Athlete Marketing Manager

Red Bull Gives Wiiings to People and Ideas. At Red Bull, we believe in empowering people to push boundaries, challenge conventions, and achieve extraordinary things. From world-class sporting achievements to groundbreaking content and culture-changing projects, we create opportunities for ambitious people to make a real impact.

The Athlete Marketing Manager plays a critical role in developing and managing Red Bull Japan's athlete marketing strategy and portfolio. Reporting to the Head of Athlete Marketing, you will identify, support and develop nationally relevant athletes while maximizing the impact of Red Bull's global athlete network within Japan.

This role sits at the intersection of sport, marketing, content, and brand building. You will be responsible for building long-term athlete partnerships, scouting future talent, leading athlete projects and activations, managing contracts and budgets, and ensuring that every athlete partnership supports long-term athlete development, authentic storytelling, and strong brand alignment.

The ideal candidate combines a strong understanding of the sports ecosystem with excellent relationship management skills, commercial awareness, creativity, and a passion for creating innovative athlete-driven marketing initiatives.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Areas that play to your strengths

All the responsibilities we'll trust you with:

Expand all

• Build and Lead a High-Impact Athlete Portfolio

  Develop and execute Red Bull Japan's athlete marketing strategy across priority sports categories, such as skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing and biking. Identify and secure nationally relevant athletes who authentically represent the brand and can create meaningful connections with consumers. Oversee athlete recruitment, annual objective setting, contract negotiations, renewals, performance reviews, and long-term partnership planning.

• Develop Athletes and Unlock Their Potential

  Create individualized development plans that support athletes across performance, communications, personal branding, content creation, commercial obligations, and career development. Build trusted relationships with athletes, managers, and agents while ensuring Red Bull's brand standards and partnership objectives are achieved.

• Expand and Leverage the Sports Ecosystem

  Establish and grow a nationwide network of athletes, coaches, trainers, sports scientists, universities, federations, clubs, agencies, opinion leaders, and industry partners. Continuously identify emerging talent, gather market insights, and strengthen Red Bull's credibility and influence within Japan's sports landscape.

• Deliver Innovative Athlete Projects and Activations

  Lead athlete-focused marketing initiatives from concept development through execution and evaluation. Create impactful projects that generate content, engage consumers, strengthen brand affinity, and deliver measurable results. Collaborate with local and global teams to bring world-class athlete activations and storytelling opportunities to life.

• Drive Cross-Functional Collaboration

  Work closely with Marketing, Brand, Media Network, Communications, Sales, Legal, Finance, Procurement, and global Sports Marketing teams. Coordinate athlete integrations across campaigns, product launches, events, content productions, and media opportunities while ensuring operational excellence and budget discipline.

• Champion Product Integration and Athlete Advocacy

  Strengthen Red Bull's positioning as a functional beverage by educating athletes and ambassadors on product benefits and usage occasions. Encourage authentic product integration through workshops, seeding initiatives, and relationship management while monitoring brand representation across social and traditional media channels.

EXPERIENCE

Your areas of knowledge and expertise

that matter most for this role:

• University Degree or considerable relevant experience, with qualification in Sports/Marketing preferable.
• 3-5+ years of experience in Sports Marketing, Athlete Management, Sponsorship, Brand Marketing, Sports Agencies, or a related field
• Proven experience managing relationships with athletes, agents, managers, sports properties, federations, agencies, or industry partners
• Experience leading marketing projects, activations, sponsorship programs, or athlete partnerships from concept through execution
• Strong understanding of the Japanese sports landscape and athlete ecosystem
• Knowledge of Red Bull core sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, biking, or adjacent action-sports communities is highly desirable
• Strong project management and budget management skills
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• Ability to build trust while balancing athlete needs, commercial objectives, and brand standards
• Creative thinker with strong attention to detail and executional excellence
• Self-motivated, entrepreneurial mindset with a proactive "can-do" attitude
• Fluent Japanese and English language skills

• Travel 30-40%