We are looking for an Associate, Strategic Partnerships to join UnitedMasters!What You'll Do- Reporting to the VP, Distro Ops, support the day-to-day management of UnitedMasters' existing partnership portfolio across DSPs, sub-DSPs, label services partners, distribution infrastructure providers, and product/tooling partners
- Support VP in negotiating commercial renewals and term updates, including rate cards, MGs, MFNs, term length, and reporting obligations. Build benchmarking and comparisons, redline to guidance, and gather applicable Legal and Finance inputs.
- Proactively track renewal milestones and tee up negotiation cycles for VP well ahead of expiration
- Help translate signed agreements into clear implementation plans across Product, Legal, Finance, Music, Operations, and Marketing, and help drive accountability through to delivery by tracking tasks to completion
- Serve as the first internal point of contact for partner questions, escalations, and ongoing requests, and escalate to the VP as appropriate
- Support a regular partner relationship cadence by scheduling and prepping check-ins, business reviews, and proactive engagement, and capturing and tracking follow-ups.
- Own the DSP tracker, BD pipeline, contract calendar, and partner contact records as live operating tools and sources of truth
- Research and help identify prospective partners across the music and tech ecosystem, providing initial evaluation, and supporting the VP in negotiating initial commercial terms by assembling briefs and comparisons, and coordinating input from Legal and Finance
- Run the mechanics of weekly pipeline reviews: Prep the agenda, capture decisions, track owners and coordinate action items across active workstreams
- Compile market and partner signal into summaries for the VP and team to inform broader strategy
- Represent UnitedMasters externally as a credible, articulate face of the company with existing partners
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities- Operates with rigor: clean trackers, clear next steps, follow-through that doesn't require chasing
- Comfortable supporting commercial negotiations on partnerships with established baseline terms, including building economic and term comparisons, redlining to guidance and prepping materials
- Exposure to DSP economics and digital licensing concepts (rev share, MG, MFN, PSM, rate cards) or a track record of ramping fast on adjacent commercial domains
- Proactive relationship builder; stays in front of partners rather than waiting for issues to surface
- Coordinates outcomes across Product, Legal, Finance, Operations, Music, and Label Services; keeps workstreams moving and escalates blockers
- Strong written and verbal communicator; can assist in framing partnership status, renewal recommendations, and commercial trade-offs concisely for leadership
Minimum Qualifications- 2-4 years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, account management, licensing, or a closely related commercial function
- Experience supporting partner relationships and/or deal processes, including involvement with diligence, redlines, trackers and cross-functional coordination
- Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills
Preferred Qualifications- Direct exposure to DSP, music licensing, or music-tech platform partnerships
- Familiarity with music distribution operations and tooling (e.g., FUGA, 7digital, Merlin, iTunes Connect, Ironclad)
- Exposure to contract/renewal processes or CRM/pipeline tooling
Salary Hiring Range: $83,000-$98,000
Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry, and are one part of many compensation, benefits and other reward opportunities we provide (e.g. bonus, stock options, 401(k) match, etc.).
Individual pay rate decisions are based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skillset, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company. We expect the majority of the candidates who are offered roles at our company to fall healthily throughout the range based on these factors.
The range above is for the expectations as laid out in the job description, however we are often open to a wide variety of profiles, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted. If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated with you as a candidate.
The salary range above is for NY/CA. As a company, we have a location based strategy, which means the salary range could be lower or higher than this if the role is hired in another location.
