Sr Manager, Deal Desk

Albertsons • Pleasanton, CA

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Sr Manager Deal Desk will play a critical role in shaping the commercial architecture of our media business. This leader will support the development, negotiation, approval, and operationalization of complex advertising and partnership deals, with a focus on CPG media, agency negotiations, upfront commitments, value exchange structures, and non-standard commercial terms. This person must be equally comfortable operating strategically and tactically: advising on high-value, high-complexity deals; building scalable governance and approval workflows; partnering with Legal on contract structure and risk considerations; and creating repeatable deal frameworks that enable faster, more consistent decision-making across the organization. The ideal candidate brings strong media industry expertise, commercial acumen, cross-functional leadership skills, and a deep understanding of how to structure mutually beneficial deals that are financially sound, operationally executable, and aligned to broader business strategy. The position is in office 4 days per week and will be based in add locations (Pleasanton CA, Boise ID, Itasca IL, NYC, Denver CO)

Requirements

• 8 plus years of experience in deal desk, commercial legal, revenue operations, ad sales, or a related function.
• Strong media industry experience, with hands-on expertise in structuring and supporting complex advertising deals.
• Familiarity with media planning and buying processes, agency economics, insertion orders, MSAs, SOWs, and custom commercial agreements.
• Experience supporting annual joint business planning, upfront negotiations, or enterprise-level commercial partnerships.
• Strong understanding of pricing strategy, packaging, inventory considerations, and revenue tradeoff analysis.
• Experience designing approval workflows, commercial policies, and scalable deal governance frameworks.
• Experience operating in highly cross-functional environments where legal, finance, product, and operations alignment is essential.
• Proven ability to support or lead negotiations involving custom deal structures, annual commitments, upfronts, pricing exceptions, added value, and non-standard commercial terms.
• Strong business and financial acumen, with the ability to assess deal economics and structure commercially sound recommendations.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with strong operational instincts and the ability to manage multiple high-priority deals simultaneously.
• Comfort working with CMS, CRM, CPQ, order management, and excel.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, evolving environment and bring structure to ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Act as a strategic partner to Sales, Revenue Operations, Finance, and leadership on the design and execution of complex media deals.
• Structure and evaluate custom commercial terms across CPG media partnerships, agency agreements, annual commitments, upfronts, test-and-learn programs, added-value frameworks, and integrated omnichannel media packages.
• Develop strategic deal constructs that balance revenue growth, client value, operational feasibility, and margin protection.
• Evaluate and guide proposals involving non-standard terms, volume-based incentives, commitment tiers, makegoods, discounted pricing structures, added-value investments, and bundled product offerings.
• Support high-impact negotiations by providing commercial recommendations, risk assessment, and scenario modeling.
• Partner closely with sales teams on agency-led and client-direct deal negotiations.
• Help shape annual and upfront deal strategies, including commitment-based incentives, value exchange models, and governance around performance and delivery expectations.
• Bring fluency in the realities of CPG planning cycles, agency buying structures, joint business planning, and retail media investment strategies.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in how to structure long-term, scalable commercial agreements that align with client objectives while maintaining internal rigor
• Partner with Legal to review and guide contract language, custom terms, and deal-specific provisions to ensure business protection and executional clarity.
• Assess legal, financial, and operational implications of non-standard requests and recommend paths forward.
• Build strong working relationships across Legal, Finance, Sales, Ad Operations, Product, Billing, and leadership to streamline approvals and accelerate deal cycles.
• Serve as a central escalation point for complex deal issues requiring cross-functional decision-making.
• Create tools, templates, training, and playbooks to improve commercial fluency across the sales and cross-functional teams
• Build and refine a scalable deal desk framework, including approval matrices, commercial guardrails, intake processes, exception management, and documentation standards.
• Create repeatable and strategic deal structures that reduce friction, improve consistency, and enable the sales organization to move faster with confidence.
• Establish governance for pricing exceptions, custom terms, added value, and strategic investment decisions.
• Drive consistency in how deals are reviewed, approved, documented, and handed off for execution.
• Identify process gaps and implement improvements that enhance deal velocity, transparency, and operational accuracy
• Use data and business judgment to evaluate deal economics, revenue impact, and potential tradeoffs.
• Partner with Finance and Rev Ops leadership to assess deal performance, margin implications, discounting behavior, and long-term commercial effectiveness.
• Help define reporting and KPIs for deal cycle time, exception trends, pricing discipline, and deal outcomes.
• Translate complex deal dynamics into clear recommendations for executive stakeholders.

Benefits

• Competitive wages paid weekly
• Access to up to 50% of your earned wages before payday, via our partnership with Stream
• Associate discounts
• Health and financial well-being benefits for eligible associates (Medical, Dental, 401k and more!)
• Time off (vacation, holidays, sick pay).
• An inclusive work environment with talented colleagues who reflect the communities we serve

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed