SVP, Licensing Sales

Job Description

Job Description

U.S. News & World Report is a multifaceted digital media company dedicated to helping citizens, consumers, business leaders and policy officials make important decisions in their lives. We publish independent reporting, rankings, data journalism and advice that has earned the trust of our readers and users for nearly 90 years. Our platforms on usnews.com include Education, Health, Money, Travel, Cars, News and 360 Reviews.

We reach more than millions of people monthly during moments when they are most in need of expert advice and motivated to act on that advice directly on our platforms. Our signature franchises include our “Best” series of consumer guides on colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, diets, cars, financial services and more. These guides provide an easy-to-digest list for consumers to better understand and compare when making their decisions. We continue to publish annual guides of the authoritative Best Colleges and Best Hospitals rankings on our website and in print. And our U.S. News Live flagship conferences highlight important national conversations including Healthcare of Tomorrow.

We believe in having a broad range of talent and backgrounds at U.S. News. We strive to maintain a welcoming and inclusive workplace where everyone is given an opportunity to succeed and contribute to their fullest.

Your role in helping us shape the future:

We are seeking a dynamic and results-driven Senior Vice President, Licensing Sales for our accolade and logo licensing group. You will lead the full marketing and revenue engine for the operation, supervising a sales manager and a large and growing sales, customer success, and research team. This role blends leadership, operational excellence, and product-minded systems thinking. Your focus will be to improve how our revenue functions run, building scalable processes, pricing models, forecasting models, reporting systems, and data-driven playbooks that increase conversion, strengthen team performance, and create predictable, repeatable revenue. You will lead the leaders - including the Senior Sales Manager.

Revenue Strategy & Leadership

• Set and meet licensing revenue targets both across verticals and in the aggregate.

• Build, execute, and optimize licensing commercial strategies ~ Set the licensing commercial vision and hold the organization accountable to it.

• Monitor licensing revenue pacing, conversion metrics, forecasts, and operational KPIs.

• Identify opportunities for licensing revenue expansion, new markets, and improved commercial processes.

• Collaborate with editorial and business leadership while observing, and where applicable enforcing, the separation between editorial content and sales efforts.

• Work closely with shared resources from multiple departments that do not report into the role, including Finance, Tech and Legal.

Marketing

• Guide the creation and implementation of branding and licensing communications involving such media as email campaigns, personal emails, phone sales, and direct mail.

• Continue the build-out of the marketing website, integrating it into sales and marketing efforts and ensuring that it ranks highly for relevant searches and AI inquiries.

• Hone the processes and incorporate AI in the research workflows for identifying and categorizing relevant sales contacts.

• Collaborate on initiatives aimed at raising awareness of U.S. News rankings and availability of licensing.

Sales

• Lead and elevate the licensing sales organization – maintaining a performance culture, clear accountability, and a winning mindset.

• Personally engage in high-value enterprise opportunities that set the tone for the broader team.

• Build out international sales capabilities.

Account Management

• Build a proactive, data-driven account management model with clear coverage, escalation paths, and expansion playbooks.

• Ensure a seamless handoff from Research/Prospecting to Sales to Account Management, creating a unified client experience.