Director, Business Development

Job Description :

Rakuten Group, Inc. is the largest e-commerce company in Japan, and third-largest e-commerce marketplace company worldwide, with over 1.

5 billion registered users worldwide. The Rakuten brand is recognized worldwide for its leadership and innovation, and provides a variety of consumer and business-focused services including e-commerce, e-reading, travel, banking, securities, credit card, e-money, portal and media, online marketing and professional sports.

The company is expanding globally and currently has operations throughout Asia, Western Europe, and the Americas.

Rakuten Viki is a premier global entertainment streaming site where millions of people discover and consume primetime shows and movies subtitled in more than 200 languages, by our community of fans.

With billions of videos viewed and more than 1 billion words translated, Viki brings global entertainment to fans everywhere!

The Director, Business Development, is responsible for identifying and enabling growth opportunities for the company. This role will be a central member of the company’s Business Operations team, and play a critical part in developing and achieving the company’s global partnership and distribution strategy from prospecting new strategic partners, to ensuring day-to-day partner operations, and identifying innovative ways to drive awareness, acquire users, and grow revenues through new products and channels for the business.

This role will collaborate with internal stakeholders and external partners. A successful candidate is expected to be decisive, be able to foster successful partnerships, and can proactively and effectively communicate with internal stakeholders and external partners to maximize business opportunities and achieve company objectives.

This role will be based in San Mateo, California, and report to the COO.

Key Responsibilities :

• Drive and oversee partnerships for content distribution, mobile app, and connected TV app distributions, ensuring optimal visibility and accessibility for Viki's offerings.
• Lead strategic research and business development initiatives to identify and establish high-impact opportunities and partnerships.
• Conduct negotiations at a senior level, overseeing the development and execution of comprehensive partnership agreements with key stakeholders.
• Secure buy-in from internal stakeholders for partnerships, effectively advocating for program alignment with organizational objectives.
• Provide expert guidance to cross-functional teams, ensuring seamless execution of programs and roadmaps contributing to the organization's growth.
• Take full ownership of end-to-end partnership management, from lead generation to implementation, focusing on delivering a great partner experience and ensuring the achievement or surpassing performance targets.
• As part of the Business Operations department, effectively project manage and collaborate with diverse cross-functional teams, including content, marketing, legal, product, finance, data analytics, and customer experience.
• Regularly analyze data and metrics, track program success, and identify key opportunities to enhance key performance indicators (KPIs), increase scale, and improve efficiency.
• Stay abreast of industry trends and innovations, incorporating them into partnership strategies to maintain a competitive edge in content and app distributions.

Requirements :

• Minimum of 10 years of professional experience in business development, with a proven track record in negotiating and closing high-profile partnerships.
• Extensive experience in the Media or Technology industry, preferably within an entertainment subscription-based business.
• In-depth knowledge of digital distribution and direct-to-consumer (DTC) digital services partnerships.
• Exceptional organizational, communication, presentation, and relationship management skills.
• Demonstrated success in deal-making and negotiating partnerships with a broad spectrum of stakeholders.
• Ability to strategically prioritize partnership opportunities in alignment with overarching business objectives.
• Highly analytical mindset, leveraging data and research to lead and persuade effectively.
• Self-motivated, capable of working independently, and driven to achieve objectives.
• Passion for innovation, creative problem-solving, and cultivating strong relationships.
• Comfortable thriving in a fast-paced and dynamic work environment, with experience collaborating across international teams and diverse job functions.

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Five Principles for Success :

Be one of the first applicants, read the complete overview of the role below, then send your application for consideration.

Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success :

Always improve, Always Advance - Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen

Passionately Professional - Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best

Hypothesize - Practice - Validate Shikumika - Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory

Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile

Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team

Rakuten provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type.

Rakuten considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, provincial or local laws.

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the base compensation for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors, including the skills, qualifications, and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location.

The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for discretionary bonus, health, vision, dental insurance, 401k matching, PTO, Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements.

USD $113,157.00 - $211,032.00 annually

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