We're looking for a Partnerships Manager to take ownership of our Adrenaline, Tours (Football Stadiums and beyond) & Sport categories as part of our Partnerships team.
The Partnership team are the trend-setters in everything experiences. We’re racing to find the next best thing to keep inspiring our customers. We source, grow and retain outstanding experiences, and manage relationships with our fantastic partners. The front line of the business, we work our hardest to meet the needs of all stakeholders to deliver incredible results.
Why we want you!
From flying down a zipline at 60mph, to standing pitch-side at an iconic stadium, the Partnerships Manager for our Adrenaline, Tours & Sport categories knows exactly how to gift bucket-list moments.
Whether it’s bungee jumping, white-water rafting, stepping into the locker room of your favourite football team, or a private lesson with a pro golfer – you understand how to source, shape, and showcase the types of experiences that get pulses racing and fans talking long after the final whistle.
You’ll take ownership of this dynamic and diverse category, managing existing partner accounts with skill and strategy while also seeking out exciting new opportunities that keep our offering fresh and competitive. From boutique adrenaline operators to world-famous sports clubs, you’ll be at the helm – driving commercial performance, optimising buying-in margins (BIM), and ensuring our portfolio excites every kind of customer.
This role is perfect for someone with a background in experiences, sports, leisure, or entertainment – someone who understands the power of adrenaline-fuelled activities and unforgettable sporting memories, and who has the commercial acumen to turn opportunities into thriving partnerships. You’ll be confident pitching to new suppliers, negotiating commercial terms, and turning potential into performance.
If you love the idea of bringing standout adventures and sporting moments to life, and have the partnership and sales skills to back it up, this role is perfect for you.
This is a full-time, hybrid role, with a minimum of 2 days office based per week. Our office is located in Bourne End (Buckinghamshire, SL8 5YS).
We need you to help us:
* To build on and accelerate product growth with existing experience partners by continually reviewing product performance
* Onboard new, exciting, high-impact experience partners across adrenaline, sports and tours
* Increase overall BIM across your categories
* Use Microsoft Dynamics and Power BI to track, report and understand category performance
* Work with the wider Product team to build a strong competitive product portfolio
Role Responsibilities:
* Truly own your categories (Adrenaline, Tours & Sport) with commercial accountability of buying in margins (BIM)
* Scope and deliver initiatives to grow your own defined categories, overcoming challenges with pricing and availability
* Source key partnerships to deliver geographical coverage
* Attend key trade events and utilise your network of connections to keep up with latest restaurant news, insights & research
* Build out annual plans with key partners to include new products and promotions including supplier funded deals to meet the requirements of our seasonal marketing activity
* Display insatiable curiosity, research and remain up to date with category and product trends
* Conduct confident pitch presentations to win new partnerships, with the ability to articulate benefits of the Virgin brand and negotiate BIM
* Identify, secure and onboard new partnerships with the best suppliers in the industry to enhance the product portfolio
* Communicate brilliantly with Customer Service and Product Support to ensure every customer and supplier experiences heartfelt service throughout their journey with us
* Ensure that capacity planning and service and delivery considerations are fully discussed with partners from the outset and considered at every stage of selection and launch
* Identify and create bundle opportunities
What you'll need:
* A genuine passion and interest in the Adrenaline, Tours & Sport categories
* Industry experience, within a sales and partnerships focussed role
* Exceptional communication skills
* A strong commercial understanding, with the ability to measure partner and product effectiveness and contribution to the bottom line
* Excellent negotiation skills with an ability to convert leads
* Ability to use tools and techniques to profile, benchmark, research and assess the experiences market as a whole
* Account Management, Sales or Business Development experience is essential
* Strong grasp of calculating margins and ability to analyse sales data to make decisions on future products
* Used to working in a dynamic, fast moving, customer focused environment
What's in it for you?
* Work from our modern offices based in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire (SL8 5YS)
* Free breakfast in the office (cereal, toast, spreads, fresh fruit, coffee, tea)
* Make use of our hybrid working policy (minimum 2 days office based)
* Enjoy Flexi-time, working core hours of 7.5 hours per day with one hour for lunch; flexible starting and finishing times
* Access to an award winning employee assistance programme to support your health and wellbeing
* Generous health cash plan
* £150 to spend each year on our experiences, for you to enjoy our products yourself
* Access to our discounts scheme within the Virgin Group (Virgin Family Membership)
* Share extraordinary experiences with your friends and family with a discount
About us
Ordinary is everywhere, because it’s easy.
But we go further, striving for extra at every turn. We look after the small details, we think about the big picture, and we piece it all together to create something really, really special. Our products positively glow with it, transporting our customers to the most incredible worlds. Together with our partners, we open doors to five-star hotels, and unlock Michelin-starred menus. We have you driving Ferraris, jumping out the sky… we have you flying World War II warplanes. We know there’s no one size fits all for extraordinary, so look a little closer and you’ll discover we’re extraordinary to the core. We champion each other and care about our environment for an extraordinary workplace. We surprise and delight for extraordinary customer relationships. We work hard and smart for extraordinary outputs.
All this means we can hire extraordinary people who keep bringing it, keep improving, keep sprinkling that extraordinary magic dust.
Our commitment to Diversity, Inclusion and Equity
We believe that everyone should be treated with dignity, respect, and fairness and VED is committed to promoting equal opportunities in employment. We recognise that we all have different perspectives which are influenced by our individual and diverse characteristics and experiences. We value and celebrate diversity and equal opportunity. We want to build an inclusive culture where people of different views, backgrounds, skills and experiences come together to recognise, celebrate, and value these differences. We strive to create an inclusive culture where everyone can truly be themselves at work and feel that they belong.