Marketing Partnerships Intern

Job Description

About the Role
This is a revenue-generating internship role focused on sourcing brand deals for professional and elite college athletes. As a closer, you will build and manage a partnerships pipeline, turning cold outreach into signed agreements, directly impacting athletes’ earnings and the agency’s profitability.

What You’ll Do
• Source partnerships: Identify and pitch brands that align with our athletes’ personal brands and audiences
• Outbound outreach: Cold calls, cold emails, LinkedIn DMs, in-person if it makes sense. Whatever it takes
• Deal pipeline management: Track every conversation from first touch through signed agreement
• Brand research: Build prospect lists across apparel, nutrition, lifestyle, fintech, gaming, regional brands
• Pitch material support: Work with our creative team to build one-pagers and partnership decks
• Negotiation support: Sit in on calls with our COO, learn the deal-making side of the business

You’re a Good Fit If You
• Sales instinct: You’re comfortable picking up the phone and you don’t fold at the first objection
• Communication skills: You can write a cold email that gets opened and a follow-up that gets answered
• Basketball/sports knowledge: You understand athlete branding and what makes a partnership actually fit
• Organization: You can manage 100+ open conversations without dropping the ball
• Microsoft Excel proficiency (pipeline tracking lives here)

Bonus Qualifications
• Prior sales, business development, or fundraising experience (even student org level)
• Understanding of influencer marketing rates and athlete partnership structures
• CRM experience (HubSpot, Airtable, Notion)
• Existing brand or agency contacts in sports marketing
• Social media fluency. You understand audience, engagement, and brand fit

Role Highlights & Compensation
• Real revenue responsibility. You bring in deals, you see your impact on the P&L
• Direct access to the COO and the partnership side of a high-growth agency
• Path to full-time employment (our current Creative Director started as an unpaid intern exactly like this. Now she runs all creative operations)
• Build a network of brand contacts that will follow you your entire career
• Small team = no gatekeepers, no committee, no permission needed to take a shot
• 10+ hours/week commitment
• Must be available during business hours (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, M-F)
• Unpaid internship with clear path to paid full-time role based on performance
• Remote