Excel Sports Management is an industry-leading sports agency representing top-tier talent, blue-chip brands and marquee properties. Our success is rooted in our people, our high character reputation and our commitment to creating a diverse and welcoming workplace. We focus on team chemistry, collaboration, strong relationships, valuable networks, and ambitious ideas to deliver innovative solutions that keep our clients and agency ahead of the curve.
Excel Sports Management is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE).
Position Summary
As VP, Group Account Director, you are the senior-most business steward across a portfolio of high-value client relationships. You define partnership vision, shape enterprise-level strategy, and ensure our work drives measurable commercial impact for a bluechip client.
You operate upstream, advising senior and executive client stakeholders, identifying transformational growth opportunities, and aligning the agency’s capabilities to solve complex business challenges. While VP, Operations drives how work gets delivered, you own why we are doing it and what business outcomes it must achieve—and you retain ultimate accountability for overall client performance, satisfaction, growth, and commercial health across your portfolio.
You will oversee a diversified portfolio of strategically important accounts, with a primary focus on leading large-scale partnerships across major sports leagues and properties. You’ll drive innovative brand integrations, fan engagement initiatives, and commercial partnerships across a portfolio of brands, including a leading telecom brand and other leading brands, connecting them with the most influential properties in sports.
What You’ll Do
Enterprise Business Stewardship
- Serve as executive business lead across your client accounts.
- Develop and champion multi-year partnership visions tied to enterprise-level objectives.
- Act as a trusted advisor to senior and C-suite stakeholders
- Identify systemic business challenges and frame opportunities that position the agency as indispensable.
- Maintain executive-level visibility into client health, competitive positioning, and category evolution.
- Ensure deep client understanding across the portfolio—anchoring strategy in business realities, organizational dynamics, and market context.
Portfolio Growth & Commercial Leadership
- Own revenue targets and growth strategy across assigned accounts.
- Lead expansion planning across new markets, business units, and capabilities.
- Identify whitespace opportunities and drive cross-sell integration.
- Oversee renewal strategy, contract negotiations, and long-term commercial frameworks.
- Play a leading role in agency-wide new business strategy and marquee pitches.
- Manage the business of the business—including agreements, pricing strategy, profitability oversight, long-term deal structuring, and commercial negotiation—to ensure sustainable, scalable growth.
Strategic & Creative Influence
- Ensure all work ladders to meaningful business outcomes.
- Push clients toward bold, culturally resonant solutions that differentiate their brands.
- Align Strategy, Creative, and Operations around a unified growth agenda.
- Protect the ambition of ideas while ensuring business discipline.
- Bring deep knowledge of sports, music, entertainment, and cultural trends to identify emerging opportunities, unlock differentiated partnership strategies, and keep client work culturally and commercially relevant.
Partnership with Operations
- Partner closely with Operations leads to align business ambition with operational feasibility.
- Ensure financial models, staffing, and delivery infrastructure support growth plans.
- Present a unified leadership front to clients: business leadership and operational excellence working in lockstep.
- Escalate and resolve high-level issues collaboratively, ensuring clarity of decision rights and accountability across Business and Operations.
Agency Leadership & Talent Development
- Lead and mentor Senior Account Directors and Account Directors and support their ability to mentor Account Managers and Account Coordinators.
- Help shape the evolution of Business Leadership as a discipline within the agency.
- Contribute to agency-wide strategy, culture, and capability expansion.
- Represent the agency externally in industry forums and thought leadership moments.
- Maintain an active executive network and relationships across the industry brands, properties, leagues, talent, and partners to strengthen the agency’s market presence and unlock new opportunities.
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
- Exceptional commercial and financial acumen.
- Executive presence with ability to influence C-suite stakeholders.
- Proven track record of driving significant portfolio growth.
- Deep understanding of integrated marketing ecosystems.
- Ability to balance long-term vision with near-term commercial realities.
- Skilled at leading senior talent and shaping organizational direction.
- Strategic thinker who connects culture, creativity, and commerce.
- Strong relationship leadership building trust, influencing decisions, and guiding partnerships across complex organizations.
- Outcome orientation to ensure work ladders to measurable business impact.
- Industry & cultural expertise across sports, music, entertainment, and culture to identify emerging opportunities and right-fit deals.
Minimum Qualifications
- 14+ years of experience in agency, sponsorship marketing, or brand leadership roles.
- Experience working with leagues/teams across NBA, NHL or MLS a plus
- Demonstrated experience leading large-scale or enterprise-level client portfolios.
- Proven success driving substantial revenue growth and retention.
- Strong commercial negotiation and long-term contract experience.
- Significant experience mentoring senior business leaders.
The pay range for this position is $200,000 - $225,000 per year. This position is also eligible for benefits and discretionary bonus.
Please note that the foregoing compensation information is a good-faith assessment associated with this position only and is provided pursuant to the New York City Salary Transparency Law.
Ultimately, the salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in role, business sector, and geographic location, among other criteria.
This position is not eligible for sponsorship.
Excel Sports Management provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, leaves of absence, compensation and training.