Senior Manager - Regional Partnerships (MENA)

About Crunchyroll

Founded by fans, Crunchyroll delivers the art and culture of anime to a passionate community. We super-serve over 100 million anime and manga fans across 200+ countries and territories, and help them connect with the stories and characters they crave. Whether that experience is online or in-person, streaming video, theatrical, games, merchandise, events and more, it’s powered by the anime content we all love.

Join our team, and help us shape the future of anime!

About the role

The Senior Manager, Regional Partnerships – MENA will play a key role in building and scaling Crunchyroll’s partnerships business across the Middle East and North Africa. The role will identify, negotiate, launch, and grow strategic partnerships that expand Crunchyroll’s distribution, drive subscriber acquisition, strengthen commercial performance, and deepen the brand’s relevance across the region.

The role will focus on two complementary growth pillars: Distribution Partnerships - including telcos, streaming platforms, aggregators, connected devices, and other distribution channels and Growth Partnerships, including SVOD promotions, payments, commerce, retail, loyalty, and other customer-acquisition opportunities.

The successful candidate will combine strong commercial judgment and relationship management with the ability to lead complex, multi-market initiatives from opportunity development through launch and ongoing growth.

This is a highly cross-functional role, working closely with Growth, Marketing, Content, Product, Engineering, Finance, Legal, Communications, Localization & Operations, Customer Experience, and global partnership teams.

Drive the MENA Partnerships Strategy

• Help shape and execute the partnerships strategy across priority MENA markets.
• Build a strong pipeline across Distribution and Growth/SVOD Promotion partnerships.
• Identify opportunities that expand Crunchyroll’s reach, accessibility, subscriber base, and fan engagement.
• Translate market dynamics and regional business priorities into actionable partnership opportunities.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the MENA ecosystem, including competitors, platforms, consumer behavior, commercial trends, and emerging opportunities.
• Prioritize opportunities based on strategic fit, commercial potential, scale, and execution feasibility.

Build and Grow Strategic Partnerships

• Establish and manage senior relationships with telcos, streaming platforms, aggregators, technology companies, payment providers, retailers, commerce and loyalty platforms, and other strategic partners.
• Develop 3/6/12-month growth plans for priority partners, identifying opportunities to expand distribution, acquisition, engagement, marketing, and commercial performance.
• Build joint business plans that align Crunchyroll and partner objectives, investments, milestones, and success measures.
• Lead regular business reviews and identify opportunities to unlock incremental value from existing partnerships.
• Represent Crunchyroll in partner, industry, and commercial forums across the region.

Drive Commercial Development & Execution

• Own selected opportunities from origination and business case development through negotiation, execution, launch, and growth.
• Develop commercial models, forecasts, and investment recommendations with Finance and relevant functional teams.
• Lead partnership opportunities including distribution, bundles, SVOD promotions, payments, loyalty programs, co-marketing, retail activations, and other strategic propositions.
• Ensure opportunities are commercially viable, operationally executable, and aligned with Crunchyroll’s regional and global priorities.
• Manage partner performance, renewals, expansion opportunities, risks, and commercial commitments.
• Maintain clear reporting against partner KPIs, milestones, and growth plans.

Lead Cross-Functional Delivery

• Serve as a key regional Partnerships contact connecting external partners with Crunchyroll’s internal teams.
• Coordinate Product, Engineering, Marketing, Content, Finance, Legal, Communications, Operations, CX, and other teams throughout the partnership lifecycle.
• Drive launch excellence, ensuring clear ownership, dependencies, timelines, risks, and launch-readiness criteria.
• Proactively identify and resolve commercial and operational blockers.
• Maintain transparency across stakeholders and escalate material risks and decisions in a timely manner.
• Share learnings and opportunities across MENA, Asia, and global Partnerships teams to enable cross-market collaboration.

About You

• 8+ years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, distribution, commercial strategy, platform partnerships, or a related field.
• Strong experience developing and managing partnerships across MENA, with an established understanding of regional business practices and partner ecosystems.
• Demonstrated track record of negotiating, launching, and scaling commercial partnerships.
• Experience with telcos, streaming/media, technology, payments, commerce, retail, gaming, loyalty, or consumer platforms strongly preferred.
• Strong commercial judgment with experience developing business cases, financial models, forecasts, and negotiating commercial agreements.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and coordinate across Product, Engineering, Marketing, Content, Finance, Legal, and Operations.
• Experience managing the full partnership lifecycle, from origination through launch, performance management, renewal, and expansion.
• Strong understanding of MENA consumer behavior, digital ecosystems, and market dynamics.
• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving global organization with evolving priorities and ambiguity.
• Willingness to travel regularly across MENA and internationally as required.

About the Team

The Regional Partnerships team drives strategic partnerships across Asia & MENA, focused on expanding Crunchyroll’s distribution, subscriber growth, and regional presence. The team includes regional partnership leads across Asia, covering India, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Korea, based in our India and Korea offices., along with a dedicated Partnerships Marketing function that works across all markets within the Asia & MENA region to maximize partner growth and impact. The team operates with a high degree of collaboration, transparency, and cross-market knowledge sharing, working closely with both regional and global teams to launch and scale impactful partnerships. The Senior Manager – Regional Partnerships (MENA) will join this collaborative regional team, working closely across markets and functions to build, launch, and scale strategic partnerships across MENA.

Why you will love working at Crunchyroll

In addition to getting to work with fun, passionate and inspired colleagues, you will also enjoy the following benefits and perks:

• Take Time for You - Accrued PTO, Summer Fridays, Company Christmas vacations, and flexible schedule.
• Parental Leave - Eligible birthing parents will be paid for up to 22 weeks. Eligible non-birthing parents will be paid for up to 12 weeks.
• Retirement - Crunchyroll contributes to the employee's private retirement plans.
• Home Office - Monthly support of remote costs and option to order full work set-up for your home office
• Find Balance - Urban Sports Club membership, wellness classes through ClassPass, counseling, and support through Talkspace and Employee Assistance Program.
• Work hard, watch hard - Free premium access to Crunchyroll along with monthly discounts to the Crunchyroll store;
• Level Up - Prepaid Udemy account, English classes, professional development courses & conferences;
• Take the prize - Team member accomplishments are recognized through a discretionary Annual Bonus program, Referral Bonus program, Anniversary Recognition Award, and Corporate Benefits.
• Option for company-paid public transportation ticket or bike

#LifeAtCrunchyroll #LI-Hybrid 

About our Values

We want to be everything for someone rather than something for everyone and we do this by living and modeling our values in all that we do. We value

• Courage. We believe that when we overcome fear, we enable our best selves.

• Curiosity. We are curious, which is the gateway to empathy, inclusion, and understanding.

• Kaizen. We have a growth mindset committed to constant forward progress.

• Service. We serve our community with humility, enabling joy and belonging for others.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion

Our mission of helping people belong reflects our commitment to diversity & inclusion. It's just the way we do business.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at Crunchyroll. Pursuant to applicable law, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Crunchyroll, LLC is an independently operated joint venture between US-based Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Japan's Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation.

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