Sponsorship & Partnership Manager in Southampton

This is a newly created role at the centre of Vistage UK’s commercial growth strategy. The Sponsorship & Partnerships Manager exists to bring together two functions that have historically operated in silos: event sponsorship and strategic partnerships. The Sponsorship & Partnerships Manager will own the full commercial relationship with corporate sponsors and partner organisations, driving revenue through our event portfolio and building referral pathways that fuel chair and member growth.

Vistage is the world’s largest CEO coaching and peer advisory organisation for small and medium size business (SME) leaders. Our platform features three core elements: valuable perspectives from a trusted group of peers, professional guidance and meeting facilitation from an accomplished business leader (the Chair), and deep insights from subject matter experts.

Here’s a sample of the employee experience that helps drive our success:

• Our UK Office sits in Hedge End, Southampton while our US headquarters sits in San Diego, California.
• The Hedge End office features an open, modern aesthetic with lots of collaboration spaces and free coffee!
• Each employee has an actionable career progression plan developed through individual collaboration with their manager.
• We focus on promoting from within and employee progression plans are complemented by all, we invest in staff development days as well as access to tons of individualised development resources and a tuition reimbursement program.
• We offer life insurance of 4 times your base salary up to a maximum £1,250,000 benefit.
• Take care of your financial future with a pension plan where employees are automatically enrolled at a 5% contribution, and matching of 4%.
• You’ll also start with 20 days annual leave to allow you to relax and recharge, with additional annual paid days off based on tenure.
• All employees also have access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Travel Emergency Service, and more!

Whether you’re enjoying office celebrations or toasting your co-workers at our epic annual holiday party, you’ll see that we take having fun as seriously as helping our members succeed! The office vibe is business casual with flexible schedules that take a hybrid approach, splitting time between working in the office and working from home on an agreed cadence.

Lead the commercial sponsorship programme across Vistage UK’s flagship events: the Scotland Leadership Forum, the North of England Leadership Forum, the AI for Growth Forum, and CEO Connect, our flagship annual conference for members and chairs. This includes building and managing the sponsor pipeline, negotiating Thought Leader and Marketplace packages, securing renewals, and bringing on new sponsors through Chair networks, in particular Vistage member companies, outbound prospecting, and inbound enquiries.

Holding both inbound and outbound under one role gives Vistage a sharper commercial view of the wider sponsorship market and how we benchmark against competitors.

Build and manage Vistage UK’s strategic partnership programme: long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with organisations whose client base aligns with the Vistage member profile. This is a significant commercial channel, with a defined commission structure for partner-sourced chair and member introductions.

You will contribute to our thought leadership programme and provide content for PR outreach and social channels off the back of sponsor and partner activity, including event recaps, white paper inputs, and partner spotlights. Digital savvy is essential: you should be comfortable shaping content for LinkedIn, working with our PR partners, and spotting commercial stories worth telling.

You are a commercial operator who understands that sponsorship and partnerships are relationship businesses first and transactional businesses second. You enjoy negotiation and have a track record of building pipelines from cold. Demonstrable experience selling sponsorship, partnerships, or B2B advertising. Strong commercial instincts and the confidence to negotiate. Working knowledge of Salesforce or equivalent CRM, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and the broader B2B marketing tech stack. Digital savvy across LinkedIn and content tools, with an eye for stories worth telling. A clean, professional approach to managing data, contracts, and member privacy obligations.

Hybrid in Hedge End;