Senior Program Manager (Brand Partnerships)

Riot Games•Los Angeles, CA

3d•$150,000 - $209,600

About The Position

The Riot Commercial Partnerships (RCP) team is responsible for identifying, building, and executing world-class partnerships with leading global and regional brands. Our mission is to drive revenue through strategic commercial collaborations that bring meaningful value to Riot’s fans—across Games, Entertainment, Esports, and Social Impact. For every product and event Riot creates, our partners help elevate the experience for millions of players and audiences around the world. We’re looking for a strategic, highly organized program manager to help scale how Riot develops, manages, and activates brand partnerships globally and regionally. Reporting to and in partnership with the Director, Partnership Management, this role will oversee the end-to-end operating process for regional brand partnership opportunities, working closely with Regional Riot Publishing & Partnerships Leads (RPPLs), Business Development (BD), and cross-functional stakeholders to move opportunities from identification and evaluation through deal development, execution, and reporting. This role will serve as the central program leader connecting regional opportunities to Riot’s broader commercial strategy—creating clarity around priorities, establishing effective processes, driving accountability across teams, and providing leadership with visibility into the regional partnership pipeline and performance. In addition, this role will directly manage and activate select high-priority global brand partnerships and serve as the partnership lead for the Esports World Cup (EWC) relationship and other strategic co-marketing partnerships. Because priorities shift quickly in our fast-paced environment, this role includes—but isn’t limited to—the responsibilities below.

Requirements

6-8 years of experience in program management with 3-4 years in Brand Partnership, Partnership Management, Business Development, Sponsorship, Account Management, Strategic Partnerships, Program Management, or an equivalent field.
Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional brand partnership programs across multiple teams, regions, or business units.
Proven ability to project manage multiple high-value partnership opportunities simultaneously, establishing clear workstreams, owners, milestones, dependencies, and decision points.
Experience managing senior-level relationships with external brands, agencies, rights holders, or strategic partners.
Strong executive communication skills, with experience synthesizing complex programs and commercial pipelines into clear reporting, insights, risks, and recommendations for senior leadership.
Strong understanding of the partnership lifecycle, including opportunity development, deal evaluation, contracting, activation, measurement, renewal, and expansion.
Excellent stakeholder management skills and demonstrated ability to influence and drive alignment across teams without direct authority.
Strong analytical and strategic problem-solving skills with the ability to balance commercial objectives, partner needs, operational realities, and player value.
Exceptional attention to detail, planning, organization, and follow-through.
Ability to operate effectively amid ambiguity, changing priorities, and multiple simultaneous workstreams.
Ability to work evenings, weekends, and holidays as needed to support major events and partner activations.
Willingness to travel up to ~20-30% annually, domestically and internationally.

Nice To Haves

Experience working within gaming, esports, sports, entertainment, media, technology, or other IP-driven partnership businesses.
Experience working across global and regional commercial organizations, including familiarity with the complexities of developing locally relevant partnerships within a global framework.
Experience designing and implementing partnership processes, governance models, pipeline management systems, or operating frameworks across distributed teams.
Strong understanding of integrated marketing and the ability to connect partner objectives to compelling fan and player experiences.
Experience working with senior executives and providing leadership-level commercial reporting and recommendations.
Bachelor’s Degree in a related field; MBA or related advanced degree is a plus.

Responsibilities

Oversee the regional brand partnership operating process, working in close partnership with regional RPPLs and BD teams, acting as the program lead with this group of key stakeholders who will identify, evaluate, prioritize, develop, and execute local and regional brand partnership opportunities.
Establish clear frameworks, workflows, milestones, and decision points that enable regional teams to pursue opportunities efficiently while maintaining alignment with Riot’s global partnership strategy and standards.
Serve as the central program manager across regional partnership opportunities, coordinating stakeholders, identifying dependencies, resolving blockers, and ensuring opportunities progress from initial concept through contracting, activation, and measurement.
Build and maintain a consolidated view of the regional brand partnership pipeline, providing regular reporting, insights, risks, and recommendations to RCP and senior leadership.
Partner with BD and regional teams to evaluate opportunities against commercial potential, player value, strategic fit, operational complexity, and broader Riot priorities.
Use scalable tools, processes, and best practices that improve coordination between global and regional commercial teams and enable Riot to pursue local partnership opportunities more effectively.
Serve as the partnership lead for Riot’s relationship with the Esports World Cup (EWC), coordinating internal and external stakeholders and overseeing partnership planning, obligations, activation, governance, and executive reporting.
Advocate for partner objectives and contractual deliverables within internal workstreams while ensuring partnership activations remain aligned with Riot’s products, players, and brand.
Coordinate complex cross-functional initiatives involving Publishing, Esports, Games, Marketing, Legal, Finance, Business Development, regional teams, and external partners.
Anticipate and resolve partnership and program risks, escalating issues appropriately and driving stakeholders toward clear decisions and successful outcomes.
Oversee partnership measurement and recap reporting, translating performance data into actionable insights, optimization opportunities, and recommendations for leadership and partners.