillow’s brand and business forward.
• Turn complex deals into repeatable playbooks—translate multi-faceted partnership agreements into clear operating models, processes, and toolkits that can be scaled across teams and campaigns.
• Drive fully integrated activations—partner closely with campaign, creative, content, sales, and events teams to ensure partnerships are activated across brand, media, sales, content, and distribution channels.
• Own partnership strategy and portfolio design—define which partnerships we should pursue (and which we should not), balancing brand, audience, and commercial impact across culture, IP, brands, and distribution.
• Design and scale monetization models—build and refine sponsorship, custom program, content, events, and distribution revenue models in close partnership with Sales, Finance, and Marketing leadership.
• Forecast and measure impact—set KPIs, forecast partnership-driven revenue, and build reporting that clearly communicates performance and business impact to senior stakeholders.
• Build and lead a high-impact team—act as a player-coach in the early stages while hiring, mentoring, and developing a lean, high-performing partnerships team, including best practices, governance, and operating rhythms.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees