Job Title: Partner Manager

Department: Monetization

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer

Revision Date: October 2023

Employment Type: Regular Full-Time

Pay Type: Salary

Classification: Exempt

Office Location: Remote

Company Overview

The Podglomerate is a leading firm for podcast production, marketing/audience development, and monetization. We bring curiosity to life through critically-acclaimed and award-winning podcasts ranging from narrative-driven stories and sound-rich dramas to branded series and interview shows. Since its start in 2015, The Podglomerate has grown to represent more than 70 podcasts accounting for more than 30 million monthly downloads, with our shows topping the podcast charts and receiving features on every major podcast distribution app with national coverage across print, digital, radio, and television. Our high-profile list of podcast clients includes Freakonomics Radio, NPR, PBS, A+E, Lifetime, History Channel, Harvard Business School, MIT, Stanford, Lit Hub Radio, NPR stations (including KPCC/LAist, NHPR, WHYY, WUNC, VPM, WPM, GBH), WNET, Substack, Magnificent Noise, Expedia, Optum, CVS Health, Hubspot, and Hoff Studios, among many others.

Position Overview

This position supports The Podglomerate’s Monetization department, for both internal and external stakeholders. This position reports directly to the COO, who in-turn reports to the CEO. You may regularly interact with other members of The Podglomerate ecosystem, including but not limited to: full-time staff, part-time staff, contract-based contributors, vendors, sponsors, clients, and talent.

The Partner Manager is responsible for contributing to a variety of tasks that support advertising operations, enhancing partner relationships for our ad sales clients, and network offerings across all client-types. The goals of this position are to grow the ad sales service line–primarily in a support capacity, then eventually with autonomy to enhance existing relationships and grow new relationships, and finally to assist in developing & refining our cross-promo network structure. As the business line grows and volume increases, this role is positioned to grow alongside the department, and supervise supporting staff.

Compensation

Salary: target range of $60-75k/year, depending primarily on demonstrated success in the “Qualifications/Requirements” section below.

Bonus: target 10% of salary, contingent upon a combination of (1) overall business performance, (2) department performance, (3) and individual performance. Bonus amount paid could be less-than, equal-to, or greater-than the stated target.

Benefits:

Phantom Equity; accrue “phantom equity points” in The Podglomerate LLC after 1 year of service. Points represent an employee’s pro-rata share in the financial upside of the business. Further details to be provided during the interview process.

401k Plan; employer gift of 3% of W2 compensation to employee, plus profit-sharing eligibility. No employee contribution required to receive 3% gift, or be eligible for profit-sharing. Further details to be provided during the interview process.

100% employer-sponsored premiums for employee:

Medical; Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield; PPO/HMO depending on employee legal residence. Optional HSA account available.

Dental; Delta Dental

Vision; DeltaVision

Short-term disability; SunLife

Long-term disability; SunLife

Life Insurance; SunLife

Additional perks: Biennial $600 technology reimbursement, biennially. $1,000 annual food & beverage reimbursement for industry events & networking ($250 quarterly reimbursement)

Time off: Unlimited PTO, with manager approval

Volunteer Days: one (1) per quarter

Career Advancement

We are always open to discussing new and evolving roles with team members.

Should the employee wish to grow into a new role, there are a number of opportunities for growth and development. Presently, we have identified the future growth opportunities. In all likelihood, a new role will likely encompass a combination of the below opportunities and responsibilities..

(1) Monetization Department Advancement. Our monetization services business is positioned to grow several different types of service lines, across various industries/verticals including licensed and owned properties. There are several defined roles between this role; Senior Manager, AVP, VP, SVP, Director. If we’re successful in growing this department together, we can develop new roles based on market demand, skillset, and preference.

(2) Staff Management. Once independently proficient, you could formally manage a team of junior operations and/or monetization employees, and operate more in a supervisory capacity–accountable for the success of each campaign, but with your team executing the majority of the labor.

(3) Business Development. While executing/supervising campaigns, recruit new clients, build relationships, and generate new monetization revenue for the company.

(4) Relationship Management. If we grow the department as expected, we will have a significant amount of partner relationships to support. Volume should necessitate additional support staff, and provide a blend of proactive and reactive techniques to ensure we’re adding value to our partner relationships.

(5) Mentorship. Our intent is to keep adding and building strong marketing professionals in this space. We will need someone to oversee their growth and development alongside a workload of successful campaign execution.

Essential Job Functions

Collaborate with COO, CEO, and Head of Marketing to devise, implement, and iterate on cross-promo network models.

Serve as the primary point of contact for monetization partners (publishers, sales, agencies, buyers)

Collaborate with COO to enhance existing partner relationships

Collaborate with COO to identify and strategize for new ad sales partners

Independently onboard new ad sales partners

Continuously cultivate onboarding experience for new partners

Maintain User accounts and access in Megaphone, Flightpath

Collaborate with Marketing to manager external cross-promo relationships and campaigns

Keep up-to-date on market conditions. Macro economic factors, marketing budgets, buyer tastes and preferences.

Engage with software developments in the podcast, publicity, and marketing world, specifically Megaphone, Flightpath, Simplecast, Omny, Chartable, Muckrack, Podchaser, Spotify Analytics, and more.

Support COO & CEO as needed.

Maintain active, accurate, and complete records of tasks and projects in Notion and Google Drive systems

Ad Ops supervision and accountability. Serve in a supervisory capacity of future contract and full-time staff on the below tasks–but the below tasks will be the responsibility of the Partner Manager to execute until the support role is filled. Partner Manager must possess mastery of these processes and tasks in order to intervene as-needed, and effectively manage junior staff:

Take ownership of all audio orders from IO signature, through complete delivery and invoicing.

Maintain pristine records of all ad sales and cross-promotion activity

Translate IOs into provided systems

Flight all network orders within one business day of booking.

Enter IO data into Megaphone; setup all campaigns. This includes direct ad sales, cross-promos, and promos.

Coordinate between ad ops, and publishers/production as-needed to ensure timely, compliant orders are setup and contract deliverables (eg. impression) are satisfied

Proactively monitor order & campaign delivery. Identify and communicate potential complications to Ad Ops stakeholders promptly, with potential options for solutions.

Field inventory inquiries from Marketing team

Audit ad marker counts and types across the portfolio of shows, and work with partners to keep their inventory aligned with agreed-upon terms.

Manage “Flightpath” software – ad sales inventory management system

Run airchecks for all campaigns

Fulfill scheduled and ad hoc reporting requests from clients, agencies, sponsors, and internal stakeholders

Maintaining records of invoicing protocol across buyer portfolio

Invoice reconciliation requests

Maintain Agency and Brand/Advertiser records

Qualifications/Requirements

A demonstrated history of successfully managing the processing of ad sales orders, and publisher partner relationships.

3+ years direct podcast experience. Ad sales, operations, or production preferred.

3+ years professional experience with direct relationship management and consultation

3+ years proven success in a detail-oriented role, managing large amounts of data, supervising data migration between documents, spreadsheets, and systems.

Exceptional attention to detail. Exceptional attention to detail. Exceptional attention to detail.

Exceptional communication skills; written and verbal

Demonstrated ability to excel in an environment with rapidly changing priorities of tasks

Demonstrated ability to identify trends, use them to inform strategy, and communicate proactively with team members

Demonstrated ability to provide actionable constructive feedback objectively and with diplomacy

Demonstrated knowledge of current media, audio, and podcast industries

Computer and technology literacy in current digital media and sourcing platforms (Megaphone, Chartable, Muckrack, Podchaser), Google Workspace, Notion, and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). We can teach you what you do not know, but you’ll be expected to be proficient within 3 months of starting work.

Special Requirements

The employee may be required to report to a different local office as a normal, contemplated, and mandated incident of their employment

Limited travel

Flexible schedule required

Working Conditions

Remote work – employee controls working environment

Labor is akin to that of an “office environment”, with frequent, computer, mouse, keyboard use

Hearing, talking, reaching, grasping

To Apply

Please send a resume to listen [at] thepodglomerate.com to apply for this role. Please also write a few sentences about why you’re interested in the role and your qualifications.

Note: This job description is not intended to be all inclusive or exclusive. At any time, employee may perform other related duties as required to meet the ongoing needs of the organization and participate in additional trainings.

The Podglomerate LLC follows Equal Opportunity Employment Commission guidelines. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

The Podglomerate LLC is only eligible to hire full-time employees in the United States.