Director of Social, Sports Partnerships

This is a hybrid role based in San Diego, CA with mandatory in-office time each week. We welcome candidates located outside of San Diego who are open to relocation. The right candidate may have the flexibility to start remotely with an agreed-upon relocation timeline and relocation support available.

Overview

For over a decade, we've been the most trusted social-first agency in the industry. The Director, Social - Sports Partnerships will help shape how some of the world's biggest brands show up in the biggest moments in sports.

We're looking for the person who watches a major sports moment and immediately starts thinking about what a brand could do with it. The person who sees athlete access and asks what no one has asked the athlete yet. Who looks at a sponsorship asset and wonders how we could turn it into something fans would actually send to their friends. Who sees an audience we aren't reaching and starts figuring out how we could.

Think building a social strategy around All-Star Weekend, finding an unexpected way into the start of football season, turning a few minutes of athlete access into the idea everyone remembers or spotting a cultural opportunity a brand could credibly be part of.

If your brain naturally goes to "what if we..." we want you in the room.

This role sits at the intersection of sports, social, culture and creativity. You'll bring senior Social thinking to major brand partnerships and work alongside Social, Creative, Analytics, Production and Client teams to turn sports partnerships into work fans actually care about.

This position includes frequent travel for client meetings, conferences, onsite support and internal planning summits.

The Role

As Director of Social, Sports Partnerships, you'll bring senior Social leadership to some of STN's most important sports partnership work while helping strengthen and scale our capabilities in this space. At STN, Sports Partnerships means turning sponsorships, athlete and talent access, rights and major sports moments into social-first work that connects with fans. You'll work across ongoing social strategy, athlete and talent partnerships, campaigns and live events, looking for ways to make the work more relevant to audiences and more impactful for our clients.

You'll partner closely with STN leadership and teams across the agency to evolve our approach, turn what we learn into stronger ways of working and bring that thinking into future assignments. You'll also have opportunities to contribute senior social thinking to new business pitches and help onboard new clients as our Sports Partnerships work grows.

This role is equal parts strategist, creative thinker, sports fan and builder. You should be just as comfortable finding the audience or cultural insight as you are sitting alongside creative and turning it into an idea people will actually care about.

What You'll Do

• Build STN's Sports Partnerships Capability
  
  1. Lead senior social strategy across major sports partnership assignments.
  2. Turn sponsorships, athlete and talent access, rights and major sports moments into social-first ideas that connect with fans.
  3. Bring a strong POV on how brands can participate credibly and meaningfully in sports culture.
  4. Look beyond the immediate brief for bigger strategic, creative and cultural opportunities, including new audiences, formats, platforms and partnerships.
  5. Bring original ideas and make the thinking around you stronger through collaboration with Social, Creative and Production.
  6. Use performance, audience intelligence and fan behavior to inform what we should do next.
  7. Lead senior client conversations and confidently challenge thinking when there's an opportunity to make the work stronger.

• Turn Great Work Into What's Next
  
  1. Turn learnings from current sports partnership assignments into POVs, approaches and practices that strengthen future work.
  2. Help evolve STN's approach to social-first sports partnership work alongside STN leadership.
  3. Identify what can be repeated, adapted or scaled across future assignments without creating a one-size-fits-all playbook.
  4. Contribute senior social strategy and ideas to priority new business pitches.
  5. Help prospective clients see new possibilities for how their sports partnerships can come to life on social.
  6. Partner across teams to help onboard new sports partnership clients and establish a strong strategic foundation.

• Provide Senior Social Leadership Across STN
  
  1. Bring senior Social leadership and strategic perspective across STN's client portfolio.
  2. Step into priority client work, high-stakes moments and complex strategic challenges where additional senior expertise can make the work stronger.
  3. Get up to speed quickly across different clients, audiences and business challenges.
  4. Bring a credible Social POV while respecting the ownership and expertise of the teams closest to the work.
  5. Know when to push, when to step in and when to let others lead.
  6. Build trust across Social, Creative, Analytics, Production and Client teams.

• Help Our Clients Get Better Results
  
  1. Understand what success looks like for each assigned client and keep performance connected to the strategy.
  2. Partner closely with Analytics to understand what's working, what isn't and why.
  3. Use performance and audience behavior to identify opportunities and inform what we should do next.
  4. Push teams beyond reporting results toward applying those learnings to the work.
  5. Keep raising the bar against client reach and engagement benchmarks year over year.

Who You Are

• A deeply experienced Social thinker. You have a strong POV on what brands should and should not do on Social.
• Naturally curious. You look beyond the immediate brief for new audiences, cultural opportunities, platforms, partnerships and ways to make the work bigger.
• Sports fluent. You understand sports culture and the realities of leagues, athletes, talent, rights and major moments.
• Strategic + creative. You can find the insight, shape the strategy, originate strong thinking and make ideas better alongside Social, Creative and Production.
• Performance-minded. You use performance and audience intelligence to inform what should happen next.
• A builder. You're comfortable helping create a capability that doesn't yet have every process, playbook or answer defined.
• A collaborative, adaptable leader. You build trust quickly, can step into unfamiliar work when needed and know when to push, when to step in and when to let others lead.

What Success Looks Like

• Our sports partnership work becomes stronger, more distinctive and more effective.
• Clients consistently get proactive thinking and opportunities they didn't have to ask us for.
• Our work meets and outperforms reach and engagement benchmarks across assigned clients.
• What we learn from our strongest work makes the next assignment, pitch and client better.
• STN develops a recognizable Social POV and approach to Sports Partnerships that can scale across clients.
• Social Leads have another trusted senior leader who can step in when they need additional coverage or experience.
• You help STN continue building a deeper, stronger senior social bench.

Details

• Location: San Diego (Hybrid) (U.S.)
• Reports to: Sr. Director, Social
• Type: Full-Time
• Compensation: San Diego based salary range is $136,000 - $170,000 + benefits. Actual compensation is dependent on experience, location and job-related qualifications and may vary for positions outside of California.

Required Skills & Abilities

• Deep expertise in social strategy and platform-native content.
• Strong understanding of sports culture and the broader sports ecosystem.
• Strong strategic and creative instincts.
• Ability to identify opportunities beyond the brief and turn them into actionable recommendations.
• Confidence leading senior client conversations and pushing back when needed.
• Ability to quickly understand new clients, audiences and business challenges.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration across Social, Creative, Production and Client teams.
• Experience using social performance and analytics to inform strategy, identify opportunities and improve content.
• Strong judgment in complex, fast-moving environments.

Education & Experience

• 8+ years of Social strategy and leadership experience, including significant experience in sports.
• Experience leading social strategy for large, complex brands and navigating the sports ecosystem, including leagues, athletes, talent, rights and major moments.
• Experience leading senior client relationships and managing and developing social talent.
• Sports sponsorship, brand partnership, league, team, athlete or sports property experience preferred.
• Integrated agency and new business/pitch experience preferred.

Physical Requirements

• Comfortable working remotely for 40 hours/week with the understanding that working within the sports and entertainment industry will require evening and/or weekend work.
• All San Diego-based employees fulfill hybrid expectations and come into STN HQ weekly on Tuesdays, in addition to other in-office events.
• Occasional travel for client meetings, internal meetings or client on-sites required.

This is a hybrid role based in San Diego, CA with mandatory in-office time each week. We welcome candidates located outside of San Diego who are open to relocation. The right candidate may have the flexibility to start remotely with an agreed-upon relocation timeline and relocation support available.

Most Critical Outcome (MCO)

Consistently outperform reach & engagement benchmarks YoY across assigned clients.