UK Brands Commercial - Brands Licensing & Partnerships Manager

At Sanderson Design Group, we are always looking for talented, ambitious and motivated people to join our team.

Brand Licensing & Partnerships Manager

Reports to: Brand Licensing & Partnerships Director

Location: Voysey House, Chiswick

Department: Commercial

Role Overview:

We are seeking an experienced Brand Licensing & Partnerships Manager to lead the development and management of strategic licensing and partnership opportunities across our portfolio of luxury interior design brands.

Reporting to senior leadership, you will be responsible for identifying new commercial opportunities, securing licensing agreements, managing existing partnerships, and ensuring all licensed products and collaborations reflect the integrity, quality, and positioning of our brands.

About Us:

Sanderson Design Group plc is a luxury interior design house, home to six iconic brands with over 165 years of history: Sanderson, Morris & Co., Harlequin, Zoffany. Our portfolio spans fabric, wallpaper, and paint, with manufacturing capabilities through Anstey and Standfast & Barracks. Our purpose is to ‘bring the beautiful into people’s homes and lives’ and we are the proud owner of one of Europe’s largest design archives, with over 75,000 historical documents and artworks. We also have a growing international licensing programme which supports our strategic global expansion.

Key Responsibilities:

Licensing Strategy & Business Development

• Develop and implement the licensing strategy across the brand portfolio for product categories and partners that you are responsible for.
• Conduct market analysis to identify emerging opportunities and category expansion potential aligned with business objectives and brand positioning.
• Build a pipeline of targeted licensing opportunities across product categories, territories, and channels.
• Be adept and confident in pitching our brands to prospective licensees by creating bespoke presentations to outline the opportunities.

Partnership Management

• Manage relationships with existing licensees and strategic partners.
• Project manage a licensee from pitching, negotiating, signing the contract to onboarding, product development and marketing launch plans i.e. be the primary point of contact throughout the partnership lifecycle with internal stakeholders and external.
• Conduct regular business reviews and performance evaluations.
• Drive partner engagement, YOY royalty growth, and long-term relationship development.
• Resolve commercial, operational, and brand-related issues as they arise.

Commercial Negotiation & Contract Management

• Create tailored pitch presentations to engage new licensees.
• Lead licensing negotiations, including commercial terms, royalty structures, minimum guarantees, and contract renewals and work with legal team to draft, review, and execute agreements.
• Ensure compliance with contractual obligations and performance requirements.
• Monitor royalty reporting, revenue performance, and contractual milestones.

Product Development & Brand Approval

• Collaborate with design and brand/marketing teams to guide licensed collections from concept to launch.
• Act as a brand guardian, ensuring all licensed products maintain design integrity and quality standards and is launched in a timely manner to optimise the commercial opportunity.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with legal, design, marketing, sales, operations, and finance teams.
• Approve launch plans, trade events, and marketing initiatives with licensing partners.
• Facilitate communication between internal stakeholders and external partners including ad hoc department admin such as preparing/inputting into internal updates and Board reports.

Reporting & Performance Management

• Track licensing revenue, royalties, forecasts, and key performance metrics.
• Prepare regular reports for senior leadership.
• Monitor market performance and identify opportunities for optimisation.
• Manage licensing budgets and revenue targets.

Skills and Experience Required:

We’re looking for someone who is a highly motivated, confident negotiator, well organised, who enjoys working in a team and closely with a number of internal and external stakeholders. In addition, our ideal candidate would:

• Have proven experience working in a Business Development role (ideally within licensing or interiors industry)
• Ideally have previous experience of working as a Licensing/Partnerships Manager or have experience in deal structuring and negotiating
• Be a self-starter with excellent commercial acumen and a growth mindset
• Be highly self-motivated, good at negotiating with strong interpersonal skills and the ability to relate to local cultural aspects
• Display confidence in their capability to craft and deliver presentations at senior level and the ability to manage multiple projects
• Pride themselves in being well organised with the ability to plan and deliver on tight deadlines with attention to detail
• Have strong analytical and numerical skills; you can build and explain financial models and have strong spreadsheet skills, extracting commercial insight from the sales performance data
• Display confidence in computer skills including, Microsoft Office, Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Be willing to travel regularly to engage directly with partners
• Strong project management skills with close attention to detail
• Excellent presentation and communication skills

Qualifications Required:

Degree or equivalent level qualification

Values & Behaviours:

• Intrepid: Proactively seek solutions, make thoughtful decisions quickly and step forward with confidence.
• Imaginative: Be resourceful, be curious, share knowledge and work inclusively with others to drive creativity and innovation
• Respectful: Positive communication and collaboration

We are committed to providing equal opportunities to all and we welcome applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds.