Associate Director, Partnerships Marketing (Sports Performance)

The Strategic Partnerships & Licensing division oversees inbound licensing, celebrity talent endorsements, and brand collaborations by acquiring and managing culturally relevant partnerships. As part of this division, the Partnerships Marketing team collaborates cross-functionally to strategize and execute go-to-market campaigns, focusing primarily on sports and lifestyle collabs. This team also spearheads influencer marketing, digital/social content development, and organic social channel management for sports and lifestyle partnerships.

This department collaborates closely with both internal teams and external partners, including celebrity talent, brand licensors, talent managers, and creative agencies to successfully manage and execute global partnership campaigns.

The Associate Director of Partnerships Marketing for Sports Performance spearheads social media and brand strategy for the athletes and sports of Skechers’ Sports Performance lines. This position brings an innovative mindset and collaborative spirit to amplify brand relevance and product awareness globally through cutting-edge digital strategies. Working closely with creative agencies while leading a small and nimble team, this position takes a big-picture mindset, articulating and documenting their vision and strategy effectively across teams.

The ideal candidate thrives in a dynamic environment, applying exceptional organizational and communication skill to this unique opportunity of propelling Skechers as a best-in-class leader in the Sports Performance category. If you are a hard worker, a clear communicator, a problem solver, and an adaptable innovator, this position is for you.

This is an in-office role in the Skechers Manhattan Beach headquarters.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Content & Athlete Strategy Development

• Drive and deliver the global brand strategy for Sports Performance (Basketball, Running, Golf, and Court – Pickleball & Tennis) by leading the content strategy and ensuring engaging, high-quality content across all social media platforms
• Develop a deep understanding of the specific sports category consumer needs and interests, leveraging data, insights, and industry/competitor trends to craft strategies aligning with Skechers' digital-first, integrated marketing approach
• Activate and collaborate with your team, agencies, and cross-functional partners (Product, Digital, Sports Marketing, Retail, PR, etc.) to bring innovative ideas, programs, and storytelling campaigns to life

Agency Management (Content Development, Channel Management & Community Engagement)

• Manage Sports Performance and Basketball social media channels with the Social Media Senior Manager and Community Manager, overseeing strategy, content, and agency relationships developing a content playbook and brand guidelines, etc.
• Identify opportunities for agency support, lead RFPs, and work closely with internal teams to manage agency relationships, go-to-market planning, creative production, budget scopes, wrap reports, etc.
• Lead company-wide sports social media initiatives, leveraging insights to integrate sports and lifestyle opportunities for optimal consumer experience across performance and culture
• Ensure brand consistency and adherence to standards, guidelines, and rules of engagement across all partnerships

Analytics & Reporting

• Establish and monitor KPIs for brand health and campaign effectiveness
• Track, measure, analyze, and report out consumer and business insights to inform future strategies
• Effectively communicate KPI results to key leadership stakeholders and be able to adapt and optimize for future campaigns

Leadership & Team Collaboration

• Responsible for the overall performance, staffing, and training of the Sports Performance Partnerships team
• Collaborate with Sports Marketing to elevate athlete storytelling across digital-first campaigns and event activations
• Develop influencer strategies with the Influencer Marketing team to support broader marketing goals (both organic and paid opportunities)
• Partner with Sports Marketing and Partnerships Marketing leadership on top-line strategy and budget allocation

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications or related field
• 10+ years of experience in brand marketing, brand management, social media, or related experience
• 3+ years of experience leading and managing diverse teams
• Direct experience in D2C, sports, and lifestyle preferred
• Significant experience managing creative agency and production teams in executing digital/social-first campaigns and channel management
• Experience with social media tools (e.g. Hootsuite, Sprout Social, InsTrack, etc.)
• Bonus: Skilled at copy writing, graphic design, video editing, and/or content creation

Job Requirements

• Ability to work on-site at Skechers Headquarters in Manhattan Beach, CA
• Demonstrated passion and understanding of basketball, running, sports, culture, fashion, trends and growing a new sports brand
• Exceptional understanding of the performance sports ecosystem and social media strategy at best-in-class brands
• Extensive knowledge of the Skechers sports product and athlete portfolio

• Proactive, energetic and creative mentality to tackle new projects and ideas with a can-do attitude
• High-level professionalism for external-facing responsibilities and communications
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
• Familiarity with graphic design and content creation tools (e.g. Canva, Adobe Creative Suite)
• Microsoft Office (Outlook, Excel, Word, PPT, Teams, etc), Google Suite, KeyNote

The pay range for this position is $120,000-$140,000.

About Skechers
Skechers (NYSE: SKX), a global, Fortune 500® brand develops and markets a diverse range of lifestyle and performance footwear, apparel, and accessories. Developing comfort technologies is the foundation of all we do – delivering stylish, innovative, and quality products. Serving over 180 countries and territories, Skechers connects customers to products through department and specialty stores, e-commerce and digital stores, and through our more than 5,200 company-and third-party-owned retail locations. Headquartered in Southern California, with offices and distribution centers around the globe, Skechers has spent 30 years helping people of all ages look and feel good.

Equal Employment Opportunity
Skechers is committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and respectful work environment. Skechers provides equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants for employment without regard race, color, religion, gender, gender identification and expression, national origin, marital status, age, disability, genetic information, military status, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic established by local, state or federal law.

Reasonable Accommodation
Applicants for employment who require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job should request appropriate accommodation by emailing benefits@skechers.com.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each job responsibility satisfactorily. The skills, abilities and physical demands described are representative of those duties that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities, who are otherwise qualified for the job position, to perform the essential functions.