Manager, Sports Marketing

Why Join GEICO? At GEICO, we offer a rewarding career where your ambitions are met with endless possibilities. Every day we honor our iconic brand by offering quality coverage to millions of customers and being there when they need us most. We thrive on relentless innovation to exceed our customers' expectations while making a real impact on local communities nationwide. Founded in 1936, GEICO is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies and one of the largest auto insurers in the United States. When you join our company, we want you to feel valued, supported, and proud to work here. That's why we offer the GEICO Pledge: Great Company, Great Culture, Great Rewards, and Great Careers. Manager, Sports Marketing (Baseball & Hockey) Location: Hybrid, 3 days per week onsite. Corporate offices in Bethesda, MD or Manhattan, NY. Reports To: Sr. Manager, Sports Marketing About the Role Within Marketing at GEICO, our sports activations are among the most visible ways the brand shows up in culture and in local markets. We are deeply committed to getting the deals right and getting the most out of every asset we buy. The Manager, Sports Marketing partners with the Sr. Manager and Lead to run GEICO's league, team, school and talent partnerships. Together, you will negotiate and renew agreements and manage partner relationships, and you will lead activation from strategy through launch and recap — bringing Social, Influencer, Creative, Analytics, Go-to-Market, and Experiential together around a shared plan. You will also lead and develop a team from day one and make sure league-level and team-level rights work as one portfolio, with no overlap, no gaps, and a clear line from every dollar spent to a business outcome. This role is built for someone who can negotiate a strong deal with a league or club, then go back and lead the team and cross-functional partners who bring it to life. It is a high-visibility role with direct exposure to senior leaders, and there is real room to scale and build the internal team, as the sports partnerships function continues to grow. How We Work The Marketing organization at GEICO is guided by a clear set of principles: we hire the best at every level and invest in developing them. We believe that strategy comes before action — if we don't know why we're doing something, we don't do it. We bring the same care and accountability to how we spend resources as we would if it were our own business. And when there are challenges, we face them directly and collectively. Leaders in this organization are expected to bring that same mindset to their teams. Key Responsibilities Partnership Strategy & Negotiation · Partner with the Sr. Manager to negotiate, renew, and manage GEICO's partnerships, working alongside Legal, Procurement, and agencies · Evaluate proposals and renewal terms with rigor — asset valuation, pricing benchmarks, exclusivity and category definitions, renewal and matching rights, and rights gaps — and, with the Sr. Manager, bring clear recommendations and tradeoffs to senior leaders · Help build the business case for each partnership: what we are buying, what it is worth, and how it ties to brand and business objectives · Manage day-to-day relationships with league and team partners and partner with the Sr. Manager on executive-level relationships, setting a regular business review cadence and holding partners accountable for contractual deliverables · Make sure league-level and team-level rights (national and local, media, in-venue, and digital) work together as a coherent portfolio Activation & Portfolio Management · Own activation strategy, translating sponsorship rights and assets into plans aligned to brand and business objectives, including local market priorities · Ensure partnership assets are fully utilized — tracking inventory, deliverables, and fulfillment against contract · Identify new activation opportunities within existing rights, and flag assets that are not earning their keep Cross-Functional Leadership · Lead cross-functional sports planning across Social, Influencer, Creative, Analytics, and Media— managing timelines, approvals, deliverables, and dependencies · Partner with internal creative teams and external agencies to brief, develop, and deliver activation assets that meet program needs and brand standards · Collaborate with the Experiential Marketing team on sports-tied experiential executions, ensuring integrated planning and seamless handoffs · Set the standard for workbacks, trackers, activation plans, and status updates across multiple concurrent initiatives, and ensure your team executes against it People Leadership & Team Building · Lead, coach, and develop the team members— setting clear priorities and expectations, giving regular feedback, and holding a high bar · Assign workstreams, review work, and build the team's standards for activation planning, tracking, and recap · Work with the Sr. Manager to shape how the team is structured and where it grows next, including role design, hiring, and onboarding as the portfolio and the sports partnerships function scale Measurement, Budget & Process · Own measurement and reporting for assigned partnerships — define success metrics up front, evaluate performance, and turn learnings into renewal and investment recommendations · Manage budgets for assigned partnerships, including forecasting, invoice approval, and financial tracking · Identify opportunities to strengthen internal coordination and improve the efficiency of sports partnership activations, and contribute to building the team's playbook as the function matures You May Be a Good Fit If You · Have negotiated or renewed sports sponsorship agreements — at the league level, team level, or both — and can walk through the terms you pushed on and why · Have managed relationships with league and club partnership executives and earned credibility on both sides o