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Commercial Strategy Manager
Welsh Rugby Union (WRU)
Governing body for the national sport of Wales. Leading Welsh rugby to the forefront of the global game in performance and reputation. Developing grass-roots rugby, increasing participation, supporting clubs and bringing communities together.
Job Posted- 27 Mar 2026
Status- Full Time
Location- Wales
Closing date- 7 Apr 2026
The WRU Commercial team is growing. If you are passionate about driving commercial growth that impacts and supports all elements of the rugby ecosystem, from grassroots to national team, this may be the opportunity for you. We are seeking passionate, disciplined and structured team members who want to apply and hone their commercial skills and play a key role in the future success of Welsh rugby.
The Commercial Strategy Manager will be responsible for the delivery of key strategic projects that underpin and support the delivery of the WRU’s commercial strategy across Partnerships Sales, Hospitality Sales and Partnership Management in order to drive commercial growth for the WRU.
Alongside the delivery of strategic projects, the Commercial Strategy Manager will also be responsible for driving new business from a partnership sales and hospitality sales perspective, particularly during peak selling periods for the business.
The Person
Knowledge, Skills & Experience
- Previous consulting and/or commercial strategy experience, preferably gained in a professional services company or equivalent in-house department.
- Demonstrable problem-solving ability with a strong will to be able to diagnose challenging issues and present viable solutions.
- Ability to balance competing demands and requirements to find mutually acceptable solutions.
- Strong data analysis skills.
- Ability to build presentations that tell a clear and coherent story, are easy to digest, insightful and enable quick decisions to be made.
- Demonstrable sales and business development experience or a strong desire to develop these skills.
- Demonstrable experience of developing relationships with key stakeholders.
- Understanding and experience of commercial / sponsorships rights.
- Experience of presenting at introductory and other meetings to a variety of levels of stakeholders.
- Experience of contract negotiation and contract management.
- Self-motivated, proactive and driven to achieve results.
- The ability to work on own initiative effectively, both as an individual and as part of a team.
- Excited by challenges and motivated to find solutions that work for all parties.
- Excellent IT skills, specifically Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills are essential.
- Strong interpersonal and relationship management.
- Ability to communicate and work through the medium of Welsh is desirable.
The Role
Strategic Projects:
- Lead, or play a key support role, on the delivery of strategic commercial projects that will underpin the successful delivery the of the WRU’s commercial strategy.
- Deploy a core consulting skillset and approach to solve complex problems, build trusted relationships and deliver actionable results that drive the business forward.
- Structured problem solving, data analysis and modelling, clear and concise communication and presentation of ideas, project management and stakeholder management.
- Drive projects from inception all the way through to implementation.
- Clearly document and analyse projects, concepts and strategies in Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel to enable the business to make data driven and strategy led decisions quickly and seamlessly.
Commercial Research & Insights:
- In collaboration with the broader Commercial team, manage the research and insights program for the commercial program on a day-to-day basis ensuring the team has access to the required research and data and that it is presented in an insightful manner to enable data driven decision making.
- Ensure all commercial research and data is stored in a way which is organised and easily accessible to the relevant stakeholders in the business.
- Ensure the right level of commercial insight is proactively shared with key internal stakeholders.
Partnership Management:
- Support the Partnerships team as required, especially as it relates to ensuring the partnerships team have a best-in-class suite of templated materials to deliver partnerships efficiently and effectively.
Partnerships Sales:
- Lead on the identification and documentation of all available partnerships inventory so that it is clear what is available to be sold.
- Drive the process with the Commercial team to establish a clear and agreed rate card for the available inventory.
- Support the Head of Commercial and Commercial Director to build a commercial strategy as to how the inventory is to be packaged, taken to market and sold.
- Use data sources, desktop research and industry knowledge and networks to identify target lists of clients for the outreach process.
- Lead on the implementation of the required systems and processes to track the sales pipeline and capture all contact details for sales targets (e.g. management of a B2B database for lead generation).
- Identify opportunities for creating bespoke commercial partnership proposals.
- Lead on the creation and ongoing maintenance of a suite of templated sales materials that can be quickly and easily refined to apply to any sales opportunity (e.g. WRU intro deck, sales decks, rights package summaries, etc), in close collaboration with the sales team.
- Support the sales team by ensuring they have the required data for the direct outreach to potential clients to setup sales meetings.
- Lead on the preparation of sales materials for key meetings, with support from the wider team.
- Spend an agreed portion of your time on direct outreach to support the Partnership sales team and process, particularly during peak selling periods.
- Support with smooth and detailed handover of sold opportunities to the Partnerships team to enable them to deliver the contracted rights.
Hospitality Sales:
- Support the hospitality sales team to build and maintain a healthy and vibrant sales pipeline to convert sales leads into new business to ensure the agreed budgets and targets are met.
- Ensure all the correct tools are in place and operational so that sales activities and pipeline opportunities are recorded centrally to maintain a full customer database that can support forecasting.
- Spend an agreed portion of your time on direct outreach to support the Hospitality sales team and process, particularly during peak selling periods.
Alternative Revenue Streams:
- Work collaboratively with the Commercial team to develop strategies to identify and develop new commercial revenue streams that drive innovation and growth.
Stakeholder Management:
- Build excellent working relations with internal stakeholders, external stakeholders and prospective partners / sales leads.
Event Day Commercial Operations:
- Invite, host and manage business development prospects (in collaboration with the broader Commercial team) on event days as required.
- Support the Hospitality Sales team, as required, to ensure that everything runs smoothly in the hospitality spaces on event day and for a seamless experience for hospitality clients.
- Support the Partnerships team, as required, to ensure that everything runs smoothly with regards to partner rights delivery.
Budgets
- Ensure that cost budgets and sales targets are closely monitored and reported upon.
Reporting
- Ensure that the right level of reporting is readily available and always up to date with regards to the state and health of the sales pipelines
- Input into internal reporting processes in a timely manner and in a way that clearly enables team members to understand the state of the commercial sales program
- Flag risks and issues early to enable mitigation plans to be put in place
WRU Requirements
The WRU require that individuals are proficient in IT skills, specifically Microsoft packages. Excellent written and verbal communications are essential, along with the ability to build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
Ability to communicate through the medium of Welsh and a Valid UK Driver's License is desirable. This role is subject to a basic/enhanced DBS check.
The Perks
As a permanent member of the WRU Group, you will have access to our full range of employee benefits, including:
- Salary Sacrifice Pension (5% employee contribution, matched by WRU)
- Life assurance scheme
- WRU Group Ticket Allocation (in line with ticketing policy)
- One additional paid day off (birthday leave)
- Employee assistance programme
- Team Tactics – hybrid working arrangements
- Free stadium parking and gym
- WRU Group store and tour discounts
- WRU Group partnership offers
- Eye Care Voucher Scheme
- Cycle to Work Scheme
How to Apply
Please click “Apply Now” to begin your application.