Sr. Manager, Sponsorships & Partnership Marketing

At U.S. Bank, we’re on a journey to do our best. Helping the customers and businesses we serve to make better and smarter financial decisions and enabling the communities we support to grow and succeed.  We believe it takes all of us to bring our shared ambition to life, and each person is unique in their potential. A career with U.S. Bank gives you a wide, ever-growing range of opportunities to discover what makes you thrive at every stage of your career. Try new things, learn new skills and discover what you excel at—all from Day One.

Job Description

U.S. Bank’s Brand & Creative team is seeking a strategic marketing partnerships manager to help shape the future of how we show up through partnerships and sponsorships across sports, talent, and entertainment.

This role requires a strategic marketer who can navigate complexity, influence across teams, and lead integrated marketing efforts through partnerships that resonate with people and drive business results. You’ll lead and represent the work—steering cross-functional teams, agency partners, and external relationships with clarity and conviction.

You’ll manage a portfolio of partnerships across sports, talent & entertainment, while developing and leading marketing strategies to deliver client-centric, multichannel marketing programs that drive growth, retention and engagement. You’ll also identify and communicate KPIs to ensure marketing strategies yield a positive return on investment and continuously optimize as needed.

We’re focused on curating partnerships that matter—building affinity, driving relevance, and creating measurable impact. This role is key to helping us scale smarter, move faster, and unlock new potential. If you’re passionate about culture, collaboration and helping build the future of U.S. Bank’s brand partnerships, we’d love to hear from you.

Responsibilities

• Develop marketing strategies for a portfolio of sports sponsorships, talent partnerships, brand integrations, and event sponsorships—ensuring alignment with brand and business goals.

• Manage high-value partner relationships with professionalism and strategic foresight.

• Lead cross-functional teams through the development and execution of sponsorship activations—including brand, media, creative studio, agency partners, comms, social, CSR & business line partners.

• Provide direction and feedback to agency partners; offering both tactical and creative input & leadership.

• Collaborate with media and content teams to deliver 360° campaigns that leverage partnerships for powerful marketing activations.

• Partner with creative teams to bring brand stories to life in culturally relevant, resonant ways.

• Establish clear KPIs and track impact.

• Understand business line needs to build activations that maximize ROI, sponsorship performance and engagement objectives.

• Communicate clearly and succinctly through presentations, email and written reports; socialize strategic activation plans with senior marketing and revenue line leaders.

• Collaborate with internal partners to ensure all marketing programs are in accordance with all laws, regulations and bank policies.

Who You Are:

• Strategic marketer who sees the big picture but sweats the details.

• Leader among peers—driving work, leading agencies, and influencing without authority.

• Natural storyteller who can synthesize ideas into compelling narratives and sell them through.

• Relationship builder with a track record of forging productive partnerships both internally and externally.

• Cultural connector—curious about consumer behavior, emerging trends, and authentic brand experiences.

• Data-driven decision maker—fluent in brand and business KPIs, and understanding how partnerships move the needle.

• Motivated, self-starter comfortable finding clarity in ambiguity.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree, or equivalent work experience

• Eight or more years of related experience in marketing and marketing strategy with proven ability to deliver results Preferred

Skills/Experience:

• In-depth knowledge of the current principles and best practices within brand partnerships, sponsorships, consumer engagement, and social media marketing.

• Proven experience developing strategy, managing & activating sports, talent, entertainment, or lifestyle partnerships and reporting results.

• Ability to lead large-scale projects and manage multiple stakeholders.

• Experience leading agencies and external partner relationships.

• Strong