Vice President, International Partnership Sales

RTS Management, Inc. · United Kingdom · posted today ago

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About this role

RTS is an enthusiast culture company that builds at the intersection of gaming, creators, and brands. From global live events to bespoke branded content, we exist to create meaningful connections between fans and the worlds they love. Our team brings deep expertise across partnership sales and marketing, talent management, event production, media, community building, and IP development.

As the parent company of Evo, the world’s premier fighting game tournament and community platform, RTS operates a growing global portfolio of live events, media, creator, and talent-driven experiences, including a fast-growing slate of international Evo events across Europe and Asia.

As the company expands its international footprint, we are continuing to invest in the commercial infrastructure, partnerships, and senior leadership needed to scale our revenue engine beyond the US.

Role Overview

We’re looking for a senior, well-connected, and solutions-oriented Vice President of International Partnership Sales to drive new business for Evo’s international events and the broader RTS portfolio across Europe, Asia-Pacific, LATAM, and other non-US markets.

This is not a transactional sponsorship sales role. We’re looking for an experienced seller who arrives with an active network of brand and agency relationships, leads with a marketing mindset, understands how brands and agencies define success across different markets, and can translate business objectives and KPIs into compelling, integrated partnership solutions.

The ideal candidate brings a strong understanding of live event sponsorship sales, intellectual property, and integrated marketing across digital, media, content, experiential, creators, and event production, with direct experience selling into multiple international markets.

They will be equally comfortable opening doors, diagnosing a client challenge, building a strategic narrative, and leading a sophisticated pitch from first conversation through negotiation and close. This person will have a respectful understanding and engaged desire to learn about different cultures and their respective business norms. Given the size and pace of the international business, they must also be a genuine multi-tasker who can run a full pipeline while contributing to market strategy, partner delivery, and the continued growth of RTS’s international commercial footprint.

Reporting Structure

You will report directly to the Global Head of Sales and work closely with the International Sales Operations team, the US Partnership Sales team, and the broader Global Partnership Sales & Marketing organization.

Key Responsibilities

New Business & Revenue Growth

Own and grow a high-quality pipeline of brand and agency opportunities for Evo’s live international events and the broader RTS portfolio across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and other priority non-US markets.
Prospect proactively and build relationships with senior decision-makers across regional and global brands, agency networks, media buyers, and marketing organizations outside the US.
Develop new partnership opportunities across live event sponsorship, media, content, experiential, live events, creators, gaming programs, production, consulting, and other RTS capabilities.
Manage the full sales cycle from prospecting and discovery through proposal development, negotiation, contracting, and handoff across multiple markets and commercial frameworks.
Consistently deliver against individual revenue targets while contributing to broader team goals and commercial priorities.
Identify whitespace across categories, markets, and client portfolios, including regional category sponsors, endemic gaming and hardware brands, and global brands with region-specific budgets, and turn those opportunities into actionable sales strategies.
Partner with the US Partnership Sales team to unlock international budgets from global clients already active with RTS in the US and bring international clients into Evo’s US events where relevant.
Leverage an existing network of brand, agency, and rights-holder relationships across international markets to generate opportunities from day one.
Collaborate with external sales agencies and event production partners within the respective markets to identify, build, and execute sponsor opportunities.

Client Strategy & Solution-Oriented Selling

Lead discovery with a strong understanding of the client’s business, marketing objectives, audience priorities, challenges, and KPIs.
Break down client and agency KPIs, recognizing that these may vary by market and region, to identify the role RTS, Evo, and our capabilities can play in delivering against those goals.
Move beyond asset-led selling by developing customized, insight-driven solutions that connect client objectives to the right combination of IP, audience, platforms, and experiences.
Build compelling sales narratives that clearly articulate the strategic “why,” the consumer opportunity, the activation idea, and measurable business value.
Challenge traditional event sponsorship thinking and proactively bring clients ideas they may not have asked for but that solve a meaningful marketing or business need.
Balance creativity with commercial discipline, ensuring recommendations are differentiated, executable, scalable, and aligned with client budgets.
Maintain senior ownership of the client relationship beyond the close, staying actively engaged throughout the partnership lifecycle to support growth, renewal, and expansion opportunities.

Integrated Partnerships & IP Commercialization

Demonstrate a strong understanding of how to commercialize intellectual property and translate rights and assets into meaningful brand programs.
Develop integrated partnership programs spanning digital, social, content, media, experiential, creators, talent, hospitality, live events, and branded activations.
Understand the role of media, content, and experiential extensions in increasing the reach and value of a core sponsorship platform.
Identify opportunities to connect Evo’s international events with Evo’s flagship US event and the broader RTS ecosystem to create larger, multi-market, more strategic partnerships.
Work with internal teams to develop new commercial products, packages, and scalable offerings based on market demand and client needs.

Agency & Client Leadership

Build trusted relationships with senior client and agency stakeholders and establish RTS as a strategic marketing partner, not simply an inventory provider.
Navigate complex agency and client structures across regions, including brand teams, regional and global media agencies, creative agencies, experiential agencies, and sponsorship decision-makers.
Lead senior-level presentations, strategic workshops, negotiations, and partnership discussions with confidence and credibility.
Maintain an informed point of view on client categories, competitive landscapes, consumer trends, and broader business priorities.
Build long-term relationships that generate repeat business, renewals, upsells, and introductions across additional brands and business units.

International Market Leadership & Multi-Market Operations

Serve as RTS’s senior commercial lead in priority international markets, developing a clear point of view on each market’s brand and agency landscape, buying cycles, and sponsorship norms.
Work effectively across time zones and cultures with clients, agencies, local event partners, and internal teams in the US, Europe, and Asia.
Balance multiple priorities simultaneously, including live pipeline, event-cycle deadlines across several international Evo events, partner delivery support, and internal reporting.
Provide input on international pricing, packaging, and rate cards that reflect local market conditions and client expectations.
Represent RTS at international Evo events, industry conferences, and client meetings, with regular travel across Europe and Asia.

Cross-Functional Leadership

Partner closely with International Sales Operations, Partnership Marketing, Strategy, Creative, Production, Operations, Finance, Legal, Talent, and other internal teams to develop strong and executable solutions.
Bring internal subject-matter experts into the sales process at the right moments while maintaining clear ownership of the client relationship and commercial opportunity.
Provide clear, thoughtful handoffs to Partnership Marketing and International Sales Operations following the close of a deal, including client objectives, KPIs, commitments, expectations, and renewal opportunities.
Share market intelligence, client feedback, category trends, and competitive insights to help evolve RTS’s commercial story and product offering.
Help shape and build RTS’s international commercial strategy and sales capability, mentoring team members and contributing to a collaborative, accountable, high-performance sales culture.

Commercial Leadership & Sales Discipline

Maintain accurate pipeline management, forecasting, opportunity stages, and next steps within the company’s CRM.
Build thoughtful account plans for priority prospects and identify the stakeholders, timing, budgets, and business triggers required to advance opportunities.
Prioritize opportunities based on revenue potential, strategic fit, probability, and resource requirements.
Partner with the Global Head of Sales on pricing, packaging, deal structure, and negotiation strategy.
Use data, insights, and performance learnings to continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of the sales process.

Qualifications

10–12+ years of experience in live event sponsorship sales, partnerships, integrated media sales, entertainment, sports, gaming, experiential, or a related commercial discipline, with meaningful experience operating across international markets or leading multi-market initiatives.
Proven track record of generating significant new business revenue and closing complex, integrated partnerships, including seven-figure opportunities.
Established, active network of relationships with major brands, agency networks, and senior marketing decision-makers across at least one of RTS’s priority international regions, including Europe or Asia-Pacific.
Demonstrated ability to self-source new business, open doors quickly, and build a high-quality pipeline from the ground up.
Strong understanding of sponsorship, intellectual property, integrated marketing, digital media, experiential marketing, content, and live-event sales.
Demonstrated ability to uncover client needs, understand KPIs, and translate marketing objectives into strategic partnership solutions.
Strong presentation, storytelling, negotiation, and consultative selling skills, with the ability to lead senior-level client and agency conversations.
Ability to think like a marketer while operating with the urgency, commercial discipline, and accountability of a seller.
Strong commercial judgment and the ability to balance strategic thinking with execution.
Proven ability to operate with autonomy in a lean, distributed organization while managing multiple markets, deadlines, and stakeholders.
Excellent collaboration skills and experience working cross-functionally across sales, marketing, creative, production, operations, finance, and legal.
Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, remote-first, multi-time-zone environment.
Based in the UK, ideally London, with the ability to travel regularly to international Evo events and client markets.
Fluent business English.

Bonus Points

Experience selling within live events, gaming, esports, sports, entertainment, media, creator, or enthusiast-culture businesses.
Experience representing or commercializing major events, leagues, properties, or entertainment IP.
Experience developing seven-figure, multi-year, multi-market integrated partnerships.
Deep relationships across the regional offices of major agency holding companies, independent agencies, and the regional marketing teams of global brands.
Experience selling into or operating within EMEA, APAC, LATAM. Working proficiency in French, Japanese, or other languages relevant to RTS’s international markets.
Passion for gaming, fighting games, live events, and the communities RTS serves.

Our Culture

We’re very proud of the culture we’ve nurtured within RTS. We enjoy a high retention rate and value the relationships our employees build with one another, even in a fully remote, globally distributed environment.

As a senior member of the commercial organization, we want you to embody and perpetuate the following values:

Lead with empathy - Ensure clients and colleagues feel heard, especially when navigating difficult decisions or competing priorities.
Challenge everything - Bring critical thinking to ideas in their earliest stages, help shape them into stronger concepts, and encourage creative experimentation in a safe and supportive environment.