Director of Partnerships & Loyalty Login to Save this vacancy

This is an exciting new role within The Times and Sunday Times Customer team. We are The Times & The Sunday Times, part of News UK: One of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland, our newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times and The TLS, and our national broadcast brands include talkSPORT, Times Radio, talkRADIO and Virgin Radio. In 2022 we launched TalkTV, our major new TV channel available to everyone across the UK, delivering a schedule of news, current affairs, entertainment and sport. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning digital and print, audio and video, events and experiences, our brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. News UK is wholly owned by News Corp. The Team: This role sits within the Customer team, reporting into the Director of Customer Engagement & Planning. Whilst physical newspapers are still a key part of our business, driving digital subscriptions and revenue will be the key to future success. The customer is at the heart of everything we do and we are committed to creating long term loyal customers through driving engagement, improving customer experience and creating enhanced products that meet our customers evolving needs. Your Role: We are looking for a passionate and energetic Director of Partnerships & Loyalty, who thrives on representing our brand and customers with enthusiasm. You will be charged with expanding our current partnership footprint to build audiences and enhance customer engagement. As a strategic leader, you will play a key role in developing new partnerships that align with our commercial, subscription, and loyalty goals. With exceptional interpersonal skills, you will collaborate with a variety of teams-including editorial, marketing, commercial, events and syndication - leading efforts to drive and build partnerships and manage an end-to-end loyalty program. Your goal will be to foster customer loyalty and drive incremental revenue growth for the business while representing the heart and passion of our brand.,

• Develop and Execute Subscriber Partnership Strategy
+ Oversee the partnership and loyalty strategy for The Times and Sunday Times to drive digital growth.
• Identify New Opportunities
+ Build and lead a top-tier team to originate, negotiate, and execute prominent cross-sector acquisition partnership deals. + Focus 80% of efforts on establishing new brand aligned partnerships and 20% on cultivating and growing existing partner relationships.
• Drive Strategic Growth
+ Develop strategic partnerships to enhance brand visibility, grow subscriptions, and foster customer loyalty. + Identify and target key categories and companies for partnerships, focusing on business development to achieve partnership objectives. + Manage ongoing relationships to ensure partner satisfaction and long-term collaboration
• Cross-Department Collaboration
+ Partner with cross functional teams to ensure pitches to prospective partners are delivered effectively + Collaborate closely with editorial, marketing, syndication, events, and commercial sales teams to ensure alignment of partnerships with broader business strategies and objectives.
• Partnership Management and Metrics
+ Oversee reporting and forecasting of partnership metrics, including negotiation, technical oversight, and contracting. + Establish key performance indicators and metrics to measure the effectiveness of loyalty programs and initiatives. + Regularly monitor performance, analyse data, and generate insights to inform future strategies and decision-making.
• Team Leadership
+ Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of loyalty and partnership professionals, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

The ideal candidate will possess:
• Commercial acumen, with a proven ability to negotiate complex, cross team partnership deals and implement proactive sales strategies.
• Deep experience in developing new partnerships and implementing loyalty strategies, preferably within a customer-centric industry.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver results in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Expert at handling multiple high-touch relationships at one time.
• Ability to build rapport and engagement with stakeholders at all levels of an organisation.
• Outstanding interpersonal and written communication skills, enabling effective collaboration and stakeholder engagement.
• Strong problem-solving abilities, adept at addressing challenges and identifying opportunities.
• First class executive communication skills; ability to present, negotiate, and influence at C-level.
  
  Life at News: At News UK we believe our people are our heartbeat - they are the driving force behind our brands and we want the ways we work to enable people to thrive. Some of us work flexibly, in many different ways. We encourage you to talk to us about the flexibility you would like. We can't promise to offer exactly what you want, but do provide multiple flexible working options. Many of us work in a hybrid way between one of the News UK & Ireland offices and remotely.
We champion diversity and inclusion, we strive to maximise and encourage every individual's potential and ensure everyone feels valued. We support this through our Diversity Board, D&I strategy & training, creating more diverse content and our intern and apprenticeship programmes. We also have 8 employee-led networks; Cultural Diversity, News is Out, GenZ, Sustainability Champions, News for Parents, Women in Tech, News UK Christian Fellowship and we are awaiting the launch of our Women's Steering Group. We take pride in looking after our amazing talent at News UK supporting the Health and Wellbeing of our staff. We offer private medical insurance covering pre-existing conditions, discounted gym memberships, ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual HIIT, yoga and run club classes, and a 'Bikes for Work' scheme, as well as offering opportunities for physio/massage, counselling and legal support. In addition we also offer:
• A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%;
• 25 days holiday and up to 4 volunteering days per year;
• Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks;
• Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access.
• Private medical insurance covering pre-existing conditions
• Discounted gym memberships, ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual HIIT, yoga and run club classes
• 'Bikes for Work' scheme
• Access to wellbeing benefits such as physio/massage and counselling