Senior Director, Talent & Partnerships

FlyteVu•Brooklyn, CA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

This role is responsible for developing and executing talent, influencer, entertainment, and partnerships strategies that align with company growth priorities. The Senior Director will provide senior-level strategic leadership, build and deepen relationships with key industry players, and oversee the entire process from strategy and vetting to negotiation and execution. The position requires strong leadership, negotiation, and relationship-building skills, with a deep understanding of culture, entertainment, and audience engagement.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive experience in talent, influencer, entertainment, partnerships, or integrated marketing roles.
Significant agency, talent management, or brand partnership experience.
Demonstrated ability to develop culturally relevant talent and partnership strategies that connect to broader brand, creative, and integrated marketing objectives.
Proven experience leading complex negotiations, contracts, senior client relationships, and cross-functional campaign delivery.
Strong commercial judgment across scopes, budgets, forecasting, resourcing, vendor management, and profitability.
Proven people leadership with the ability to coach, develop, motivate, and hold teams accountable.
Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and relationship-building skills.
Executive presence to influence clients, talent representatives, partners, and internal leaders.
Strong analytical judgment and the ability to use cultural insight, audience data, performance information, and business context to make clear recommendations.
Ability to prioritize multiple complex workstreams, make sound decisions under pressure, and operate effectively in fast-paced, hard-deadline environments.
Entrepreneurial, collaborative self-starter who is comfortable with ambiguity and consistently follows through on commitments.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Apple Keynote, and relevant talent, influencer, research, AI, and project-management platforms.
Willingness and ability to travel as required.
Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related field, or equivalent relevant professional experience.

Nice To Haves

Established relationships across entertainment, talent, creators, sports, media, technology platforms, or culture-led partnerships.
Experience leading talent and influencer strategy within integrated 360-degree campaigns spanning creative, earned media, content, social, paid media, experiential, and partnerships.
Experience with Julius, Muck Rack, or comparable talent, influencer, media, and audience intelligence platforms.
Experience with Basecamp or comparable project-management software and Harvest or comparable time-tracking software.

Responsibilities

Translate vision into a clear talent, influencer, entertainment, and partnerships strategy aligned with company growth priorities.
Provide senior-level strategic leadership across key accounts, ensuring talent and partnership recommendations strengthen the creative idea and are designed for audience engagement.
Collaborate with Creative, Account, Earned/PR, Social, Media, Production, and Operations leaders to integrate talent and partnerships across disciplines.
Bring forward audience, entertainment, creator, platform, and cultural insights to anticipate emerging opportunities.
Establish and uphold best practices, quality standards, decision frameworks, and responsible risk management for the Talent & Partnerships practice.
Build and deepen senior relationships with talent, creators, managers, agents, studios, production companies, sports and entertainment properties, media and technology platforms, agencies, and other strategic partners.
Represent the company at relevant industry events and in priority markets to strengthen relationships and maintain current knowledge.
Identify and develop mutually beneficial platform, talent, brand-to-brand, entertainment property, and vendor partnerships.
Create opportunities for talent representatives and partners to engage with company activations, events, leadership, and work.
Share timely, actionable intelligence with leadership and client teams while safeguarding confidential information.
Lead the strategic approach to talent and influencer discovery, research, vetting, recommendation, and measurement.
Ensure talent and influencer recommendations are supported by clear rationale, data, brand-safety considerations, and competitive context.
Guide early outreach to talent representatives to assess interest, availability, conflicts, and commercial parameters.
Participate in briefs, brainstorms, campaign planning, and RFP pitches, providing informed points of view.
Maintain useful, current talent and creator pipelines for priority clients and categories.
Oversee the effective use and accuracy of talent intelligence tools, databases, and research resources.
Lead commercial strategy and negotiations for talent, influencer, entertainment property, platform, and related partnership agreements.
Draft and review deal memos and template agreements; translate approved terms into long-form agreements and manage redlines.
Protect client and agency interests by addressing usage, exclusivity, approvals, deliverables, timing, compensation, and other material terms.
Escalate material legal, financial, reputational, or delivery risks promptly.
Cultivate senior client relationships and serve as a trusted strategic advisor.
Provide senior oversight from signed deal through completion, ensuring work delivers against agreed objectives, scope, budget, timeline, and commitments.
Create a clear handoff and accountability plan with Account and Production teams, while remaining engaged where senior leadership is required.
Partner with Account leads to resolve issues, manage client expectations, and navigate changes.
Contribute to campaign recaps and effectiveness reviews, capturing learnings for future strategy.
Lead, coach, develop, and recognize Talent & Partnerships team members.
Partner with leadership on team structure, hiring priorities, succession planning, and capability development.
Plan and manage staffing across accounts and new business, balancing workload, coverage, development, utilization, and profitability.
Select, onboard, and oversee approved contractors and interns.
Foster an inclusive, high-performing culture that encourages sound judgment, direct communication, knowledge sharing, and cross-functional partnership.
Develop and maintain a strong understanding of assigned clients' businesses, audiences, objectives, and competitive landscapes.
Maintain an active pulse on culture, entertainment, creators, media, technology, and platform developments.
Maintain complete, accurate, and organized records within agency systems.
Follow all applicable approval, contracting, finance, and information-security processes.
Safeguard confidential, proprietary, and sensitive information.
Proactively manage internal and client expectations and deliver responsive, solutions-oriented service.
Work outside standard business hours and travel, at times with limited notice, when required.
Support on-site activation and fulfillment as needed, including loading/unloading, set-up, and tear-down.
Lift up to 50 pounds with or without reasonable accommodation.
Successfully complete a background check where permitted by applicable law.