Lead Professional, Sports Marketing, Global Cross-Sport Athlete Development

WHO YOU'LL WORK WITH

The Global Sports Marketing team builds and strengthens Nike's relationships with the world's most influential athletes. This role partners closely with Sports Marketing, Brand Marketing, Product Creation, Athlete Services, Sport Moments Team, Communications, NikeSKIMS, Nike Strength, Nike Swim, Nike Underwear, and other enterprise stakeholders to create meaningful athlete experiences that deepen athlete relationships with Nike and unlock cross-functional business opportunities.

As Nike continues to expand athlete engagement opportunities beyond traditional sports marketing, this role will serve as a connector across functions, helping identify, coordinate, and execute strategic athlete integration opportunities that strengthen athlete affinity, enable storytelling, and elevate the athlete experience across the enterprise.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Nike is looking for a relationship-driven leader who is passionate about the athlete experience and understands the power of building meaningful connections across sport, culture, and business. This person thrives in a fast-moving environment, enjoys bringing people together, and excels at identifying opportunities that create value for both athletes and Nike.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, collaborative, and energized by creating exceptional athlete experiences within Nike. They bring a strong understanding of sports marketing, athlete servicing, relationship management, and cross-functional collaboration. They are skilled at balancing multiple stakeholders and priorities while driving flawless execution across athlete engagements, strategic initiatives, and enterprise integration opportunities.

Bring a curious learner mindset and continuously seek opportunities to improve how Nike serves athletes through the development and adoption of scalable tools, systems, and insights platforms. Support initiatives such as Nike Athlete Hub and centralized athlete request management solutions that increase visibility, improve decision-making, drive operational efficiency, and create a more connected athlete ecosystem across Nike.

Most importantly, they recognize that every interaction matters and are motivated by building long-term athlete relationships that strengthen Nike's brand, culture, and business.

Qualifications

·       5+ years of experience in Sports Marketing, athlete relations, partnership management, brand marketing, project management, or a related field

·       Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Sports Management, Communications, or related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education, experience, and training

·       Proven ability to manage athlete and internal/external stakeholder relationships

·       Strong project management and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously

·       Exceptional communication, collaboration, relationship-building, and cross-functional leadership skills

·       Experience coordinating events, activations, product seeding, storytelling moments, or athlete servicing programs preferred

·       Passion for sport, athlete culture, and creating premium athlete experiences

WHAT YOU'LL WORK ON

You will serve as a key connector between Nike athletes and enterprise opportunities, helping operationalize Nike's Athlete Community strategy and cross-sport experiences while delivering world-class athlete servicing and integration experiences.

You will support athlete engagement opportunities that strengthen relationships with Nike, unlock cross-functional collaboration, and elevate the athlete experience across a variety of consumer, employee, brand, product, and business initiative s.

Areas of focus

Athlete Insight & Intelligence

Support the collection, organization, and activation of athlete information, preferences, product sizing, relationship history, participation data, and strategic insights that enable more personalized athlete experiences and better enterprise decision making.

Cross-sport athlete integration

Coordinate opportunities where athletes connect with Nike beyond their primary sport, including golf-based relationship building moments and other athlete interests.

Strategic enterprise requests

Support athlete integration requests across NikeSKIMS, Nike Strength, Nike Swim, Nike Underwear, and future growth platforms.

Internal Nike moments

Identify and coordinate athlete participation in internal culture and employee engagement opportunities, including Just Do It Day on Campus and other key company moments.

Key sport moments

Strategic sport experiences that deepen athlete relationships and create distinctive Nike moments.

Scalable operating model

Develop and continuously improve tools, trackers, intake processes, and communication routines that make cross-sport athlete integration more visible, prioritized, scalable, and actionable across Nike.

Responsibilities

·       Support and execute Nike's Cross-Sport Athlete Development Strategy, leveraging golf and other engagement platforms to deepen athlete relationships and create distinctive athlete experiences

·       Serve as a primary point of contact for inbound cross-sport athlete requests and opportunities across Sports Marketing and enterprise partners

·       Identify, coordinate, and execute athlete integration opportunities across key business initiatives, including NikeSKIMS, Nike Strength, Nike Swim, Nike Underwear, and future growth platforms

·       Partner with internal stakeholders to bring athletes into strategic employee and culture initiatives, including opportunities such as Just Do It Day on Campus and other enterprise engagement moments

·       Coordinate athlete participation in key strategic relationship-building platforms around multiple sports

·       Flawlessly execute to build trusted relationships with athletes, representatives, and internal stakeholders while ensuring premium service across all touchpoints

·       Manage communications, logistics, timelines, and stakeholder alignment for athlete engagements and activations

·       Partner with Sports Marketing, Brand Marketing, Communications, and Product Creation teams to facilitate storytelling opportunities, content creation, product seeding, athlete appearances, and feedback loops

·       Develop and maintain systems, processes, and tracking tools that improve visibility and scalability of athlete integration requests and opportunities

·       Capture and share athlete insights, trends, and opportunities that help inform athlete strategy, brand initiatives, product priorities, and relationship-building efforts

·       Support the development of scalable frameworks that make cross-sport athlete integration a repeatable capability across Nike

·       Help identify new opportunities to elevate athlete service, strengthen athlete affinity, and create long-term value for Nike and its athlete partners

·       Travel ~10-20%

We offer a number of accommodations to complete our interview process including screen readers, sign language interpreters, accessible and single location for in-person interviews, closed captioning, and other reasonable modifications as needed. If you discover, as you navigate our application process, that you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please complete the Candidate Accommodation Request Form .