Sponsorship and Events Lead

Rhino Tool House•Livonia, MI

11d•$68,000 - $80,000

About The Position

The Sponsorship & Events Lead owns Rhino Tool House’s sponsorship programs and major company events. The role begins with the strategic alliance with Pratt Miller Motorsports (PMM), spanning race weekends throughout the season, and maximizes business value through customer engagement, hospitality, brand visibility, integrated marketing, and sales enablement. The position also extends sponsorship results into sales, the Rhino Innovation launch, and future sponsorships, while planning and running trade shows and national sales meetings. This is a hands-on, self-directed leadership position. The role owns the results of its programs and events and builds capability over time. It reports to the Director of Marketing and partners closely with the Marketing Communications Lead and Marketing Operations Lead. The position is based in Livonia, Michigan, and requires extensive travel, weekend availability during scheduled race events, and the ability to manage extended event days and several consecutive days away from the home office. The role oversees sponsorship strategy and evaluation; race-weekend hospitality and customer experiences; partnership branding and intellectual-property approvals; social, digital, and paid advertising; media and storytelling; executive and business relationships; trade shows and major company events; and program budgets, KPIs, CRM lead tracking, and reporting. The PMM alliance investment is budgeted at $500,000 in 2027, $525,000 in 2028, and $550,000 in 2029. Performance expectations include defined goals and post-event reports for every activation, high-quality hospitality that generates measurable follow-up business, and compliant, approved, timely branding within budget.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business, sports management, or a related field; equivalent experience will be considered.
At least 2 years of experience in sponsorship, events, hospitality, or marketing.
Experience with social and digital strategy and paid advertising.
Experience managing a budget and reporting to senior leadership.
Strong relationship-building skills and executive presence.
Willingness to travel extensively, including race weekends and trade shows, often on short notice.
Initiative-taking, able to set priorities and make decisions without heavy direction.
Availability for weekend work during scheduled race events and occasional short-notice travel.
Ability to manage event preparation and on-site execution, including extended days and several consecutive days away from the home office.

Nice To Haves

Experience in sponsorship, events, hospitality, or marketing with B2B or industrial clients.
Experience with sponsorship programs, trade shows, or large-scale client hospitality.

Responsibilities

Build and run the sponsorship program, beginning with the PMM alliance, and set goals for each sponsorship and season.
Evaluate and recommend future sponsorship opportunities against clear business objectives.
Plan and run race-weekend hospitality for customers, prospects, and partners, including credentials, the season hard card, and the PMM behind-the-scenes tour.
Coordinate VIP dinners, meet and greets, and the Fantasy Camp for 16 guests in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Serve as the day-to-day liaison with the PMM account manager and at-track support team.
Manage associate branding on PMM Corvettes, driver and crew firesuits, the transporter, garage area, and race shop, as well as pass-through branding for customers and partners.
Ensure PMM and Oshkosh intellectual property used across Rhino channels complies with partnership guidelines and receives required approvals before publication.
Develop social and digital content around each activation, including custom Rhino content promoted by PMM.
Plan content and paid advertising before, during, and after events, and coordinate promotion across both companies’ channels.
Arrange executive interviews, produce testimonials and case studies, and work with the Marketing Communications Lead to incorporate sponsorship storylines into campaigns, the website, and sales materials.
Develop strategic relationships with PMM, Oshkosh, and corporate partners to create customer engagement, executive relationship-building, and sales collaboration opportunities.
Plan Rhino’s participation in the Oshkosh/PMM Partner Summit and other partner events.
Own planning and execution of trade shows, the national sales meeting, and Center of Excellence open houses.
Coordinate event logistics, messaging, and materials, and direct Marketing Support and outside vendors on site.
Own the sponsorship and events budget, including the specified PMM alliance investments for 2027–2029.
Set KPIs for sponsorship activations and events, including guests hosted, leads, pipeline influenced, and reach, and report results to the Director of Marketing and CEO.
Work with the Marketing Operations Lead to track event and sponsorship leads in the CRM.
Ensure every activation and event has defined goals, a post-event report, and follow-up actions.
Travel extensively for race weekends, trade shows, customer hospitality, partner meetings, and major company events; work weekends during scheduled race events and manage extended event days as needed.