Partnership Manager (Oslo, Norway)

Opportunity in short: Early entry into ambitious Nordic scale-up, well positioned in the booming global esports industry. Highly experienced core team in place, NOK 150 million funding secured, and top-ranking elite teams acquired. Competitive compensation.

Esports - a popular revolution

Do you want to work in a hyper-expansive industry with 500 million fans, professional teams battling for millions in prize pools, and annual revenues exceeding $1 billion? How about managing a global sports organization where the athletes, crowds, and stadiums are as real as they get, while the game itself is virtual? Esports has rapidly emerged from the underground and is now hitting the masses. In parallel venture capitalists, private equity, and other investment communities are fighting for the best opportunities, with esports businesses growing at record speeds. Sounds interesting?

We are accelerating our growth agenda with an ambitious Partnership Manager / Lead

As Partnership Manager in Heroic, you will play a central role in reaching our strategic goals, and creating and driving our partnership acquisition initiatives, side by side with our management team. You will be leading some of our most exciting initiatives, and together with cross-functional internal teams you will drive identification and acquisition of potential partners. We hope to attract an ambitious management consulting profile, with a +3-year proven track-record working in a high-performance environment. Experience from esports or adjacent industries (media, traditional sports etc.) is considered positive, but most importantly we are looking for a strong spark and genuine interest for shaping the esports industry.

Key responsibilities

• Understand the motivations and expectations of brands in partnering with Heroic and build foundations of long-term relationships with the ability to scale
• Research brands on hitlist, analyze market trends for new opportunities, and input data to CRM
• Generate leads through targeted outreach to global tier 1 brands and channel partners (e.g., agencies)
• Act as the central point of contact: manage incoming partner requests and ongoing efforts, provide regular status reports and disseminating information to key stakeholders, and ensure client expectations are always met
• Understand the Heroic’s value proposition and positioning, and act as a brand ambassador
• Manage and maintain a strong network of partners, clients, agencies, brands, influencers, banks, third-party vendors, and organizations
• Build deep-level relationships; continuously attending events, presentations and visit our partners’ office locations
• Develop client presentations and partnership documents required for execution, including quarterly updates, monthly reports, status documents, and creative concepts
• Act as a liaison between internal and external stakeholders, third-party vendors, agencies, and organizations
• Create, present, and provide briefs to internal stakeholders on initiatives and progress to ensure the completion of cross-functional tasks
• Present / communicate progress and results of projects to partners with recommendations of next step/s
• Contribute towards both team and individual KPIs while monitoring progress via Salesforce
• Provide weekly reports on key tasks, KPI’s, pipeline, as well as potential obstacles.
• Ideate and construct creative pitches to deliver potential partners in a greenfield industry territory

Academic and professional background

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in business or engineering from top tier university with focus on business, sales, marketing, or other related disciplines
• Min. 3 years of working experience in high-performance environments (ideally in international context)
• Experience from business development and strategy work

Preferable:

• Esports or adjacent industry experience
• B2B marketing and account management experience
• Experience from working with partnerships, building relationships with influencers, agencies, and vendors to execute deliverables across various channels
• Strong personal / professional network relevant for Heroic
• Experience from digital business channels (SoMe, streaming, e-commerce, data platforms, etc.)
• Part of background in professional services (e.g., management consulting or similar)
• Have a proven track record of successfully developing and executing consumer acquisition strategies that drive consumer engagement, retention, and loyalty

Personal qualifications

• Ambitious and result oriented, with passion for growth and value creation
• Strong business acumen and ability to learn new industries quickly
• Comfortable in leading teams and great at facilitating effective collaborations
• Conceptual and strategic thinker with solid business understanding
• Creative, energic, and hard working
• Proven ability to establish successful business relationships on senior levels
• An engaging personality and a natural ability to create positive rapport with people
• Excited about the growth, opportunities, and dynamics of the esports industry
• Clear ambition to rapidly develop into key leadership positions in Heroic
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English, additional languages (e.g., Nordics, German, French, Chinese) desirable

What Heroic offers

• Early entry, hereunder the ability to impact our long-term direction
• Secured funding, competitive salary, and equity incentives
• Ambitious and competent colleagues with diverse personal and professional backgrounds (hereunder management consulting)
• Dynamic and fun work environment, with people and culture as the pinnacle for growth
• Opportunity to gain unique esports competency from “the inside”
• International environment; Nordics as our base and the world as our playground
• Opportunity to position the Nordics at the top of a global competitive arena
• Big screens, powerful computers, ergonomic gaming chairs, and free flow of energy drinks

About Heroic and Omaken Sports

Heroic was founded in 2016 as a promising challenger in the professional esports scene. Since then, through hard work and commitment, we have succeeded to position as one of the best elite teams globally. Heroic was acquired by Omaken Sports this February, providing a strong platform for additional growth and expansion. Omaken Sports was founded in 2020, and is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Our founder, Joachim Haraldsen is Norway’s most profiled gamer with an impressive industry network and a vision to position Heroic and the Nordic region at the top of the global esports scene. Omaken Sports recently raised NOK 150 million in capital, enabling the acquisition of Heroic and several other growth initiatives currently in the making. Heroic now has the second best professional CS:GO team globally, a world-leading PUBG and Rainbow Six rosters, and a very promising SimRacing set-up. With rapid growth as our main objective, we are quickly entering new games, signing new elite teams, positioning for franchise stakes in top leagues, and attracting world-class commercial partners. The timing is now, and the opportunities are many. Initially, our main target is to conquer the elite esports segment under the Heroic banner. With the recent expansion and the growing brand recognition, Omaken Sports will be rebranded to Heroic Group. Over time, Heroic Group will grow into other gaming verticals.

#BeHeroic

Our company values are #BeCompetitive, #BeProfessional, and #BeBorderless. These three values are all captured in our #BeHeroic caption and intends to speak to and inspire current and future esports fans. We aim to motivate people to adopt heroic characteristics such as being a role model, showing courage, acting noble, or achieving greatness. Being heroic is showing respect for others and promoting human equality. Standing up for yourself, and those in need. From an organizational point of view, we want all our employees to represent #BeHeroic through our joint ACHIEVEMENTS, the PERSONALITIES we represent, and our RESPONSIBILITY towards our fans, our communities, and through our social impact work.

How to apply?

• Submit your application by email to: career@heroic.gg
• Include your CV and a short cover letter / motivational letter in two separate attachments
• Include your name and the role you are applying for in the e-mail subject field (Example: Application for Partnership Manager / Lead - John Hancock)
• Deadline: as soon as possible

For any questions regarding the application process please contact:

Daniel Engeset – People & Talent Manager
Email: daniel@heroic.gg