Director, Strategic Partnerships/Events

Philip Morris International U.S.•Stamford, CT

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director Strategic Partnerships and Events leads the strategy and execution for strategic partnerships, events, and experiential activations that build brand equity and drive consumer engagement across priority audiences and communities. The role develops the annual partnerships and events roadmap, manages partner ecosystems, and ensures delivery of best-in-class, compliant experiences across owned and third-party environments, in coordination with Brand, Media, CX and Commercial Ops. Evolves partnerships and events from tactical activations into scalable brand experience platforms that elevate consumer ecosystem priorities and embraces multi-category portfolio strategy where relevant. Acts as the cultural amplification engine of the brands; identifying platforms/ passion points (e.g., sports, music, lifestyle, innovation) that unlock relevance, premium positioning, and category education in a regulated environment and in service of brand equity amplification. Ensuring partnerships are not standalone sponsorships, but structured, measurable growth engines integrated with Brand, Media, and CX.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
10+ years of experience in experiential marketing, events, partnerships, or activation roles; leadership experience required.
Proven ability to manage complex event portfolios, partner negotiations, and vendor ecosystems in regulated environments.
Demonstrated experience in structuring multi-year partnership agreements with measurable commercial outcomes.
Experience leading consumer-facing activation platforms across multiple channels.
Strong commercial acumen with exposure to ROI measurements and investment evaluation
Strong project management and operational discipline; ability to execute at pace with high quality.
Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and negotiation skills.
Experience operating in matrixed organizations with cross-functional interdependencies.
Experience with both regulated, compliance intensive and commercially dynamic consumer sectors
Legally authorized to work in the US without sponsorship now and in the future

Responsibilities

Identify, evaluate, and structure partnerships that advance brand and portfolio objectives across categories.
Develop multi-year partnership strategies spanning cultural, experiential, and community platforms.
Identify, evaluate, and negotiate partnerships as scalable platforms (not one-off deals), with clear role in acquisition, education, engagement, experience and premiumization within the broader consumer ecosystem.
Lead the strategy and orchestration of enterprise-level events and experiential touchpoints.
Drive clarity on purpose, audience targeting, and ROI expectations for events.
Design and oversee scalable consumer engagement frameworks, including LAMPs, experiential campaigns, and regional activation models.
Establish governance standards, toolkits, and measurements for consistency and effectiveness in local activation efforts.
Lead end-to-end planning and delivery of experiential activations (product launches, festivals, community activations, LAMPs, brand-owned events) including staffing models and vendor governance.
Embed structured learning loops across events and partnerships to optimize impact and inform future portfolio and brand decisions.
Oversee the integration of partnerships and experiential activation across consumer-facing channels.
Ensure consistent brand expression and measurable impact across engagement moments.
Ensure consistent application of brand, marketing, and consumer experience guidelines across one-to-one and one-to-many experiences.
Establish operational standards (safety, compliance, training, playbooks) for event execution across internal teams, contractors, and partners.
Define clear success metrics for partnerships and activation platforms, linking consumer engagement outcomes to commercial performance indicators.
Partner with Portfolio Strategy, Commercial Transformation, Commercial Operations to assess return thresholds and optimize investment allocation across partnership initiatives.
Define and track event/partnership KPIs (traffic, leads, conversion, NPS/experience measures, cost efficiency) and drive post-event learning and optimization.
Manage budgets, contracts, and supplier performance; ensure financial discipline and measurable outcomes.
Work closely with Brands and Commercial Operations to ensure alignment with brand positioning and portfolio priorities as well as execution excellence.
Engage Corporate Communications to align flagship partnerships with broader corporate narrative and reputation strategy.
Collaborate with Global teams where relevant to leverage or localize global platforms.
Lead and develop a high-performing partnership and events team capable of negotiating, structuring, and executing complex activation platforms.
Build capabilities in partnership valuation, experiential design, stakeholder management, and performance measurement.