Associate Director, Partnerships

Role Overview

• Own and grow a portfolio of specialized partners across Video, Audio, & Publishing, ensuring consistent partner engagement and proactive sharing of relevant updates with dentsu stakeholders and leadership.
• Support senior leadership (VP/Director) in executing the Video/Audio/Publishing market strategy, translating priorities into clear partner plans, timelines, and internal actions.
• Serve as a subject-matter expert and representative for Video, Audio, & Publishing partnerships, participating in internal forums and external partner/industry conversations to advance dentsu’s POV and objectives.
• Stay ahead of industry trends, technologies, and disruptors to identify new partnership opportunities, flag operational readiness needs, and help future-proof the Video/Audio/Publishing practice.
• Manage day-to-day commercial terms, partner communications, and deal delivery, supporting negotiation through execution and ensuring delivery of all negotiated deal points with excellence and consistency.
• Enable Investment & Activation / Craft teams by translating deal terms into clear guidance, educating teams on updates, and driving testing/innovation/value opportunities tied to partners.
• Orchestrate cross-functional alignment across Investment, Activation, Planning/Strategy, Amplifi Principal & Proprietary (trading and solutions), and dentsu.Audiences, so partnership approaches meet client needs and align to dentsu standards.
• Support creation and execution of dentsu Enterprise Partnerships and related client/partner Joint Business Plan (JBP) agreements, ensuring negotiated value is actively tracked, activated, and fully capitalized.
• Operate as an integrator and problem-solver, managing dependencies, removing blockers, escalating risks appropriately, and maintaining on-time engagement across multiple variables and workstreams.
• Drive clear internal communications and documentation (resources, updates, repositories) to capture nuanced deal details, keep deal progression on track, and enable easy distribution across the organization.
• Partner closely with other Marketplace & Partnerships verticals (e.g., Platforms/Programmatic/Ad-Tech, Social, Fandom, Sports, Retail, Ecosystems, Performance, data) to ensure coordinated partner motions and avoid duplication.
• Support client business and new business efforts by building custom partnership plans/landscape POVs and contributing Video/Audio/Publishing partnership value propositions for pitches and growth opportunities.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree (marketing, advertising, business, or communications)
• 6+ years of experience within the media industry as a partnership or investment member
• 4+ years of experience in Video (including streaming/CTV), Audio, Publishing, Entertainment and/or programmatic/ad-tech partnerships
• Comfortable working with and presenting sophisticated performance and value metrics to Director/ VP and executive stakeholders; able to translate complex deal structures into actionable plans
• Strong professionalism and executive presence in partner negotiations and internal escalation scenarios
• Demonstrated ability to problem-solve and collaborate across investment, activation, strategy, trading, and product/ solutions stakeholders
• Ability to translate complex ideas into clear, actionable solutions that drive partner adoption and value realization.

Benefits

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance
• Life insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance
• 401k
• Flexible paid time off
• At least 15 paid holidays per year
• Paid sick and safe leave
• Paid parental leave