Senior Director, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships

About Artestar

Artestar is a global licensing and brand-partnership agency working with some of the world's most influential artists, artists' estates, and cultural properties. We develop collaborations across fashion, luxury, retail, consumer products, hospitality, technology, entertainment, and other categories worldwide.

We are looking for an exceptional new-business originator to help create the next generation of partnerships across our portfolio.

Please make an application promptly if you are a good match for this role due to high levels of interest.

The role

This is a senior business-development role for someone who is energized by opening doors and creating opportunities that would not otherwise happen

We are not looking primarily for an account manager, sales administrator, or people manager. We are looking for a proven salesperson and relationship builder who can identify an opportunity, get to the right decision-maker, develop a compelling proposition, and move it toward a commercial deal.

The strongest candidates will have an established network, but they will not depend on a Rolodex alone. They are curious, entrepreneurial, persistent, commercially sophisticated, and constantly thinking about where the next opportunity might come from.

You should be as comfortable developing an idea from scratch as you are walking into a meeting with a senior executive at a global brand.

Your key responsibilities

• Originate significant new business. Identify and pursue brands, retailers, companies, and strategic partners that are not already coming to Artestar.
• Build relationships with senior decision-makers across fashion, luxury, retail, consumer products, entertainment, technology, hospitality, and adjacent industries.
• Look across Artestar's portfolio and identify white-space opportunities — new categories, partners, markets, and business models.
• Develop original partnership ideas rather than simply responding to inbound inquiries or selling into obvious categories.
• Prospect consistently and maintain an active, high-quality pipeline of new opportunities.
• Lead initial outreach, meetings, presentations, and commercial conversations.
• Work with Artestar's leadership and commercial team to develop deal structures, proposals, and negotiation strategies.
• Personally help move opportunities from introduction through negotiation and close.
• Bring external market intelligence, relationships, and ideas back into the organization.
• Maintain disciplined pipeline information and provide clear visibility into opportunities, next steps, probability, and expected value.
• Transition established opportunities to the appropriate account, product, and approvals teams while remaining involved where your relationships or commercial expertise are valuable.
• May be assigned other related duties, as required.

What it takes to be successful in the role

We care much more about what you have personally originated than the size of the teams you have managed.

The successful candidate should have:

• A demonstrated record of personally originating and closing substantial new business.
• Approximately 4 years of relevant business-development, sales, representation, partnerships, or commercial experience.
• Evidence of relationships with senior decision-makers at meaningful brands and companies.
• The ability to reach people outside an existing network and create relationships from scratch.
• Strong commercial instincts and an ability to recognize opportunities that aren't obvious.
• Excellent pitching, negotiating, and relationship-building skills.
• Intellectual curiosity and the ability to understand artists, brands, culture, consumers, and business.
• The confidence and executive presence to represent Artestar with sophisticated global partners.
• The ability to operate successfully in an entrepreneurial environment where initiative and judgment matter more than a corporate playbook.
• Comfort being measured against clear business-development, pipeline, and revenue objectives.

Experience in licensing or art is helpful, but not required . We are equally interested in outstanding business developers from fields such as luxury, fashion, entertainment, advertising, talent representation, consumer brands, experiential, media, or strategic partnerships.

This Role Is Probably Not for You If…

• Your experience has primarily been managing a sales team rather than personally generating business.
• Your business development has mostly consisted of servicing existing accounts, responding to inbound inquiries, or renewing existing relationships.
• You need a large organization, extensive support infrastructure, or a highly prescribed sales process in order to succeed.
• You are principally interested in marketing, brand management, product development, or creative strategy rather than selling.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first year, we should be able to point to new relationships and meaningful commercial opportunities that would not have existed without you

That's the job.

Compensation and Benefits

Annual salary will range between $125,000 and $140,000 plus full benefits. Our benefits package includes:

• Time off: 15 days of PTO and 5 sick days per year
• 401(k): 4% company match, eligible after 180 days of employment
• Health coverage: Medical, dental, and vision begin after 90 days. The company covers 80% of the base medical plan.
• Life insurance: $20,000 policy, fully paid by the company
• Commuter benefits

Our commitment to creating equal opportunity employment

Employment opportunities at Artestar are based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, citizenship, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as established under law.

Application Requirements

Please do not submit a generic application.

Along with your résumé in a single document, please provide a short cover letter answering the following:

Tell us about three pieces of business you personally originated. For each, briefly explain:

1. What was the opportunity?
2. How did you identify it?
3. Did you already know the decision-maker or did you create the relationship?
4. What was your personal role in developing and closing the business?
5. What was the approximate commercial value or significance of the relationship? xhyhwjd

Applications that do not address these questions will not be considered.