Director, Publisher Acquisition EMEA

Job Description:

Rakuten International oversees 7 businesses with over 4,000 employees globally. The brand is recognized for its leadership and innovation in e-commerce, digital content, advertising, entertainment, and communications, bringing the joy of discovery and access to more than 1 billion members across the world. Our teams deliver on the company’s mission to delight merchants and customers through innovation, optimism, and teamwork.

Rakuten Advertising provides advertising technology and consumer insights to the world’s leading brands and retailers. Working with agencies and brands around the world, Rakuten Advertising unites technology, client strategy, and consumer insights to deliver advertising experiences that drive increased brand awareness and marketing performance. With access to Rakuten’s diverse media properties and audiences, combined with an award-winning performance network and proprietary consumer research, Rakuten Advertising creates the right conditions to reach new customers and sustain long-lasting loyalty.

Team Overview

The Global Publisher Group exists to discover, recruit, onboard, and develop performance partnership opportunities to match advertiser needs, with the goal of increasing performance for our clients. Our objectives as a group are to diversify and grow our Global network across emerging geography, vertical, and by publisher types; and to win and retain key global/local accounts. The focus for this role will be in our key EMEA markets.

Job Summary

The Director, Publisher Acquisition EMEA will be responsible for directing the EMEA Publisher Acquisition team and drive revenue growth by developing our publisher offering in the region. Reporting to the VP, Publisher Partnerships EMEA, this role involves developing and overseeing the execution of the acquisition strategy, providing guidance based on data analysis to achieve growth targets. Part of the publisher leadership team and key stakeholder to define standardized processes across the publisher organization, the Director, Publisher Acquisition EMEA will also play a pivotal role in engaging at a higher level with prospect publishers and internal stakeholders.

Responsibilities also include managing department budget, setting annual goals, and monitoring and reporting progress toward targets on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. This position may require domestic air travel and occasional international travel for team meetings and industry events.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Team Management

• Lead a team of Publisher Acquisition managers responsible for identifying, analyzing, and recruiting new publisher partners to join the network.
• Help develop and implement the strategic vision for the Publishers Acquisition Group, guiding both strategic and operational decisions.
• Develop and own a strategy for publisher supply to meet the needs of our advertisers.
• Define and oversee the EMEA acquisition pipeline, target lists, and recruitment strategies.
• Set annual goals and plans to achieve targets.
• Provide transparency throughout the organization on progress towards targets – celebrate the wins, address where we fall short.
• Work with leadership team members to align on targets and track against them on a regular basis.

Prospecting and Relationship Building

• Develop prospecting strategies for the team to acquire new publisher opportunities, focusing on verticals, categories, and territory lead development.
• Build meaningful relationships with key prospects and decision-makers, expanding opportunities through new innovative collaborations.
• Oversee effective prospecting of publishers using a range of methods (phone, email, LinkedIn, networking events).

Operational Excellence and Development

• Design and implement processes and reporting systems to clearly showcase publisher pipelines, and provide detailed insights on revenue opportunities and growth.
• Develop and oversee process improvement initiatives. Implement systemization and automation for large-scale projects to improve efficiency.
• Work closely with commercial, product, legal, and finance stakeholders to enhance collaboration and processes.
• Day-to-day management of the team.
• Develop and implement ongoing training to improve product knowledge and team skills.
• Act as a key stakeholder for product improvements and new product development processes.
• Represent the EMEA Publisher Acquisition team at national and international events.
• Lead partnership meetings and business reviews.
• Report and monitor competitors’ activity. Stay updated on industry trends and provide insights to stakeholders.
• Ensure collaboration and unity with global cohorts.
• Monitor and manage the information flow and accuracy entered in Salesforce.
• Provide solutions for bottlenecks in the acquisition processes and reporting.
• Coordinate with Marketing and Commercial teams to review materials and messaging to ensure effectiveness.
• Staffing, training, management, and development of the EMEA Publisher Acquisition team.

Minimum Requirements

• At least 6+ years of leadership and people management experience in the affiliate marketing/advertising technology (SaaS or Network) industry.
• Strong ownership mentality with a positive outlook and drive.
• Proactive, goal-oriented forward thinker, focused on revenue-driven strategies.
• Strong decision-making, organizational, planning, and problem-solving skills, capable of managing multiple projects independently.
• Proven track record of setting, meeting, and exceeding targets, with the ability to clearly report on progress, metrics, and results.
• Ability to understand business objectives and effectively communicate them to the team.
• Strong commercial acumen and outstanding negotiation skills.
• Experience leading and working with geographically distributed teams.
• Proficient in recruiting, training, mentoring, and retaining top talents.
• Expert understanding of Salesforce and disciplines of effective pipeline management.
• Skilled in creating and setting new processes and workflows for geographically distributed teams.
• Capable of product consulting and explaining technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills. Confident in articulating issues and requirements to senior leadership.
• Comfortable in public speaking, contributing to industry debates and roundtable discussions.
• Collaborative, inclusive, and skilled in integrating with teams and broader business.
• Experience working with C-level executives.
• Knowledge of French and/or German is desirable.

Five Principles for Success
Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.

Always improve, Always Advance – Only be satisfied with complete success – Kaizen
Passionately Professional – Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best
Hypothesize – Practice – Validate – Shikumika – Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory
Maximize Customer Satisfaction – The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! – Always be conscious of time – take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team

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