Your New Role…

CNN is seeking an Specialist, Business Development to assist the Business Development team in the growth and execution of CNN Commerce team’s Sponsored Revenue business. In this role, the Specialist, Business Development will work with both internal and external parties to create additional opportunities for expansion through sales outreach, relationship building, performance analysis, and client satisfaction.

This role is deeply integrated with CNN Commerce's flagship product, CNN Underscored. CNN Underscored is CNN's product recommendations and reviews site. Sponsorships within CNN Commerce may exist within CNN Underscored editorial coverage, newsletters, social media accounts, and display advertising. The revenue driven from this business line is key to the team’s bottom line and is essential for diversifying commerce revenue.

Your Role Accountabilities:

• Sales, Negotiation & Closing: Support the sales process for CNN Commerce sponsorship opportunities by pitching advertisers, articulating campaign value, and helping close opportunities from proposal stage to media booking and execution.
• Pipeline Management: Develop and maintain a pipeline of Sponsored Revenue opportunities by nurturing existing relationships, sourcing new prospective advertisers, and tracking leads through the sales process.
• Pricing & Packaging: Assist in building strategic sponsorship packages and media plans that align client objectives with CNN Commerce inventory, audience insights, and revenue goals.
• Client Relations: Serve as a day-to-day point of contact for sponsors, communicating campaign status, performance insights, and progress against client objectives and KPIs.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner closely with Business Development, Ad Sales & Operations, Product, Social, and Editorial teams to support the development, sale, launch, and execution of sponsored and paid campaigns.

Qualifications & Experience…

• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, communications or related field
• Minimum 3 years of experience in a sales or business development role within the digital marketing space
• Direct sales experience, preferably within digital media, publishing or advertising agencies.
• Strong foundational understanding of core advertising metrics such as CPM and CPC as well as the frameworks of programmatic, social, and display advertising.
• Experience with, and a passion for, generating revenue and hitting performance goals in a deadline driven environment.
• Proven track record of successfully pitching, selling and executing sponsored and/or paid ad campaigns with advertisers.
• The ideal candidate is proactive, comfortable in an externally facing role, and can take direction given by business team leads.
• Affiliate Marketing experience preferred
• Competency in Microsoft suite of tools (Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint)

How We Get Things Done…

This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview.