Licensing Manager

We are looking for a Licensing Manager to be responsible for the management of licensees and the development of new business within our Licensing team, supporting the delivery of successful strategic plans for revenue growth and global brand development / extension.

In this exciting position, you'll play a fundamental role in identifying new licensing and product partnership opportunities, negotiating agreements through to contract stage, building long-term mutually beneficial relationships and managing exits from agreements when appropriate. You will lean on your excellent account management skills to build and maintain winning relationships with licensees, ensuring the relationship is successful for both parties.

You'll take pride in acting as a conduit between our Retail, Partnership Development, Partner Services and Brand and Marketing teams, generating as much value as possible from licensing rights for our club, licensees, partners, and our supporters.

Your day-to-day:

• Identify and develop new business opportunities - you will relish the opportunity to cultivate new business for our Licensing team, in line with the department strategy, including brand extensions in traditional licensing categories, digital categories and with existing and new commercial partners in the form of product partners
• Build and uphold effective relationships - you'll establish and maintain licensing relationships with licensees at Director/Owner level and you will understand licensees' business dynamics, adapting to meet needs without compromising our strategy and brand values
• Oversee existing agreements - you will manage existing international licensing operations and assist in the development of international retail strategy, and you'll negotiate contract renewals and extensions of licence agreements, as well as manage exits from agreements where appropriate
• Provide diligent financial management - you'll manage P&L lines, forecast licensing income and manage licensing costs to budget, including travel, trade shows, advertising and relevant software costs, and you will monitor the measurement of KPIs within the business plan and feedback to stakeholders via regular business review meetings
• Champion products of the highest quality - you will hold overall responsibility for licensee product approvals, including products and categories represented and the direction for future products, and you'll work with our Retail team to increase the range of licensed products within our stores, delivering wider choice to our customers
• Collaborate with our Brand team - you'll work closely with our Brand team to develop our club's style guide for products to include usage of our crest and other IP including players and you will advise across wider departments on the usage of our club's IP and any other merchandise related issues
• Align with our commercial partners - you will actively encourage our commercial partners to activate partnerships through product and you'll provide expert advice on and manage rights delivery for our partners and central licensees (Premier League/Women's Super League)
• Understand and support our sustainability goals - you'll seek to gain a thorough understanding of our corporate and social responsibility strategy with a view to developing and implementing in respect of of responsible and ethical sourcing and factory usage

• Background in licensing - you've got demonstrable experience of brand licensing with a good level of knowledge of associated disciplines including marketing, buying and merchandising, with an innate passion for your specialism
  Best-in-class collaborator - you pride yourself on your ability to build effective relationships with customers, colleagues and suppliers at all levels
• Excellent communication skills - you thrive when you're influencing, persuading and negotiating, and you tailor your approach and tone as needed
• Team-centred approach - you've got exceptional interpersonal, motivational and leadership skills, with the ability to generate a team environment that focuses on results
• Natural problem-solver - you relish the opportunity to approach challenging situations head-on, with a calm, clear and focused attitude
• Organised and adaptable mindset - you offer a dedicated, motivational and flexible can-do approach and you're proactive and determined with the ability to deliver
• Willingness to travel and provide support on matchdays - you're comfortable with domestic travel and infrequent international travel, and you're able to host licensees, retailers and other customers at fixtures at the Emirates Stadium (roughly 5 matchdays per season)