WHO WE ARE

Science In Sport Group is a world leader in sports and performance nutrition.

We have two highly regarded brands; SiS which combines world-class science and innovation to provide optimal performance nutritional solutions for professional athletes, sports and fitness enthusiasts and the active lifestyle community. This includes over 320 professional teams worldwide across a broad range of sports including Football, Rugby, Cycling, Athletics, Basketball, Netball and Swimming. Brand ambassadors include former track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, an eleven-time world champion and six-time Olympic champion, and Eilish McColgan, who won gold in the 2022 Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres.

PhD Nutrition is a premium, active-nutrition brand for the active lifestyle community wanting intelligent nutrition to help them achieve their goals. With over 20 years of research and development, our products are designed to maximise performance in and out of the gym. It’s an exciting time for PhD Nutrition as 2025 will kick off an entirely new line up of brand ambassadors, from hybrid athletes to qualified sports nutritionists.

The two brands sell through the phd.com and scienceinsport.com digital platforms, third-party online marketplaces including Amazon, as well as extensive domestic and international retail distribution.

In 2022 the company opened a state of the art 160,000 square foot manufacturing and logistics facility in Blackburn, Lancashire. Providing a significant advantage in product costs and customer response time and most importantly, allowing Science In Sport to lead the way for quality standards.

Science In Sport is the nutrition partner to globally recognised elite teams, including Tottenham Hotspur, Saracens Rugby, British Triathlon, Aquatics GB, British Cycling, England Netball and Loughborough Sports. As well as being the Official Energy Gel Provider of RunThrough and the Official Nutrition Partner of Ultra X.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Global Partnerships Lead is responsible for maximising the strategic, commercial and content value of Science in Sport's portfolio of global partnerships, teams, athletes, ambassadors and performance relationships.

The role goes beyond servicing sponsorship agreements. Its purpose is to turn our partnerships into active marketing assets that build the Science in Sport brand, strengthen our credibility in elite performance, create high-quality content, reach relevant communities and contribute to commercial growth.

Working within the Global Marketing Operating System, the Global Partnerships Lead connects our partnerships into the wider marketing engine - ensuring rights, access, athletes, events, expertise and stories are systematically converted into content and activation opportunities that can be distributed through owned, earned, partner and paid channels globally.

The role works particularly closely with Brand & Strategy, the Content Studio, Audience Growth, Marketing Operations, Science & Performance, Commercial and regional teams.

• Contract: Full time, Permanent

• Salary:  Up to £60,000 per annum

• Working Hours: Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week

• Location: Blackburn (this role will also require occasional travel)

Benefits

• On-site gym

• Cycle to work scheme

• Product discount

• Birthday day off

• Pension - employer contribution at 4%
  

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Own and maximise our strategic partnership portfolio

• Take operational ownership of Science in Sport's priority partnerships, ensuring we extract maximum value from every relationship.

• Maintain a deep understanding of contractual rights, obligations, deliverables and restrictions.

• Build outstanding day-to-day relationships with rights holders, teams, athletes and representatives.

• Develop an annual activation plan for every major partnership and identify under-utilised rights and incremental opportunities.

• Ensure SiS delivers its commitments professionally and partners deliver everything to which SiS is entitled.

• Move the organisation from partnership servicing to partnership value creation.

2. Turn partnerships into a global content engine

• Make the volume, quality and usefulness of marketing assets generated through partnerships a fundamental measure of success.

• Develop a clear content and asset plan for every major relationship, spanning athlete access, performance stories, science and education, product usage, photography, short- and long-form video, social, interviews, events, appearances, retail, PR and community activation.

• Work closely with the Content Studio to create a forward pipeline of content rather than relying on reactive activations.

• Ensure every significant partnership has a clearly defined content yield and activation plan.

3. Integrate partnerships into the Global Marketing Calendar

• Map sporting calendars, competitions, championships, athlete moments, partner events, product launches, retail opportunities, content capture, PR moments, community activations and science/education opportunities.

• Work with Marketing Operations so opportunities are visible sufficiently early for the organisation to plan, resource and activate them properly.

• Ensure partnership activity forms part of the global marketing planning process rather than operating as a separate sponsorship calendar.

4. Build partnership activation briefs

• Create a clear annual brief for every Tier 1 strategic relationship covering: why we have it; who it enables us to reach; what we have bought; what we will create; how the value will be distributed; and what success looks like.

• Make the partnership brief the single source of truth for each strategic relationship.

5. Measure partnership performance and investment effectiveness

• Create a consistent global framework for assessing partnership performance across Brand Value, Content Value, Community Value and Commercial Value.

• Move beyond impressions and reach to assess content yield, partner amplification, audience access, product adoption, customer acquisition, retail support, revenue influence and ROI / return on objectives.

• Produce regular performance reviews with clear Grow / Maintain / Renegotiate / Exit recommendations.

• Use measurement to inform future investment decisions rather than simply justify historic spend.

6. Support development of the future partnership portfolio

• Continuously assess the global sports and performance landscape and identify opportunities that strengthen SiS strategic priorities.

• Evaluate opportunities based on strategic fit, audience, rights, content potential, global relevance, commercial potential and cost.

• Support negotiations and renewals with clear valuation and investment recommendations.

• Help build the smallest possible portfolio of the highest-value assets capable of powering the global marketing system.
  

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Own the day-to-day management of priority SiS partnerships.

• Maintain a central record of contractual rights, deliverables, obligations, notice periods and renewal dates.

• Develop an annual activation plan for every Tier 1 partnership.

• Maintain a forward pipeline of content opportunities from the partnership portfolio.

• Brief the Content Studio sufficiently early to maximise access and production efficiency.

• Ensure athlete and partner rights are captured and utilised appropriately.

• Coordinate product, logistics, education, sampling and performance requirements.

• Identify and exploit unused contractual rights and incremental opportunities.

• Ensure partnership moments are incorporated into the Global Marketing Calendar.

• Manage partnership budgets and monitor investment against agreed outcomes.

• Produce regular partnership performance reviews and evidence-based renewal, renegotiation and termination recommendations.

• Identify new strategic opportunities where there is a demonstrable gap in the portfolio.

• Maintain strong senior relationships across the international sports and performance industry.

• Represent Science in Sport professionally with athletes, teams, rights holders and partners globally.
  
  

CAPABILITY & EXPERIENCE

• Significant experience managing major sports partnerships, sponsorships or rights-holder relationships.

• Strong understanding of sponsorship rights, contracts, negotiation and value exchange.

• Excellent understanding of how partnerships generate content and marketing assets.

• Experience developing integrated activation programmes across digital and physical channels. Strong commercial and financial judgement, including ROI and return-on-objectives assessment. Excellent stakeholder management, communication and negotiation skills.

• Strong understanding of sport, athletes and elite performance environments.

• Confidence operating with major global brands, rights holders, teams, athletes and agents.

• Strong planning, project-management, budget and performance-reporting capability.

• Experience working across international markets.
  

WHAT GREAT PERFORMANCE LOOKS LIKE

• Partnership Utilisation: Percentage of strategically valuable contractual rights activated.

• Content Yield: Quantity and quality of usable global marketing assets generated by each partnership.

• Content Performance: Reach, engagement, completion, amplification and effectiveness of partnership-generated content.

• Partner Amplification: Value and scale of exposure generated through partner-owned channels.

• Brand Impact: Contribution to awareness, consideration, credibility and association with science and elite performance.

• Community Impact: Athletes and consumers reached, educated, sampled or captured through partnership activity.

• Commercial Contribution: Evidence of product adoption, customer acquisition, retail support and revenue influence.

• Investment Effectiveness: Evidence that partnership investment is delivering appropriate return against agreed objectives.

• Operational Excellence: Rights, deliverables, budgets and contractual commitments managed accurately and proactively.

Specific metrics will be set when in role and will be reviewed and built upon regularly. Alongside this, you will be supported with a personal performance plan that will enable you to continue improving your own performance and impact.

MINDSET

• Think asset first, activation second.

• Treat every partnership as an investment that must create measurable value.

• Constantly ask: 'What more can we get from this relationship?'

• Understand that content creation is one of the primary outputs of partnerships.

• Think globally rather than market-by-market.

• Prefer fewer, more powerful partnerships to a fragmented portfolio.

• Be commercially rigorous while maintaining outstanding partner relationships.

• Plan ahead rather than react to opportunities.

• Be highly organised and operationally disciplined.

• Be comfortable challenging historic investments where evidence does not support continuation.

• Be entrepreneurial in identifying new value within existing relationships.

• Have genuine credibility and enthusiasm for sport, performance and Science in Sport.

Science in Sport Group is an equal opportunity employer; we value diversity and strive to cultivate an inclusive workplace. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind in regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We fully support reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, to provide an inclusive and welcoming recruitment experience.