Vice President, Business Development & Growth Strategy

Sesame Workshop is seeking a Vice President, Business Development and Growth Strategy to drive revenue growth by expanding existing businesses and developing entirely new lines of opportunity. This role identifies, evaluates, and executes high-impact partnerships and media distribution opportunities across emerging platforms, technologies, and global markets. The VP will lead strategy development, dealmaking, and partner management-with an emphasis on innovative revenue models, media rights monetization, and market expansion-while ensuring alignment with Sesame's mission and brand values.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Market Intelligence

• Lead business development strategy aligned to organizational goals and market trends across global multi-platform content distribution.
• Monitor emerging trends in children's media, distribution, FAST/AVOD, and technology sectors to proactively identify new opportunities and threats.
• Collaborate with the executive team to define and evolve the organization's go-to-market strategy across key platforms.
• Stay informed on industry trends, competitive landscape, and partnership innovations. Utilize/Conduct market research and competitive analysis to identify new business opportunities and inform new business strategy.
• Monitor partner performance and surface insights to inform strategic decisions and new initiatives

Partnership Development & Deal Execution

• Identify, evaluate, pitch and negotiate new partnerships and revenue-generating deals across media distribution, FAST channels, content licensing, rights deals, interactive content, edtech, AI, licensing, co-productions, and distribution platforms.
• Build relationships with key partners including streaming platforms, digital distributors, gaming studios, edtech and AI companies.
• Work alongside Business Affairs to construct media rights frameworks, working cross-functionally with legal, finance, product, production and content teams. Negotiate agreement terms and manage execution timelines.
• Own and manage key partner relationships, serving as a primary point of contact and advocate throughout the partnership lifecycle.
• Leverage your knowledge of industry verticals and relationships with key players to support deals across new technologies and platforms

Execution & Revenue Delivery

• Drive execution from signed deal to launch, ensuring high-quality implementation, partner satisfaction, and alignment with brand and educational values.
• Track performance of strategic deals, optimizing revenue contribution, audience reach, brand value, and learning impact.
• Own business forecasts and dashboards related to partnership revenue and performance metrics.

Team Collaboration & Representation

• Collaborate closely with departments throughout the organization, including revenue, production, product, education, research, marketing, and philanthropy teams to ensure partnerships enhance mission and organizational priorities.
• Represent the organization externally at industry events, conferences, and partner meetings to position the brand as a leading voice in children's educational media.

Qualifications

Must haves include:

• 12+ years of experience in business development, media distribution, content licensing, partnerships, within media, entertainment, gaming, or consumer products.
• Deep expertise in media distribution models, media rights construction, and multi-platform monetization (SVOD, AVOD, FAST, broadcast, digital)
• Demonstrated success collaborating cross-functionally to bring complex deals from idea to execution.
• Strong understanding of children's media, educational IP, or mission-based brand management.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with comfort navigating ambiguity and leading through influence.
• Strong analytical and financial modeling skills to assess deals, partnership value and strategic fit
• Exceptional executive presence with experience briefing C-level stakeholders and boards
• Experience negotiating and executing high-impact, multi-stakeholder deals
• Comfort operating in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment with a strong sense of ownership
• Excellent negotiation, communication, and storytelling skills.

Nice to have:

• Experience leading global expansion, M&A, or strategic investments in the media or tech sector
• Experience in the DTC media space
• Background in corporate development, strategy, or management consulting

Equal Opportunity Employer/Minorities/Females/Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity