Commercial Partnerships Executive

Commercial Partnerships Executive

Touchline Group | Milton Keynes / Hybrid

£29,000 basic salary + uncapped commission

Indicative first-year OTE: £35-40k, plus additional discretionary Christmas bonus

36-hour working week | Friday lunchtime finish

Love football, enjoy opening doors and know how to turn a good conversation into business?

We’re looking for an ambitious salesperson to join Touchline Group and help football clubs turn their commercial potential into new sponsorship revenue.

Touchline works as an extension of a club’s commercial team, providing the additional expertise and capacity needed to develop opportunities and secure partnerships. Our focus is non-league football, with our work already extending into the professional game.

This is an opportunity to join an early-stage business, work directly with the founder and make a visible contribution to the clubs you represent.

The role

You’ll be assigned a portfolio of clubs, with clear sponsorship inventory, pricing guidance, protected relationships and agreed parameters.

Your primary responsibility is straightforward: find suitable businesses, start conversations and secure sponsorship agreements.

You’ll have tangible opportunities to sell, alongside the creative freedom to suggest new partnership ideas and additional ways for your clubs to generate revenue.

That could mean securing a shirt sponsor, building a partnership around a community programme or combining several assets into a proposition that meets a company’s objectives.

You’ll join with club relationships already established and real commercial opportunities to pursue. Working across several clubs will give you exposure to different audiences, ambitions and partnership briefs, with the chance to help shape how a growing football business operates from Day One.

What you’ll do

• Research suitable local, regional and national companies and identify the right decision-makers.
• Generate conversations through phone calls, personalised emails, LinkedIn and networking.
• Understand what businesses want from a partnership and connect those objectives to relevant club opportunities.
• Present sponsorship propositions, develop proposals and progress negotiations through to agreement.
• Work within each club’s pricing, approval processes and commercial restrictions.
• Maintain an accurate pipeline with clear next actions and consistent follow-up.
• Build trusted relationships with your assigned clubs and keep them informed of progress.
• Suggest new partnership concepts and revenue opportunities where you identify a strong fit.

You’ll receive founder support with club briefs, propositions, sales development and more complex negotiations. We want you to grow into ownership of your accounts.

Who we’re looking for

This role would suit someone early in their commercial career, typically with one to three years’ experience in sponsorship, partnerships, advertising or another relevant sales role.

You should be:

• Comfortable picking up the phone and proactively approaching businesses.
• Able to demonstrate how you’ve generated opportunities or contributed to winning business.
• Curious about companies and what makes a partnership commercially worthwhile.
• Confident presenting ideas and building relationships.
• Organised, persistent and reliable with follow-up.
• Interested in football and motivated by helping clubs grow.
• Open to feedback and keen to develop your sales ability.

Direct sponsorship experience would be valuable, but we’ll also consider someone with strong transferable sales skills. A degree is not required.

The package

• £29,000 basic salary.
• Uncapped commission, starting at 15% of Touchline’s performance fees from sponsorship you personally secure, with higher rates as annual sales increase.
• Indicative first-year OTE of approximately £35-40k, based on achieving the agreed sales target.
• Discretionary Christmas bonus, separate from OTE.
• 36 paid hours per week: Monday–Thursday, 8am–4pm, and Friday, 8am–12pm, including paid lunches Monday–Thursday.
• Time to enjoy life outside work: 30 days’ paid annual leave, plus bank holidays and your birthday off, alongside our Friday lunchtime finish.
• Experience football beyond the office: opportunities to visit clubs, attend matches, enjoy hospitality and build relationships with people across the game as part of your role.
• Opportunities to progress into senior commercial and leadership responsibilities as your results and the business develop.

Location

This is a Milton Keynes-based hybrid role.

We want to build a collaborative team with shared ideas, learning and energy. Applicants should be able to travel regularly to Milton Keynes. Some travel to clubs, prospective partners and events will also be required.