Director, Brand Partnerships

Shopify's brand partnerships program is built on a counterintuitive premise: the most powerful marketing we can do is invest in our merchants. One way we’ve successfully done this has been to partner directly with influential creator-merchants who actually run businesses on Shopify — from the world's largest content creators like MrBeast (Feastables), Emma Chamberlain (Chamberlain Coffee), and Alix Earle (Reale Actives), to the most recognizable names in culture: actors like Seth Rogen (Houseplant) and Pamela Anderson (Sonsie), musicians like Cardi B (Grow-Good) and Drake (OVO), athletes like Luka Dončić (77X) and Serena Williams (Wyn Beauty). To date, we’ve partnered directly with over 150 creators and dozens of celebrity/icon partnerships across North America and Europe. When partners talk about Shopify, they're not selling software, they're promoting entrepreneurship — making a direct tie between Shopify and the agency that comes from starting a business, relatable to hundreds of millions of people. Everything we do is then intentionally woven into Shopify's full marketing strategy: crafting world class stories on owned and earned surfaces, enabling real world product marketing moments (Shopify POS powering retail activations, Shopify's AI innovation, Shop's retail companion), generating billions of earned views at industry-leading CPMs, even producing authentic creator content that fuels performance marketing with real acquisition outcomes. This role leads a proven, growing program — and is charged with taking it into its next chapter. Today the program spans two established teams, Creator and Icon Partnerships, each run by strong leads. Your mandate is broader than either: to serve as the senior partnerships leader who both stewards those programs and extends our aperture into new territory — corporate partnerships and sponsorships (think team, venue, properties, Shopify Racing, and marquee brand deals in the multi-million-dollar range). The program has scale, craft, and momentum. The role is to widen what "brand partnerships" means at Shopify and personally carry the most complex, highest-stakes deals as we build the next several years. You'll operate as one of the most senior leaders in Brand — part individual dealmaker on the newest and most complex partnerships, part senior leader providing air cover and direction to established programs, and a key connector across Brand, the broader marketing organization, and product. What You'll Do: Own and expand the partnerships portfolio including overseeing our creator and icon programs, while opening new lanes in corporate partnerships and sponsorships (e.g. sports teams, venues, properties, racing etc.) Open and own a new corporate partnerships & sponsorships lane — inbound and outbound sponsorship evaluation plus originating and structuring strategic, multi-year, multi-million-dollar deals with teams, venues, and properties Lead as one of the most senior leaders on the team, providing direction and accountability to a bench of established program leads — setting strategy and standards rather than owning the day-to-day of programs that already run well Connect partnerships to Shopify's broader goals — brand, growth, revenue, and international marketing — and identify where partnerships can go that they haven't yet Drive process and systems that let the function operate across a wider set of deal types at volume, without losing quality or accountability Partner internally with product teams to showcase the future of commerce within partnership and sponsorship activations that create memorable, platform-differentiating moments Travel to marquee activations, sponsorships, pop-ups, and events across North America and Europe to represent Shopify and strengthen partner relationships What We're Looking For: Senior, proven external-facing dealmaker: has personally negotiated large, complex, multi-year deals at a senior level — with talent, agents, and managers, and ideally with corporate partners such as sports teams, venues, or major properties Breadth across partnership types: strength in celebrity, creator, or cultural marketing and the range or appetite to lead corporate partnerships and sponsorships — someone building toward a comprehensive partnerships portfolio, not a single specialty In-house background required: has owned a brand partnership function, not just supported one through an agency Budget and deal ownership: has managed $10M+ in partnership investment with accountability to ROI, and has personally carried individual high-value deals Senior leadership range: can lead and elevate strong program leads while still rolling up their sleeves on the deals that need it — comfortable being the most senior person in the room without needing to be the deepest expert on every existing program Cross-functional fluency: has worked closely with legal, finance, comms, product marketing, and growth teams Cultural instinct: understands the creator economy and entrepreneur-first culture — can identify a good story and match, not just close a deal Builder mindset: has created or significantly evolved process, tooling, or org structure in a partnership function, and is energized by expanding a function's scope Reflexive AI use: you’re comfortable leveraging AI tools for rapid concepting and prototyping but also know when to tap others for craft expertise Proven track record as a people manager with 8+ years of experience building, developing, and leading high-performing teams