Responsibilities

• Lead the development of integrated sports sponsorship strategies and activation recommendations that advance Mazda’s business objectives , brand positioning, audience priorities, and broader marketing strategy.
• Translate consumer, cultural, competitive, and marketplace insights into clear points of view and actionable partnership opportunities.
• Assess potential sponsorship properties, platforms, leagues, teams, events, talent, and emerging sports opportunities based on strategic fit, audience relevance, activation potential, and anticipated business value.
• Develop business cases, investment recommendations, and sponsorship narratives that clearly articulate the role and value of sports within Mazda’s integrated marketing ecosystem.
• Lead structured brainstorms and cross-agency working sessions to generate original ideas, scalable activation platforms, and innovative fan experiences.
• Maintain a current understanding of the sports marketplace, including evolving fan behaviors, media consumption, cultural trends, new technologies , and changes within the rights-holder landscape.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with leagues, teams, properties, agencies, rights holders, talent representatives, content partners, and experiential vendors.
• Lead or support sponsorship negotiations to secure the most strategically relevant rights, assets, access, protections, and financial value for Mazda.
• Identify opportunities to extend sponsorship investments across paid, owned, earned, social, digital, experiential, retail, dealer, hospitality, content, influencer, and community channels.
• Provide senior oversight of Mazda’s sports sponsorship portfolio, ensuring each partnership is activated against a clear strategic purpose and contributes to broader brand and business priorities.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, business administration, sports management, communications, or a related discipline; or equivalent professional work experience.
• Minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in sports sponsorship, partnership marketing, sports marketing, experiential marketing, integrated marketing, media, or a related field.
• Proven experience developing sponsorship strategies and leading integrated activation programs for major brands.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex partnerships involving rights holders, leagues, teams, events, properties, talent, agencies, and multiple client stakeholders.
• Strong knowledge of the sports sponsorship lifecycle, including opportunity assessment, rights negotiation, contracting, activation planning, execution, measurement, and renewal evaluation.
• Experience managing significant program budgets and complex financial workstreams.
• Demonstrated success leading client relationships, presenting to senior stakeholders, and influencing strategic decisions.
• Experience managing and developing junior talent and leading multidisciplinary teams.

Preferred

• Automotive, mobility, lifestyle, experiential, or consumer-brand experience is beneficial but not required .
• Familiarity with dealer, retail, or regional activation models is a plus.

Benefits

• Our benefits include competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days.