Brand Partnerships Director, UK

Verve For Advertisers is a technology company that empowers brands and agencies to target audiences based on declared intent, following them from initial curiosity to ultimate decisioning, to drive measurable outcomes.

We've unified the company's demand-side offering under the VFA name, bringing together the largest on-site search-intent dataset outside of walled gardens — built on data partnerships with 3M+ websites, LLM chat signals, and survey data — and premium inventory grounded in our direct SDK integrations. Our technology captures both what consumers do and why they do it, delivering high-fidelity audiences, insights, and outcomes across premium omnichannel inventory.

About the team

Verve is building a Brand Direct function — a small, senior team that sells and services select brand accounts directly, alongside our existing agency relationships, rather than replacing them. The goal is to get Verve's data, formats, and capabilities into brand planning conversations earlier, and to prove that dedicated brand-side support grows accounts faster than agency coverage alone.

This is a new team and a founding hire. You'll help define what “brand direct” looks like at Verve in practice, working closely with the Global VP of Brand Partnerships from day one.

The role

As Brand Partnerships Director, UK, you'll own a portfolio of named brand accounts in the UK, working as a generalist across categories rather than a single vertical. This is a senior individual contributor role — not a people-management role in the first instance — designed for someone who wants to build something and has the option to grow into managing a local team as the function scales.

You are a hunter first: someone who can open doors at brand (not agency) level, build credibility fast, and turn a first meeting into a durable, revenue-generating relationship. Prior experience or relationships in a specific vertical (e.g. CPG/Retail, Travel, Finance, Beauty/Lux) are a strong plus, as this role has the potential to grow into leading a vertical specialist team.

Responsibilities include

• Build senior brand relationships — Owning relationships at CMO, Global Head of Media, and VP of Brand level, along with key line-of-business leads such as Data, Creative, and Measurement within the brand.
• Get ahead of the brief — Getting into brand planning cycles early so Verve's data, formats, and capabilities are already part of the conversation before the brief reaches the agency.
• Represent Verve in the room — Representing Verve at brand-side (not agency-side) forums, marketing conferences, and roundtables to build Verve's profile with brand teams directly.
• Commission insight work — Working with the insights and data teams to build brand-specific audience stories, category reports, and trend pieces that give brands a reason to meet and stay engaged.
• Secure Joint Business Plans — Working towards annual brand frameworks that lock in investment and strategic commitment at brand level, independent of which agency holds the account.
• Run the pilot — Building and pitching a defined target list of named accounts, with revenue tracked separately from non-brand-direct-supported business to prove the model.
• Co-sell, don't compete — Partner with the existing agency sales team under a joint commercial framework — this role is additive to agency relationships, not competitive with them; revenue is double-counted so both sides are incentivized to collaborate.

Here are a few indicators that you're the right person

• You have a track record of building and owning senior client relationships directly with brands or marketers, not solely through an agency or intermediary.
• You have genuine “hunter” instincts — you're comfortable prospecting, opening new doors, and creating momentum in a newly-created role with no existing playbook.
• You have an existing network of brand-side contacts in the UK; a specific category or vertical angle (e.g. CPG/Retail, Travel, Finance, Beauty/Lux) is a plus but not required.
• You're comfortable with ambiguity and building process as you go — this is a Phase 1 hire into a function that will evolve quickly.
• You have strong commercial instincts: you can read an account's growth potential and prioritize your time accordingly.
• You bring experience in media, adtech, data, or a related commercial sales environment as helpful context, though the core skill this role requires is brand-side relationship building.

What We Offer

Just a few of the benefits waiting for you at Verve: 

• Stay healthy with our Bupa HealthCare Plan with easy access to medical care
• Support your long-term financial security with our Aviva Corporate Pension Scheme, with Verve contributing 5% of your qualifying earnings
• Pick what matters most to you in our Personalized Benefits Platform, with a budget of  £50/month
• Recharge with 25 paid vacation days + 3 Wellness days throughout the year, in addition to the public holidays

Boost your professional knowledge with our annual training budget & internal webinars… and even more reasons to join us!

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