Growth and Partnerships Director

Duel•New York, NY

1d•$150,000 - $200,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Duel is a SaaS company on a mission to make Brand Advocacy the industry standard for building brilliant retail brands. Founded by world record breaking adventurer and former brand ambassador Paul Archer, Duel exists to show that companies built for advocacy can change the world. In today's hyper connected world, where social media is now twice the size of all other media channels combined and entirely user generated, the most successful brands are the ones investing in people and in community, not in ads. The Duel Brand Advocacy Solution allows enterprise brands to do just that. We have onboarded over 60 influential brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Charlotte Tilbury, Spanx, Victoria's Secret, LUSH, and Elemis. Duel's team works from hubs in New York City, London, and Bristol. Our team of 60+ is composed of psychologists, brand experts, and community builders, combining cutting edge brand expertise with seasoned SaaS experience. Backed by top VCs, Duel recently announced a $16 million Series A, which is accelerating our growth in the US from our base in New York and bringing our AI driven product vision to life, giving brands what they need to grow through thousands of advocates, customers, creators, and brand ambassadors.

Requirements

Agency and/or brand marketing experience. You’ve worked within a marketing, creative, or advertising agency, partnering directly with brands to solve commercial challenges and navigate complex stakeholder relationships. Brand-side experience is a strong complement, and a blend of agency and in-house experience is ideal.
A naturally consultative approach. You know how to earn credibility, run strong discovery, and have meaningful commercial conversations with senior marketing leaders. You can understand someone’s world quickly, diagnose the real challenge, and bring a perspective that moves the conversation forward.
A hunter’s mentality. You’re comfortable creating opportunities rather than waiting for them to arrive. A strong network helps, but you don’t depend on it. You’re willing to dig into accounts, find a way in, prospect consistently, follow up, handle rejection, and keep building pipeline even when you’re progressing larger opportunities.
Genuine curiosity. You ask thoughtful questions because you genuinely want to understand people’s goals, challenges, and motivations. You don’t hide behind scripts or rigid frameworks. You listen, adapt, dig deeper, and use what you learn to help someone see their challenge differently.
Strong commercial acumen. You’re comfortable being accountable for pipeline, quota targets, and commercial outcomes, while recognising that the consistent results come from creating genuine value and conviction.
Consistency and resilience. You’re happy rolling up your sleeves and doing the fundamentals exceptionally well, week after week. You have experience committing to the grind, and you have the discipline to maintain momentum through unanswered messages, lost opportunities, long sales cycles, and uncertainty.
Comfort operating in ambiguity. You can experiment, assimilate and adapt without losing momentum. You bring the value realisation required to introduce brands to a different way of thinking about growth.
A practical relationship with AI. You use AI to understand, sharpen a point of view, identify potential angles into an account, or move faster through the less monotonous parts of the job, freeing up more of your time and energy for the productive, human work that matters.

Nice To Haves

Exposure to retail, DTC, beauty, or fashion is a bonus.
Enterprise SaaS or solution-selling experience is welcome, but not essential.

Responsibilities

Hunt, and keep hunting. At Duel, you’re often introducing a brand to an advocacy concept they haven’t encountered before. That means creating the opportunity from scratch: identifying the right accounts, finding a way in, earning attention, selling the idea of advocacy, building conviction with the buyer, and progressing the opportunity, all while continuing to build pipeline behind it.
Show up as a consultant, not a seller. Some of our strongest brand relationships don’t begin with traditional outbound. They start with a warm introduction, a referral from a brand already on its advocacy journey, a conversation at an event, or a connection through the Duel community. Community sits at the heart of how we engage the market, and building that ecosystem will be a core part of your mandate.
Build an ecosystem that becomes your pipeline. Meet people through events, introductions, your existing network, LinkedIn, and industry communities. Build genuine relationships that embed advocacy across the DTC, beauty, fashion, and retail landscape. There isn’t an inbound machine waiting to hand you qualified opportunities. Your network becomes your pipeline, and you’ll invest in it consistently.
Lead with curiosity, not a pitch. We’re not selling software; we’re introducing a better way to grow a brand through advocacy. Success is the moment someone says, “I’ve never thought about it that way.” You get there by asking sharp questions, understanding someone’s world deeply, and helping them reframe the challenges they’re trying to solve.
Deliver advocacy strategy, not product demos. Conversations with brands should feel like strategic consultations. You’ll understand where they are today against the pillars of advocacy: how engaged their customers are, whether they’ve built a product people genuinely want to advocate for, how clearly their purpose resonates, and what they’re already investing in across affiliate, influencer, and community. The thinking comes first; the platform comes later.
Contribute to the flywheel, not just your number. You’ll work closely across Community, Brand Partnerships, and the wider GTM team. Every coffee chat, event, introduction, and brand conversation should generate insight that comes back into Duel. Help us deepen relationships, strengthen our community, and accelerate the advocacy flywheel. Your impact isn’t measured solely by what you close, but by the ecosystem you help build around us.
Lead through presence and contribution, not hierarchy. You bring energy into the room, share what you're hearing in the market, and help make the business smarter with what's happening in our world. You're eager to be in the office and engaged with the team, working closely with Advocacy Community and Brand Partnerships teams, rather than operating as a lone wolf.

Benefits

401(k) matches up to 2%.
Healthcare benefits, with 100% of employee only premiums covered by Duel.
$350 toward your work from home setup.
A company MacBook to work from.
25 days of PTO per year (prorated), in addition to selected observed public holidays and our end of year break, plus an unlimited flexible holiday policy that lets you take additional time off as needed, subject to approval and business needs.
Two additional days of leave for volunteering.
A personal development budget and support.
Fitness, wellbeing, and growth contributions.
Paid parental leave for all eligible full time employees following the birth or adoption of a child, regardless of gender or caregiving role.
Leave can be taken within the first year following a birth or adoption, and we support a flexible return through a phased schedule or remote arrangement where business needs allow.