Shopify's brand partnerships program is built on a counterintuitive premise: the most powerful marketing we can do is invest in our merchants. We partner directly with influential creator-merchants who actually run businesses on Shopify - from the world's largest content creators like MrBeast (Feastables), Emma Chamberlain (Chamberlain Coffee), and Alix Earle (Reale Actives), to the most recognizable names in culture: actors like Seth Rogen (Houseplant) and Pamela Anderson (Sonsie), musicians like Cardi B (Grow-Good) and Drake (OVO), athletes like Luka Dončić (77X) and Serena Williams (Wyn Beauty).

When partners talk about Shopify, they're not selling software, they’re promoting entrepreneurship - making a direct tie between Shopify and the agency that comes from starting a business, relatable to hundreds of millions of people. Everything we do is then intentionally woven into Shopify's full marketing strategy: crafting world class stories on owned and earned surfaces, enabling real world product marketing moments (Shopify POS powering retail activations, Shopify’s AI innovation, Shop’s retail companion), generating billions of earned views at industry-leading CPMs, even producing authentic creator content that fuels performance marketing with real acquisition outcomes.

This role leads a proven, growing program that Shopify is deeply committed to. You'll own two interconnected teams — Creator and Icon Partnerships — while serving as a key connector across Brand and the broader marketing and product organization. The program has scale, craft, and momentum. The role is to take it further.

What You'll Do

• Own the full brand partnerships function: 100–150 creator deals and ~10 celebrity/icon partnerships annually, across North America and Europe

• Lead deal origination, shaping, and negotiation end-to-end — including complex multi-deliverable deals with agents, managers, and talent teams

• Lead and manage a team of 10 crafters split between North America and Europe; maintain presence on the highest-stakes partnerships

• Connect the partnerships program to Shopify's broader brand, growth, revenue, and international marketing goals — not just brand awareness

• Drive process and systems that allow the team to operate at volume without losing quality or accountability

• Partner internally with our product teams to showcase the future of commerce within partnership activations that enhance retail moments and create memorable experience featuring Shopify’s platform advantage

• Travel to marquee activations, pop-ups, and events across North America and Europe to represent Shopify and strengthen partner relationships

What We're Looking For

• Proven external-facing dealmaker: you've negotiated directly with talent, agents, and managers at a senior level

• Experience in celebrity marketing, cultural marketing, or premium brand deals leading complex, high-stakes celebrity partnerships

• In-house background required: you've owned a brand partnership function, not just supported one through an agency

• Budget ownership: managed $10M+ in partnership investment with accountability to ROI

• Cross-functional fluency: you've worked closely with legal, finance, comms, product marketing, and growth teams

• Cultural instinct: understands the creator economy and entrepreneur-first culture — can identify a good story and match, not just close a deal

• Builder mindset: you've created or significantly evolved process, tooling, or org structure in a partnership function

• Reflexive AI use: you’re comfortable leveraging AI tools for rapid concepting and prototyping but also know when to tap others for craft expertise

• Proven track record as a people manager with 8+ years of experience building, developing, and leading high-performing teams

Opportunity is not evenly distributed. Shopify puts independence within reach for anyone with a dream to start a business. We propel entrepreneurs and enterprises to scale the heights of their potential. Since 2006, we’ve grown to over 8,300 employees and generated over $1 trillion in sales for millions of merchants in 175 countries.

This is life-defining work that directly impacts people’s lives as much as it transforms your own. This is putting the power of the few in the hands of the many, is a future with more voices rather than fewer, and is creating more choices instead of an elite option.

Moving at our pace brings a lot of change, complexity, and ambiguity—and a little bit of chaos. Shopifolk thrive on that and are comfortable being uncomfortable. That means Shopify is not the right place for everyone.