Partnership Manager

Department: IOC Television & Marketing Services SA
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
Contract Type: Open-ended
Activity Level: 100%

The International Olympic Committee is the guardian of the Olympic Games and the leader of the Olympic Movement.

A truly global organisation, it acts as a catalyst for collaboration between all Olympic stakeholders, including the athletes, the National Olympic Committees, the International Federations, Organising Committees for the Olympic Games, the Worldwide Olympic Partners and Olympic broadcast partners. It also collaborates with public and private authorities including the United Nations and other international organisations.

About the role:

As the Partnership Manager you will be responsible for owning and enhancing the relationship of the assigned TOP Partner(s), stratgeically integrating their contractual rights and interest to strengthen the value of their investment, and to support the evolution of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements, with the ultimate goal of long-term retention.

Your responsibilities:

• Oversee the management and delivery of contractual rights with assigned TOP Partner(s) through cross-functional cooperation and relationships.

• Establish, protect, enhance and nurture the relationships with assigned TOP Partner(s) to build and maintain open, productive and mutually beneficial partnerships.

• Initiate and develop a creative approach to partnership management to add incremental value to the assigned TOP Partners and the Olympic and Paralympic Movements.

• Develop and maintain the TOP Account Management Plan (APM) for your respective TOP Partner(s) which includes key information related to the TOP Partner(s) and their partnership, for example, contractual obligations, contacts, KPI, business objectives, governance, milestones, etc.

Daily Partnership Management

• Act as an active advocate and supporter of, and contributor to, their TOP Partner(s) partnership efforts worldwide.

• Assigned TOP Partner(s): provide relevant and effective Olympic marketing expertise, information, and tools to ensure effective leverage of their Olympic partnership.

• International Olympic Committee (IOC): educate internal stakeholders on the TOP Programme and assigned TOP Partner(s) objectives raising awareness of contractual obligations, business and partnership objectives, and setting relevant priorities. Work with all Olympic Movement stakeholders (incl. National Olympic Committees) to identify new opportunities for assigned TOP Partner(s), with the objective of further increasing the value of their Olympic Partnership.

• International Paralympic Committee (IPC): provide support to the IPC Partnership Services team and ensure oversight of their delivery of the respective TOP Partner(s) rights and/or activations in relation to the Paralympic Movement (with the exception of onsite Games asset right delivery at the Paralympic Games where the IOC TMS is the lead).

• Provide proactive and solution-oriented recommendations and issue resolution processes in the interest of both TOP Partner(s) and Olympic Movement.

• Support the delivery of rights specific to assigned TOP Partner(s) for all Organising Committees of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (OCOGs) working in collaboration with the Commercial Integration (CI) Team, IOC Functional Areas (including IOC Games Department), the relevant Organising Committees (including their respective Functional Areas such as Marketing Partner Services) and the IPC.

• Develop a deep understanding of the assigned TOP Partner(s) onsite programmes at the Olympic and Paralympic Games and ensure a good as well as up to date awareness of priorities.

• Proactively identify value-creation opportunities from within the Olympic and Paralympic Movements, as new assets are developed or enhanced in line with the IOC strategic roadmap.

• Collaborate with the Rights Activation (RA) team, to deliver timely and client-oriented activation approvals and campaigns for a specific partner(s). Actively lead commercial issue resolutions impacting RA with internal and external stakeholders.

• Collaborate with the Digital Engagement & Marketing (DE&M) Department in the delivery of digital rights of TOP Partners.

• Collaborate with the Business Partner Integration team to oversee the client-orientated delivery of digital contractual rights and ensure compliance with the IOC TOP Programme guidelines.

• Continuously keep the IOC team updated on the assigned Partner(s)’ business and environment and key news.

​​​​​​​TOP Supply

• Ensure that the TOP Partners’ supply rights, benefits and opportunities are recognized by the IOC and the OCOGs.

• Ensure efficient and effective management of TOP Partner supply rights through the TOP Account Management Plan.

• Oversee, plan and report the implementation of TOP Partners’ strategic projects, highlighting potential integration risk/priority areas, anticipating Value-In-Kind (VIK) usage gaps in collaboration with the IOC TMS Commercial Integration and IOC Finances functions.

• In collaboration with IOC TMS Legal, ensure the continued engagement of TOP Partner(s) to ensure the finalization of TOP/OCOG supply agreements promptly to maximize the delivery of supply rights.

• In collaboration with the OCOG MPS function, support and contribute to the delivery of OCOG supply workshops and debriefs.

• Lead, manage and enable the resolution of TOP supply-related issues with involved parties.

• Preparation of Partner / OOCG supply roadmap – specifically milestones and subsequent adaption of milestone timelines for each OOCOG.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​System coordination

• Educate and train counterpart partner services managers at the OCOGs and the IPC to correctly provide for the specific needs of assigned TOP Partner(s) as well as on best practices and procedures for local marketing partner servicing.

• Maintain regular and in-person communication with assigned TOP Partner(s), OCOG Partnership managers and the IPC. Ensure communication is distributed to all relevant stakeholders.

• Ensure efficient and effective management of TOP Partners’ rights through the TOP Account Management Plan.

• Organise, prepare and run regularly TOP Partner Reviews (at least 1 per quarter).

• Ensure IOC and/or TMS leadership are up to date on any TOP Partner(s) organisation changes and keys news.

Our requirements

• University degree with a major (or focus) in marketing / sponsorship.

• Significant marketing program development experience and/or client-based sponsorship management in a corporate/agency/property environment.

• Experience of working in, or with entities active in technology, global brands and/or sports sponsorship industries is highly desirable.

• Olympic Games or other major sports property activation experience highly desirable (working on either sponsor, property and/or agency side).

• Understand digital and social media advertising formats, pricing, sales structures, and branded content planning, production, and distribution, specifically how media can enhance a broader activation program for TOPs.

• Fluency in English, both spoken and written; proficiency in French or other languages is a plus.

• Excellent command of standard corporate IT tools and adherence to internal user rules.

• Outstanding relationship management and interpersonal skills, with superior communication and presentation abilities for diverse audiences.

• Strong project management skills, demonstrating agility and the ability to achieve deliverables.

• Energetic and enthusiastic, with leadership, team-building, and coaching abilities, combined with business discipline and decisiveness.

• Proven ability to prioritize efficiently between competing objectives and adapt to changes.

• Comfortable working productively in a highly cross-functional/matrixed organization.

• Ability to interact with tact, sensitivity, efficiency, and professionalism at all levels, fostering trust and understanding.

• Commitment to ethical principles and acting accordingly.

• Passionate about the Olympic Movement and its goals to support sponsors’ business/marketing objectives and improve the world through sport.

Come and join an organisation where the spirit of inclusion, gender equality and diversity is a top priority and which focuses on what unites us – a passion for sport and its values. Work in a flexible and rewarding environment which offers competitive employee benefits and numerous incentives to live a sustainable, healthy and active life. By joining us, you become part of the Olympic Movement and help to build a better world through sport. You will have the opportunity to work with people of more than 70 nationalities.