Commercial Director

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About Us Big Cabal Media [BCM] is a pan-African media company headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. Launched in 2014, BCM has grown to become one of the most powerful media forces covering technology and youth culture on the continent. We’ve built TechCabal, one of the most important publications covering the business and impact of technology in Africa; and Zikoko, a cultural powerhouse that tells the most important stories to and about young Nigerians. Cabal Creative creates content that helps major brands connect with Africa’s young and growing digital audience with a fresh and authentic voice. Finally TechCabal Insights is a research, data and intelligence business that provides actionable data on startups and the tech ecosystem across Africa to Investors, entrepreneurs, big tech companies and other players on and off the continent. We’ve built a formidable media business that reaches over 85 million people monthly across web, social, newsletter and video platforms.

About the Commercial Director role We’re looking for a Commercial Director to join our incredible team and help us take our commercial strategy to the next level. BCM is a multi-revenue media business; with advertising, event, production and consulting revenue lines. Important challenges for us to solve include market development (growing sales geography alongside our growing editorial reach), engaging new customer segments, and refining sections of our customer offerings. We’re an innovative and inventive business, looking for a rigorous and capable commercial lead to spin revenue and profit out of our great content and ideas.

Big Cabal Media is on a mission to build one of the most influential and important media companies from Africa, and we’re looking for someone who is energized by that mission.

This is a key leadership role within the business, with responsibility for leading cross-functional teams to develop products that delight our customers, drive project execution projects and meet ambitious commercial targets. As we mature as a business, building a high-performance culture is critical and your role with encompass strong performance management elements.

The ideal candidate will have extensive experience with building effective sales teams, turning good ideas into killer products and an impressive network of enterprise and corporate relationships to tap into. This is a high-energy, high-reward job requiring persistent and persuasive interactions with C-suite decision makers; deep digital and product expertise; proven sales skills; and the ability to work proactively and collaboratively to open new doors, close big deals and shape the future of our business.

You will need the ability to think deeply and strategically about client business and have a strong creative streak to come up with the right solutions to meet their needs. This role will be supported by an able Head of Business Development, a growing sales team and talented content strategists and content producers. Yet overall responsibility for opening and closing high level commercial opportunities and creating mid to long term commercial strategy across the business unit will reside with you.

Join us as we take African storytelling to a new level and build the media business of the future.

You will be responsible for:

• Developing, managing and executing commercial strategy for the business
• Creating sales opportunities and building mutually-beneficial long-term relationships at high levels with major brands and agencies across Africa and globally
• Building a thorough understanding of our media platforms and solutions, and the ways in which they can be used to solve brand and business challenges for our clients and partners
• Forecasting revenues, managing board level expectations and setting a path to achieving long-term business revenue and profitability objectives
• Managing multiple cross-platform opportunities and projects on a strategic level
• Innovating and creating at the speed of our fast-paced culture
• Building a high-performance culture and teams that are capable of consistently meeting and exceeding company objectives

Some additional detail about the ideal candidate:

• Proven experience creating and implementing commercial strategies for fast-growing startups in Africa.
• 10-years of experience working in high-level sales, business development and commercial roles, with at least 3 years driving high-level commercial growth for African startups
• Strong relationships with decision-makers at big brands, tech companies, large corporations, foundations and more across Africa and beyond
• Strong revenue forecasting and business tracking skills
• Deep brand, digital, social and content marketing expertise
• A strong understanding of media and marketing
• Ability to work collaboratively with internal stakeholders and keep them aligned on projects and business objectives
• A desire to work in a rapidly-growing and evolving start-up with a driven culture
• Strong internal drive and the ability to motivate others
• Great relationship building and maintenance skills
• Strong emotional intelligence

Compensation and perks

• Competitive salary
• 20-days annual leave
• Flexible working arrangements
• Equity participation
• Remote friendly opportunity with travel for business