Marketing Partnerships Specialist

Job Purpose

SXSW is seeking a Marketing Partnerships Specialist to lead the execution and management of strategic trade partnerships and event marketing initiatives that drive awareness, audience growth, and brand engagement. This role is responsible for managing the full lifecycle of partnership marketing campaigns, including partner communication, contract coordination, asset management and fulfillment, trade advertising deliverables, scheduling, reporting, and campaign tracking. Partnership campaigns include fulfillment across digital, print, radio, television, and event marketing, including community events, meetups, booths, and other marketing opportunities that require close coordination across internal teams and external partners. This role plays a key part in expanding year-round reach and visibility of SXSW \& SXSW EDU through collaborative marketing partnerships and industry engagement.

Duties \& Responsibilities

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Manage and execute strategic trade partnership relationships and campaigns from planning through post-campaign reporting.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for media partners, association partners, vendors, and community organizations while building and maintaining strong external relationships.
• Coordinate partnership contracts and agreements, deliverables, timelines, approvals, and execution in collaboration with internal stakeholders.
• Manage the fulfillment, scheduling, and tracking of trade advertising campaigns across digital, print, email, social, radio, television, and events.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with marketing, content, experience, programming, sales, and production teams to ensure partnership assets and campaigns are delivered accurately and on time.
• Maintain partnership calendars, campaign trackers, asset libraries, and shared documentation.
• Lead the planning and execution of year-round event marketing initiatives, including community events, meetups, booths, activations, and industry events.
• Coordinate event logistics, promotional timelines, and on-site marketing support for external events and activations.
• Provide general support for ongoing marketing initiatives and departmental needs.

On-Site Responsibilities

The Marketing Partnerships Specialist supports the on-site execution of conference and festival marketing for SXSW \& SXSW EDU and generally supports the overall production of both events through various marketing operations.

Qualifications \& Skills

Qualifications include:

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, or a related field
• 2-4 years of experience in partnerships, marketing, event marketing, or a related role
• Proficient at managing partner relationships, sponsorship deliverables, media trades, or integrated marketing campaigns
• Skilled at supporting or executing event marketing initiatives, activations, conferences, meetups, or experiential campaigns
• Experience negotiating or coordinating contracts, promotional agreements, or marketing deliverables preferred
• Ability to balance relationship management, multiple campaign timelines and deliverables, and event logistics in a fast-paced environment
• Strong project management and organizational skills with exceptional attention to detail
• Highly developed written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills
• Proactive, self-motivated team player with strong prioritization and follow-through skills
• Familiarity with collaboration and project management tools such as Slack, Airtable, and Google Workspace
• Willingness to work occasional evenings and weekends in support of events and activations as needed
• Knowledge and passion for innovation, tech, film, TV, music, and education industries are a plus

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that an employee must meet to perform the essential functions of this job successfully:

• Prolonged periods of sitting or standing at a desk and working on a computer
• Ability to lift to 15 pounds occasionally, as needed
• Manual dexterity to operate standard office equipment such as computers, phones, printers, etc
• May require occasional bending, reaching, kneeling, or climbing stairs
• Ability to work outdoors, including exposure to varying temperatures or noise levels

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Work Location \& Schedule

The position is full-time and located in Austin, Texas. Core business office hours are from 10 am—6 pm Monday through Friday. You must be available to work additional hours from January through March, including evenings and weekends. You must also be available for the March event, which will have extended on-site working hours.