Commercial Director

WME is hiring a Commercial Director based in Tokyo to lead sports and entertainment brand partnerships across the Japanese market. This role sits within WME Sports’ commercial function, driving sponsorship deals, endorsements, and rights partnerships from initial client engagement through to signed contracts and ongoing account management. It suits an experienced commercial executive who has built a track record closing brand deals in sports media, entertainment marketing, or related content industries.

About the Role

The Commercial Director operates within WME’s sports commercial team, working across golf, tennis, and winter sports disciplines with a primary focus on Japanese brand clients. Day-to-day, this person is sourcing new business, structuring deal terms, and coordinating with internal creative, legal, finance, and operations teams to bring commercial partnerships to execution. It is a client-facing role with full ownership of the deal lifecycle, from prospecting through delivery and performance reporting.

Key Responsibilities

• Source and manage commercial relationships with Japanese brands, driving sponsorship, endorsement, and rights deals across golf, tennis, and winter sports properties.
• Lead deal discussions end-to-end, including commercial scoping, pricing structures, and contract negotiation in alignment with WME’s business objectives.
• Own team documentation across the deal pipeline, including proposals, internal approvals, and executed agreements.
• Coordinate cross-functional inputs from creative, legal, finance, and operations to ensure commercial terms are delivered on time and within agreed budgets.
• Track revenue forecasting, scope changes, and performance reporting across active partnerships to keep commercial outcomes aligned with deal terms.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for assigned Japanese clients, maintaining relationship quality and identifying repeat revenue opportunities.

What You Bring

• Proven experience in commercial deal-making within sports media, entertainment marketing, brand partnerships, or rights management.
• Demonstrated ability to close and manage sponsorship or endorsement agreements with major brand clients.
• Strong working knowledge of the Japanese commercial and sports landscape, with existing client or brand relationships preferred.
• Fluency in Japanese is a significant advantage given the primary client base in Tokyo.
• Experience working across legal, finance, and creative teams in a structured deal environment.

Why This Role

WME is one of the few talent and entertainment agencies operating at genuine scale across sports, music, film, and brand representation globally, which means the commercial partnerships this role works on carry real market weight. The Tokyo position sits at the centre of WME’s push into the Japanese sports and entertainment industry, a market with significant sponsorship and endorsement activity across premium sports properties. For a Commercial Director with strong roots in brand partnerships and sports media, this is a high-visibility role within a well-resourced global team.

Apply now for the Commercial Director position at WME and bring your brand partnership expertise to one of the entertainment industry’s most established commercial teams.