Chelsea FC Holdings Ltd
Job Description
The Role
This is a pivotal role at the heart of Chelsea FC Women’s commercial ambition. As Commercial Strategy & Ventures Lead, you will serve as the strategic engine of the commercial department, working directly alongside the Commercial Director to shape the direction, identify the opportunities, and build the frameworks that will drive sustainable revenue growth over the next five years and beyond.
This is not a conventional commercial role. While the Commercial Director leads on sponsorship, matchday, and P&L, this role exists to look around corners, identifying and developing non-traditional revenue opportunities that sit outside the existing commercial infrastructure, from ventures and equity partnerships to content monetisation and consumer products.
We are looking for someone who thinks beyond traditional football revenue streams, who can build a compelling business case from scratch, and who brings the credibility and gravitas to represent the Club in a room with senior clients, investors, and partners. You will ensure the commercial department is not only delivering today but is structurally set up to win over the next five years.
Closing date: 15th May
We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. In the event that we receive a large number of applications, the position may be filled before the listed closing date. To avoid missing out, please submit your application at your earliest convenience.
Key responsibilities
Strategy & Growth
- Work in close partnership with the Commercial Director to develop and maintain a five-year commercial strategy for CFCW
- Leading on creation of materials for board packs, ownership documents, reporting and tracking progres
- Identify whitespace opportunities, particularly those outside the core sponsorship and matchday infrastructure, and develop them into credible commercial propositions
- Build robust business cases for new initiatives, balancing ambition with commercial rigour, for sign-off by CFCW leadership
- Provide regular strategic analysis and market intelligence to inform the commercial decision-making and ELT reporting
Ventures & Non- Traditional Revenue
- Lead the identification, evaluation, and development of non-traditional revenue opportunities, including but not limited to:
- Ventures & non traditional partnerships – identifying strategic co-creation, co-investment or non-traditional partnership opportunities that extend the Club’s commercial footprint
- Retail & consumer products – developing propositions that deepen fan engagement and grow direct revenue
- Content & media monetisation – working with relevant teams to unlock commercial value from the Club’s content and media assets
Revenue Optimisation
- Work with commercial departments (sponsorship, licensing, matchday) to ensure pricing strategies are data-led, competitive, and growth-oriented
- Identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities across the commercial portfolio
- Support forecasting and target-setting with the Finance and Strategy & Insights teams
Client & Partner Engagement
- Represent CFCW externally with prospective partners, stakeholders, and ventures; able to lead or support commercial conversations at a senior level
- Support the development of compelling commercial propositions and terms for new and existing partners
- Maintain awareness of the Club’s key commercial relationships and contractual landscape
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Foster a culture of strategic alignment and collaborative working across commercial functions
- Champion the use of data and insight in commercial decision-making
- Contribute to the development of a high-performing commercial team, with an expectation to build and lead a small team over time
Measures of Success
- Development and delivery of a credible, ambitious five-year commercial strategy for CFCW
- Identification and progression of a pipeline of non-traditional revenue opportunities
- Achievement of commercial revenue KPls across relevant departments
- Quality and impact of strategic input provided to the Commercial Director and senior leadership
- Regular market assessments benchmarking CFCW against leading women’s clubs, leagues, and sports properties globally
Skills, Experience & Behaviours
Essential
- Proven experience in commercial strategy, business development, or ventures, ideally across more than one of: management consulting, sports/entertainment, or startup/venture/private equity
- Strong analytical and commercial acumen, able to build a business case, stress-test an assumption, and translate insight into action
- Credible and confident in senior external stakeholder environments, comfortable in a client-facing room
- Entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to identify and develop opportunities from scratch
- Excellent communicator, written, verbal, and in presentation
- Highly collaborative, with the ability to influence without authority across a matrixed organisation
Desirable
- Experience in women’s sport or a high-growth sports/entertainment property
- Familiarity with licensing, content commercialisation, or consumer product development
- Experience building or scaling a commercial function
Our Expectations
- To embody the club’s BLUE behaviours (Brave, Lead, Unity, Edge) in the approach to work and interaction with others
- To adhere to the club’s policies and procedures, including Health & Safety, Financial Authorisation, Confidentiality and GDPR.
- To act as an ambassador for diversity, equality, and inclusion, and demonstrate a positive commitment by treating others fairly in line with our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy and reporting any acts of discrimination through appropriate channels
- To create a safe environment and act to protect all young people and vulnerable adults that are either in your care or attending club premises, and report any concerns to the Safeguarding Lead
- To report any misconduct or suspected misconduct to the HR Department