Manager, Sponsorship Sales

Job Title: Manager, Sponsorship Sales

Location: Toronto, ON - Hybrid Office (1-3 days per week of in-office collaboration) 

Salary:  $70,000 annual base salary + commission structure

Application Deadline: December 10, 2025

Starting Date: January 5, 2026

Employment Type:  Full Time, Permanent 

Reports to: Sr. Director, Partnerships

About Elevate

Elevate unites world-class innovators to catalyze transformation in the Canadian tech ecosystem. Through year-round programs and events, Elevate places a spotlight on Canadian innovation,  facilitates global connections with startups and investors, and inspires Canadians to embrace innovation and collaboration. Elevate looks to bring together founders, investors and ecosystem leaders to help shape the future of the Canadian innovation economy.

We’re Looking For

A skilled sponsorship sales professional who is energized by outbound prospecting, relationship building, and closing meaningful partnerships. You will play a key role in expanding Elevate’s corporate and government sponsor ecosystem across Elevat’s flagship events and innovation programs. 

As a target driven individual, you excel at identifying new leads, uncovering business objectives, building trust-based relationships, and crafting solutions that deliver mutual value. You can manage multiple deals end-to-end supporting a range of prospects and offerings, while collaborating closely with internal teams to deliver exceptional partner experiences. 

This role is ideal for someone who:

• Has direct experience selling event sponsorships or B2B partnerships
• Thrives in outbound-focused environments
• Is a strong communicator and storyteller, translating partner needs into to polished proposals and compelling pitches
• Is collaborative, adaptable, and a team player willing to support broader team needs during peak delivery periods

Main Responsibilities

Drive Net-New Sponsorship Revenue - 45%

• Proactively identify, cultivate and secure sponsorships to meaningfully contribute to organizational revenue goals across multiple core initiatives (events and programs)
• Build, qualify, and maintain a strong sales pipeline to meet individual revenue targets
• Lead the sales cycle end-to-end for new partners — outreach, pitch, proposal creation, contract negotiation, and close
• Support Elevate’s government funding pipeline by identifying relevant opportunities and assisting with application development where needed

Own a Renewal & Growth Portfolio - 25%

• Lead renewals and retention for a defined portfolio of named accounts
• Identify and convert opportunities for account expansion (new budget holders, cross-sell opportunities, product upgrades)
• Build long-term sponsor relationships and deepen executive engagement to strengthen annual revenue stability

Contribute to High-Quality Sponsorship Collateral & Product Development - 20%

• Develop custom proposals, sponsorship packages, and pitch decks tailored to unique partner objectives
• Ensure proposals are polished, strategic, and aligned with internal pricing, benefits and value frameworks for each Elevate property
• Gather and share market insights from prospect engagement to inform new products, opportunities and pricing strategies

Support Partner Success - 10%

• Collaborate closely with Partner Success to ensure seamless handovers, 
• Maintain cross-functional alignment and transparency throughout partnership fulfillment lifecycle to protect and strengthen Elevate’s partner satisfaction results
• Support Partner Success of select accounts during peak fulfillment cycles 

Experience

• A post-secondary degree in Business, Sales, Marketing, Communications, Event Management or equivalent experience
• 3–5 years of experience in event sponsorship sales, strategic partnerships, business development, or related fields
• Demonstrated success in outbound prospecting and building your own pipeline
• Experience building relationships with with senior decision-makers across corporate, agencies, ecosystem, or government
• Strong presentation, storytelling, and proposal development skills leading to winning pitches
• Proficiency in building and designing professional pitch decks (Google Slides & Google Suite preferred)
• Self-starter who can operate independently and prioritize effectively
• Excellent organizational and project management skills
• A highly collaborative team player with a natural ability to build strong relationships and trust in a cross-functional environment

• Experience in or adjacent to the technology and innovation sectors
• Experience in grant writing, institutional funding, or public-sector partnerships
• Familiarity with CRM tools (HubSpot preferred)

• Thrives in busy work environments.
• Executes a high level of positivity and professionalism in the office and onsite during events.
• Must be willing to work some non-structured hours as we approach event weeks.

*If you meet some, but not all of these requirements, we still encourage you to apply!

What We Offer

• Paid Time Off: 
• • 10-15 days of vacation 
  • 5 days for sick and mental health days
  • Bonus summer long weekend days 
  • A paid day off on the week of your birthday
  • Team-wide winter closure in-between Christmas and New Years 
• Health benefits (after 3 months probation) that have a zero-dollar deductible and include vision, prescriptions, dental, and paramedical.
• Professional Development Budget of $250 annually to utilize for courses, books, events, conferences, and any other tools that will help support team members in their career growth.
• A parent-friendly and flexible workplace with flexible hours at the Toronto Design Exchange.
• Opportunity to meet and collaborate with some of the biggest names in tech, while collaborating with a team through socials, numerous events, and workshops.

Candidates applying for this position must be available to work locally in Toronto. Elevate is unable to support visa applications or immigration support requests.

Interview Process

While this is not all-encompassing for every role at Elevate, we try to follow a process similar to this and all candidates will be notified at every stage who they’ll be meeting with. 

An example process: 

• Step 1: A phone call with one of our team members. In this call, we will cover the basics of the role and our organization, and discuss a high-level overview of your past experiences, goals, and interest in this role.
• Step 2: A video call or an in-person interview with the hiring manager and a team member or supervisor. In this call, we will be digging deeper into your experience relevant to the role and also provide an opportunity for you to ask more questions and learn about our team. Some roles may require additional components involving portfolio walkthroughs, technical reviews, and opportunities for candidates to share more around their creative process. We will always let candidates know ahead of time if this is something you can expect for the role you're applying for.
• Step 3:  An in-person meet-up in our downtown Toronto Office with the role’s Hiring Manager and/or Supervisor, our CEO and a team member. This is an opportunity to introduce you to the space, talk more about how you’d like to add to our current organizational culture, embody our values, and provide another opportunity for connection.
• Step 4: Offer.

** We also aim to complete our recruitment process in around 4 weeks, but it is role and job-level dependent. 

Accommodations and Accessibility

Elevate strives to provide accommodations during the recruitment process should candidates request support. Should you require any accommodation, please indicate this on your application and we will try our best to work with you to meet your accessibility needs. For any questions, suggestions or required documents regarding accessibility in a different format, please contact us at accommodations@elevate.ca.

Elevate is committed to a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace in which everyone is welcomed, valued, and supported. Please advise of any accommodation measures that would enable you to be interviewed in a fair and equitable manner. If you are a member of an equity deserving community we encourage you to self-identify in your application. Information received in relation to identity or accommodation will be kept confidential. 

At Elevate, we are committed to building an environment where everyone feels included, valued, and heard. Diversity, inclusion, and belonging are an important part of our everyday working culture. We strongly encourage applications from Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities and/or people with intersectional identities.

Elevate was founded on land that is the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples from across Turtle Island. We acknowledge that we are all treaty people and accept our responsibility to honour all our relations.

To recognize the land is an expression of gratitude and appreciation to those whose territory we reside on and a way of honouring the Indigenous people who have been living and working on the land from time immemorial. Land acknowledgements do not exist in a past tense or historical context: colonialism is current and ongoing, and we need to centre reconciliation in our actions and our work. We encourage our team, partners, and clients to learn about the lands in which they live and to work towards reconciliation.