IPG DXTRA is hiring : Freelance Vice President, Influencer Strategy in Chicago

Role summary

Lead athlete-driven partnerships across TWSC North America. Serve as the authority on how sports, culture, and brand objectives intersect. Build direct and scalable relationships with athletes, leagues, and properties.

The ideal candidate will bring a deep understanding of athlete servicing, cross-functional collaboration, and operational rigor, with proven experience navigating complex organizational structures and driving results. This individual will thrive in a dynamic environment, balancing business priorities, athlete needs, and innovation opportunities.

You bring strong expertise in sports and culture, along with a track record of managing teams, leading cross-functional initiatives, and building scalable systems. A mindset with commitment to operational excellence, and a deep passion for the sports industry are essential.

What you'll do

• Own athlete partnership strategy that maps to brand, marketing, and business KPIs
• Translate briefs into athlete talent architectures, deliverables, and rights packages
• Source, vet, and negotiate pro, collegiate, and emerging sport talent, including NIL
• Navigate league, team, event, and marks usage guidelines with Legal and Issues leads
• Integrate athlete talent into PR, social, influencer, experiential, and retail moments
• Structure deals for paid, earned, and commerce outcomes, including affiliate and live shopping
• Oversee contracting, usage, exclusivity, whitelisting, and content rights across channels
• Lead brand safety, cultural fit, and compliance reviews with clear go or no-go calls
• Partner with cross-functional teams to ensure athlete talent is seamlessly integrated into campaign strategy, execution, and measurement.
• Build a proactive pipeline around seasonal calendars and tentpoles, including World Cup, Olympics, and league milestones
• Maintain senior relationships with agents, unions, player associations, and properties

What you'll bring

Is this you?

Be a driver of culture : Must have true passion and understanding of pop culture and are part of the community (be it music, gaming, fashion, food, internet culture, etc) This job is the intersection of creative, strategy, marketing, technology, content creation and production; your energy must be driven by your lifestyle. You must influence creative ideations : from the ideas presented, to the influencers selected, to the content created, all the way down to the language used in post copy.

Have high cultural competencies : Understand the role and importance of diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I) You must be culturally vigilant with the ability to understand, communicate with and effectively interact with people across cultures.

Have 'Gravitas' in the influencer space and skin-in-the-game : Deep understanding of the influencer landscape is required. Proven ability to build, speak and grow relationships with change agents and cultural makers (celebrities, influencers, artists, thought leaders) directly or via their agents. You must be open to a public-facing role; willingness to speak publicly about influencer trends when opportunities present itself to the WS Influencer Team.

Know how to identify and manage diverse vendors and partners : in an industry where technologies (saas platforms, AI, managed services, etc) are popping on the daily, at high volume, no less, you must have experience working with RFPs and meeting with leading tech companies to understand their services and identify their uniqueness (and keep up with their ongoing changes in our WS influencer database)

Be ready to lead at any moment : working with your leads, you will learn to 'step up to the plate' and lead effectively in the client's and agency's best interests while also helping to cultivate, mentor and coach mid to junior staff members on the influencer team.

Hustle : identify influencer opportunities (organic or new) to ensure influencer marketing continues to be a strong marketing discipline and revenue driver on your assigned account or at Weber Shandwick.

Think like a lawyer : you understand how important it is to be in compliance with best practices (FTC updates, platform requirements), continuously build our excellence by partnering with DXTRA legal and finance to ensure risk and liabilities are reduced and tamed for every campaign you touch.

Have experience building engaged audiences : on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Clubhouse and other distribution platforms.

Know how to build a story : you will build client presentations that tell smart, compelling stories, never 'rinse and repeat' which requires you to be highly motivated, energetically-charged and inspired at all times.

Be curious, always : You are willing to learn a little bit of everything, and open to take on anything.

Salary range : $85.00

Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current / former employees in the subject position; market considerations; budgetary considerations; tenure and standing with the company (applicable to current employees); as well as the employee's / applicant's background, pertinent experience, and qualifications.

Weber Shandwick is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. Weber Shandwick recruits qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, ethnic or national origin, protected veteran status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or citizenship status.

If you need an accommodation to participate in the application process, please contact us at JobAppAccommodation@ipgdxtra.com.

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