Senior Partnerships Associate

About the role

We're seeking an experienced, hands-on Senior Partnerships Associate to help maintain and scale Runna’s US race partnership program, one of our key growth areas.

Responsibilities

• Optimise and develop Runna’s existing race partnerships (US focus)
• Lead the management of Runna’s existing race partners, particularly in the US, ensuring strong relationships and best-in-class execution across the full race journey (pre-race, race weekend, and post-race).
• Continuously test, analyse, and optimise race partnerships using data and insights, reporting on performance, identifying trends, and making clear, data-led decisions to improve engagement, conversion, and runner experience.
• Collaborate with race and brand partners to refine content, communications, and value propositions, ensuring they remain relevant, compelling, and effective.
• Work cross-functionally with internal teams (Product, Marketing, Content) to align race partnerships with launches, seasonal moments, and broader brand initiatives.
• Keep partners informed on product updates and new features, clearly articulating how these improve outcomes for both partners and their runners.
• Growing Runna’s race partnership program
• Proactively identify, evaluate, and secure new race partnerships across our US market, with a strong focus on selecting the right races that align with Runna’s growth and brand strategy.
• You’ll fully own race selection - identifying standout opportunities, prioritising them, and bringing them live as official Runna training partnerships.
• Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of race partnerships: from discovery and negotiation, through onboarding, launch, day-to-day management, optimisation, and renewal.
• As the primary owner of race performance, ensure races are optimised on an ongoing basis, refining positioning, messaging, and execution to drive runner engagement and commercial impact.
• Work closely with local, in-market contacts to support localisation and deepen understanding of regional race calendars, runner behavior, and competitive landscapes.
• Managing, scaling, and supporting the wider partnerships function
• Set clear priorities, processes, and ways of working to ensure the race partnership function operates efficiently and delivers consistently high-quality outcomes.
• Support the wider Brand Partnerships team on an ad-hoc basis, particularly around major race weekends — helping bring partnerships to life through on-the-ground activations, content, and experiences.
• Support additional areas within the Partnerships team (e.g., B2B initiatives), contributing to new channel testing, experimentation, and scaling high-potential opportunities.
• Occasionally jump in to support other areas of the business where needed, including working with ambassadors, events, or contributing to product initiatives where partnerships play a role.

Requirements

• 2–3 years’ experience in partnerships, sponsorship, or race/events management, ideally in running or endurance sports.
• Experience in Account Management / Project Management or other equivalent.
• Data-driven, using insights to optimise partnerships and make informed decisions.
• End-to-end partnership ownership: identifying, onboarding, and optimising races.
• Day to day management of current partners to ensure they are driving maximum returns, they are a happy Runna partner, and they are delivering on all contractural assets.
• NYC based proactive, and highly organized, able to manage multiple priorities and partners.
• Comfortable with CRM and project management tools (e.g., Hubspot, Asana or equivalent).
• Collaborative and adaptable, supporting ad-hoc brand or race activations as needed.

Qualifications

• Proactive, and highly organized, able to manage multiple priorities and partners.
• Comfortable with CRM and project management tools (e.g., Hubspot, Asana or equivalent).
• Collaborative and adaptable, supporting ad-hoc brand or race activations as needed.

Skills

• Data-driven, using insights to optimise partnerships and make informed decisions.
• End-to-end partnership ownership: identifying, onboarding, and optimising races.
• Day to day management of current partners to ensure they are driving maximum returns, they are a happy Runna partner, and they are delivering on all contractural assets.

Benefits

• Flexible working – we typically spend 3 days a week together in the office.
• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays (which you can take whenever suits you).
• Free Runna & Strava subscriptions for you and 3 of your friends (get ready to be your friends fave person or save them for holiday presents!)
• Money every year to spend on gear, events and the gym!
• Health insurance (including Dental and Vision) and workplace 401K scheme.
• Modern Health is a mental wellness platform and app that combines technology with professional support to improve mental well-being and reduce stress.
• Carrot fertility support - this benefits provider can provide inclusive fertility, hormonal health, and family-forming benefits to our global employee population and takes the burden off what we know can be a stressful process.