Affiliates & Partnerships Manager / Lead

Welcome to KatKin. For uncompromising cat parents who want the best, KatKin goes all-in for cat health. We are pioneering a new category of fresh cat food: 100% human-quality meat, made daily in Suffolk, fresh to your fridge. Where the competition cuts corners, catfishes customers and puts profits over health, we put nutrition and cat wellbeing first. No shortcuts. No secret recipes. We are cutting the fluff, thinking fresh, growing rapidly and fighting for industry-wide change.

What’s the Problem? Cats are carnivores. They were born to get their nutrition from a 100% meat diet. Not leftover animal bits, pulverised into oblivion, heat-blasted at extreme temperatures, mixed with grains, fillers, preservatives and a long list of unmentionables. All hidden behind pretty packaging. We have been misled by mainstream and even perceived "premium" cat food. And most cat parents are unaware. We are on a mission to educate the world on the powers of fresh food for cat health. Social media and community is our most visible platform.

Why You’ll Love It Here: We are a fast-paced scale-up making serious waves and bursting with energy. You will be surrounded by big creative thinkers and brand minds, a world-first team of cat scientists and nutritionists, business brains who have been there before, and a whole team of hardcore cat parents. All on a mission to make 100% fresh real healthy food the new standard in cat care.

The Challenge: We have built strong growth channels — and now we want to unlock a new, scalable engine: affiliates, inserts and partnerships. We have the foundations in place (affiliate platforms, agency relationships, insert partners and some strong one-off campaigns) — but there’s no roadmap, no playbook, and huge untapped potential. This role is the person who builds that. This is about driving high-intent customer acquisition through trusted voices, communities, and brands that cat parents already love. Not just "setting up links", but creating a repeatable system that grows month after month — with commercial discipline and brand integrity. You will own the full partnerships funnel end-to-end: sourcing, outreach, negotiation, onboarding, activation, optimisation, and long-term relationship building.

Who You Are: You are obsessed with finding win-win partnerships, and you are equally obsessed with performance. You can spot a high-potential partner quickly. You know how to pitch, close, activate, and optimise. You are commercially sharp, relationship-led, and allergic to "partnerships theatre" (big announcements, zero results).

• Love turning relationships into measurable growth.
• Have strong opinions, weak attachment, and you move fast.
• Know the difference between "nice brand collab" and "incremental revenue channel".
• Can negotiate firmly while staying genuinely warm and human.
• Want ownership, not layers of approval.

What You’ll Do:

• Own Affiliates performance end-to-end.
• Build and own KatKin’s affiliate strategy across key partner types (publishers, creators, deal sites, loyalty, content, closed user groups and communities).
• Take ownership of our existing affiliate platform setup (including AWin) and relationships with current agencies — and make them work harder.
• Create and evolve the commercial structure: commissions, incentives, tiering, bonuses, exclusives.
• Drive partner acquisition: outreach, pitching, onboarding and activation.
• Maintain high-quality partner standards (no spammy cashback-only growth, no brand dilution).

Own and grow the Inserts channel:

• Take ownership of our existing insert programme — print ads placed inside other D2C brands’ packaging and publications.
• Manage the relationship with our media-planning agency and sign off on media plans.
• Evaluate performance, identify gaps, and push the channel forward.
• Test new offers, formats and placements to improve trial acquisition and conversion.

Build partnerships that actually move the needle:

• Source, negotiate and launch partnerships with brands, platforms, communities and services cat parents already trust — from pet care and vet brands to closed user groups and loyalty platforms.
• Work cross-functionally with marketing stakeholders to deliver best-in-class activations, partnering closely with Digital product and engaging directly with senior leaders in the business.
• Build a pipeline of high-impact opportunities (and kill the ones that won’t deliver).
• Explore newer partnership types: CRM/email swaps, breeder networks, pet charity partnerships, and high-reach brand collaborations.

Lead (depending on level): If you’re joining at Lead level, you’ll also:

• Set the operating rhythm for affiliates, inserts + partnerships (cadence, playbooks, QA, documentation).
• Build relationships with senior external stakeholders and represent KatKin commercially.