About the role
About Us
Fanatics is building a leading global digital sports platform. We ignite the passions of global sports fans and maximize the presence and reach for our hundreds of sports partners globally by offering products and services across Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles, and Fanatics Betting & Gaming, allowing sports fans to Buy, Collect, and Bet. Through the Fanatics platform, sports fans can buy licensed fan gear, jerseys, lifestyle and streetwear products, headwear, and hardgoods; collect physical and digital trading cards, sports memorabilia, and other digital assets; and bet as the company builds its Sportsbook and iGaming platform. Fanatics has an established database of over 100 million global sports fans; a global partner network with approximately 900 sports properties, including major national and international professional sports leagues, players associations, teams, colleges, college conferences and retail partners, 2,500 athletes and celebrities, and 200 exclusive athletes; and over 2,000 retail locations, including its Lids retail stores. Our more than 22,000 employees are committed to relentlessly enhancing the fan experience and delighting sports fans globally.
The Role
Fanatics is building a leading global digital sports platform, and partnerships are a core lever for accelerating growth across loyalty, financial services, and payments. The Enterprise Strategic Partnerships team sits at the enterprise level, working across Fanatics Commerce, Collectibles, and Betting & Gaming to develop and execute high-impact partnerships that create value for fans, partners, and operating companies.
We are seeking a Manager, Strategic Partnerships & Business Development Operations to support and scale our business development efforts across new loyalty partnerships (e.g., airlines and hotels), expansion of Fanatics’ financial services strategy (credit and debit), and large strategic partnerships with payments companies and digital wallets.
This role is ideal for a strong operator with BD instincts — someone who can manage complex deal processes end-to-end, coordinate across a decentralized organization, and also step into partner-facing conversations when needed. You will work closely with senior BD leaders while owning much of the operational and executional backbone that turns ideas into launched partnerships.
What You’ll Do:
Business Development Operations & Execution
- Manage the enterprise partnerships pipeline across loyalty, payments, and financial services, including opportunity tracking, stage gating, and prioritization
- Support business case development for new partnerships, including economics, customer value, partner value exchange, and operational feasibility
- Own project management for new partnership launches, coordinating across product, legal, finance, risk, loyalty, marketing, and operating companies
- Help operationalize complex partnerships in a decentralized, multi-opco environment, ensuring alignment and clear ownership across teams
- Support ongoing partner management post-launch, including cadence, performance tracking, and issue resolution
Partner-Facing & Deal Support
- Develop sales and pitch materials for prospective partners, including decks, operating models, and value propositions
- Participate in partner meetings and pitches, presenting defined sections such as partnership structure, loyalty mechanics, or operational approach
- Support negotiation and deal structuring alongside senior BD leaders, particularly around payments, loyalty conversion, and financial services consideration
- Help translate partner needs into clear internal requirements and execution plans
What We’re Looking For
- 5–8 years of experience in business development, partnerships, strategy & operations, fintech, payments, loyalty, or a related field
- Strong understanding of loyalty ecosystems, including earn/burn mechanics, currency conversion, and coalition-style partnerships
- Familiarity with the payments ecosystem from a merchant perspective, including how transactions flow across wallets, networks, issuers, processors, and platforms
- Experience supporting or executing complex, cross-functional initiatives with multiple stakeholders and long timelines
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to build and communicate clear, ROI-driven business cases
- Highly organized, execution-oriented, and comfortable operating in ambiguity
- Clear communicator who can distill complex concepts for both internal and external audiences
- A “general athlete” mindset — intellectually curious, adaptable, and willing to roll up sleeves where needed
- Passion for sports and excitement about Fanatics’ mission and platform
Why This Role Matters
This role is a force multiplier for Fanatics’ enterprise partnerships strategy. You’ll help ensure that big, strategic partnership ideas actually turn into launched, scalable programs — while building the experience and exposure needed to grow into a more senior deal-leading role over time.
Achieving our goals requires strong collaboration and partnership between our teams and our internal stakeholders. To best support this, the person who accepts this role is expected to be on site, in office four days per week. To provide our employees with flexibility, we offer a unique benefit where employees at Fanatics' corporate entity can work remotely for up to four weeks per year, which can be taken in daily or weekly increments.
The salary range represents base pay only and does not include short-term or long-term incentive compensation. When determining base pay as part of a final compensation package, we consider several factors such as location, experience, qualifications, and training. For information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/
Salary Range
$138,000—$168,000 USD
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