Sponsoring & Partnerships Lead

This is what we offer you

• Gross monthly salary between EUR 8,491 and EUR 12,131 (senior kader A)
• Thirteenth month's salary and 8% holiday allowance
• 10% Employee Benefit Budget
• EUR 1,400 development budget per year
• Hybrid working: balance between home and office work (possible for most roles)
• A mobility budget: with this, you can tailor your transportation according to your own needs. For example, by leasing a car or receiving the full amount and arranging your own transportation
• A pension, for which you can set the maximum amount of your personal contribution

In this expert role within the global Communications and Corporate Affairs (CCA) department, your focus will be on stewarding, executing and amplifying Rabobank's sponsorship strategy so it contributes to the strength of the Rabobank brand. Whereby you ensure that sponsoring and partnerships are close to your heart and you have a proven track record of +15 years in senior roles in the sponsoring domain with leading organisations.

We are looking for someone who sees sponsoring as a dedicated profession. And who is comfortable with carrying the prime responsible for optimizing large contracts, keeping partners on their toes, setting the bar in setting up and hosting high calibre client events, knows how to convert sponsoring into relationship building and driving business, and knows how to activate sponsorships for maximum value and impact for clients, brand, business and reputation, while relying on robust data-driven analytics and monitoring.

You and your job

As a Sponsoring and Partnerships Lead, you will play a crucial role in shaping and executing Rabobank's sponsorship strategy. This position is of strategic importance to the bank, impacting our brand and identity, and involves complex and reputation-sensitive tasks. Your expertise will be essential in maintaining, developing, and promoting our sponsorship initiatives, as an incremental part of our brand positioning and brand campaigns. At the same time, you are the one that excels in helping us build stronger relationships with key clients and business partners through events and hospitality.

In this role, you will be the key link aligning strategic sponsorship themes. You will be responsible for executing the overarching sponsorship strategies, create yearly data-driven plans, and ensure their execution. Your ability to translate complex content into clear, meaningful storylines that are globally consistent and locally relevant will be crucial.

You ensure that there is a proper execution on activation of the contracts and alignment with important stakeholders, such as senior Rabobank leaders from the different business lines, the local banks and companies of the Rabobank Group.

You will be a trusted advisor to senior management and communication professionals. In case of significant issues regarding sponsorship topics, you will take a leading role in communications towards Rabobank business lines and domains, coordinating execution. You will proactively identify opportunities for external and internal communications on sponsorship-related topics to strengthen our reputation.

Additionally, you will be open to initiating and delivering on strategic change projects. You will actively contribute to our department and help build the broader communications function through your knowledge and expertise in sponsoring, partnerships and branding. This is a diverse and dynamic role with significant responsibility.

Creating impact

• Contribute to Rabobank’s brand appeal and reputation as a cooperative bank;
• Help realize Rabobank’s sponsor and partnership strategy;
• Help leverage and activate the sponsorships to drive tangible return on investments among clients, members, employees and general public;
• Help build a strong communications community worldwide to leverage impact;
• First focus will be our home market Netherlands. However, our sponsoring portfolio also includes international partnerships and exclusive relationship events in other geographies.

Facts & Figures

• Department of +/- 60 experienced colleagues
• 40,000+ Employees world-wide
• Business activities in 37 countries
• 9+ Million customers around the world

Top 5 responsibilities

• Lead the execution of the sponsorship strategy, policies, frameworks and guidelines based on the brand strategy and communication strategy;
• Align the strategy with important stakeholders such as senior leaders, business line representatives, client teams, event teams and other specialists and colleagues within the bank;
• Promote the sponsorship strategy and policy of Rabobank, thereby contributing to the visibility and reputation of the bank;
• Ensure proper execution. Ensure the activation of contracts through campaigns and events;
• Responsible for managing and maintaining contacts in the field of sponsorship.

The cooperative Rabobank, Our Bank

You’ve probably come across our new brand campaign already: Our Bank. We have launched this new brand campaign September 2024 and it is essential the sponsorship strategy seamlessly integrates with the brand campaign strategy. We believe our cooperative mentality is the answer to the needs of today’s society: We address the growing need for connection and communities because Rabobank believes in the power of togetherness. We meet the need for genuine attention and involvement because Rabobank cares about society. And we respond to the need to be heard because Rabobank listens to the voice of our clients and members. Our sponsoring strategy is designed to enhance the impact of this campaign and elevate the power of our brand.

The department & teams

The CCA department consists of the following sub-teams: Branding & Sponsoring, Communications Advice and Project Management, Public Affairs, Media Relations, Content Hub. The Branding & Sponsoring team consist of around 12 people and includes roles to drive brand campaigns, visual identity, brand management, branded content, research, art affairs and sponsoring. At the moment sponsoring is run by the head of brand with two sponsoring managers. Given a new ambition and course change in sponsoring, your role is a new one. You are going to be the direct manager of the two sponsoring managers. And we plan to further strengthen the sponsoring part of the team. For this new role to be successful, collaboration with other teams across the bank is incremental. This includes the marketing teams as well as the corporate events teams of Retail NL, Wholesale & Rural and RGO staff, as well as the many directors and marketing & comms colleagues of the international regions (including US, Australia, Brazil) and the local banks in the Netherlands.

You and your talent

Professional collaboration, Customer focus, Problem solving, Change agility and Storytelling are Rabobank skills that are clearly essential for this role.
You are a strong team player, with an international mindset. A strategic, data-driven thinker with a practical and hands-on mentality. Your organizational sensitivity is highly developed, and you are at ease when moving around in politically sensitive settings. In addition, it is important that you recognize yourself in the checklist below:

• Relevant university degree or equivalent;
• Relevant experience (15+ years) in a demanding communications environment within a large organization/sponsor, relevant experience with strategic Sponsoring/Partnerships in another large organization or multinational is a must;
• Knowledge of and experience with brand building, reputation management and the Reptrak model;
• Excellent communications craftsmanship (writing, presenting, scripting, presentations, visualization, social etc.);
• Result and output oriented; self-starting;
• Great project management skills;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to influence without authority;
• Team player and trusted advisor to senior management;
• Fluent in English and Dutch.