Director of Strategic Content Partnerships

The Opportunity

Shutterstock’s Data Licensing and AI Services division is driving the company’s next era of growth, powering AI model training, creative automation, and data-driven innovation for many of the world’s leading technology companies. We provide high-quality, large-scale datasets and Model Services across the full training lifecycle, enabling partners to build, train, and fine-tune the next generation of AI models.

We are seeking a Director of Strategic Content Partnerships to play a pivotal role in expanding content supply for our Data Licensing business and unlocking new customer opportunities. This role is responsible for identifying, structuring, negotiating, and managing innovative content partnerships that meet evolving customer demand and anticipates what is next for GenAI training data.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on operator and experienced negotiator with a deep understanding of licensing models, intellectual property, and the creative content ecosystem. This role requires a blend of strategic vision and executional rigor to deliver differentiated data assets, close complex partnership deals, and cultivate long-term relationships with key content partners.

The Day to Day

• Own the end-to-end strategy and execution for sourcing and scaling content partnerships in support of Shutterstock’s Data Licensing and AI Services revenue objectives.
• Identify, evaluate, and pursue partnership opportunities across creators, publishers, platforms, enterprises, and emerging data sources.
• Lead complex commercial negotiations, including revenue shares, exclusivity, term length, indemnification, and AI-specific licensing provisions.
• Partner closely with Sales, Product, Legal, and Operations to ensure agreements are commercially compelling, legally sound, and operationally scalable.
• Translate customer demand signals and sales pipeline insights into clear content supply requirements and partnership priorities.
• Design creative deal structures and licensing models that enable differentiated customer offerings and unlock new buyer segments.
• Manage and grow ongoing partner relationships, ensuring performance, compliance, and long-term strategic alignment.
• Track market dynamics, competitive activity, and emerging AI training needs to proactively identify new data opportunities.
• Build repeatable frameworks and processes for evaluating, onboarding, and scaling data partnerships over time.

What You’ll Bring to the Role

• 10+ years of experience in partnerships, business development, licensing, or strategic deal-making within content, media, data, technology, or AI-adjacent industries.
• A proven track record of closing complex, high-value licensing or data partnership agreements.
• Deep knowledge of intellectual property, content licensing models, and rights management, particularly as they relate to AI and machine learning use cases.
• Strong commercial judgment with the ability to balance partner value, customer requirements, and revenue impact.
• Experience collaborating cross-functionally with Sales, Legal, Product, and Operations in fast-paced environments.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and shaping new deal constructs in a rapidly evolving regulatory and AI landscape.
• Exceptional negotiation, communication, and executive-level stakeholder management skills.
• A genuine passion for AI, data, and the future of creative and generative technologies.

Why Shutterstock

• You have a direct impact on the success of the company. Your work matters and is essential to the evolution of our growing AI Business.
• Executive leadership cares personally. They prioritise growth and planning your career path with your goals and passions in mind.
• Flexibility to work between home and office with everything you need to be successful in both.
• A generous and competitive benefits package.

Shutterstock connects diverse artists and creative professionals around the globe with the agencies, brands and people who need their work and services. It’s a place where creators come to be inspired and discover new ways to produce their best work.

Shutterstock enables its employees to drive culture and tap into the world around them to develop the toolbox and solutions that help others share their world views. At Shutterstock, your ideas will be welcomed, your uniqueness will be celebrated, and you will be supported in presenting your view of the world as you experience it. We’re champions of resiliency; quickly learning from our shortcomings in our pursuit of continuous growth.

Diverse teams are critical to our success. We encourage people from different backgrounds to apply and we commit to creating and maintaining a culture where employees know they belong and have equal opportunities to succeed.

Shutterstock Values

We are one team collectively focused on creating an unrivaled experience for our Customers and Contributors. Our Values represent the mindset of the employee who will thrive at Shutterstock. If you are passionate about what you do, and want to become part of a cutting-edge technology company building industry leading products, please apply.

Shutterstock is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Suitably qualified and eligible candidates are encouraged to apply regardless of age, color, disability, national origin, ancestry, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable law.

Shutterstock ensures that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Persons with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations for any part of the application process may contact, in confidence, accommodation_request@shutterstock.com.