Associate, Strategic Partnerships

Who We Are

UnitedMasters is building a marketplace that connects artists, brands and fans - empowering artists to earn and grow. UnitedMasters has taken the bold step of building a music distribution service that, radically, puts artists first - disrupting the legacy music business by letting up-and-coming artists distribute their music directly to fans through streaming services while maintaining ownership of their master recording rights and up to 100% of royalties. Through the combination of UnitedMasters' music distribution platform and its deep ties to brands, UnitedMasters enables independent artists and change-makers to grow and earn unlike any other platform.

The UnitedMasters team is made up of musicians, marketers, engineers, and storytellers with backgrounds from YouTube, SoundCloud, Pandora, Facebook, Uber, Dropbox, Complex, VICE, and more. We work hand in hand with the award-winning creative teams that forge those innovative partnerships at Translation (our in-house creative advertising agency).

We are looking for an Associate, Strategic Partnerships to join UnitedMasters!

What You'll Do

• Reporting to the VP, Distro Ops, support the day-to-day management of UnitedMasters' existing partnership portfolio across DSPs, sub-DSPs, label services partners, distribution infrastructure providers, and product/tooling partners


• Support VP in negotiating commercial renewals and term updates, including rate cards, MGs, MFNs, term length, and reporting obligations. Build benchmarking and comparisons, redline to guidance, and gather applicable Legal and Finance inputs.


• Proactively track renewal milestones and tee up negotiation cycles for VP well ahead of expiration


• Help translate signed agreements into clear implementation plans across Product, Legal, Finance, Music, Operations, and Marketing, and help drive accountability through to delivery by tracking tasks to completion


• Serve as the first internal point of contact for partner questions, escalations, and ongoing requests, and escalate to the VP as appropriate


• Support a regular partner relationship cadence by scheduling and prepping check-ins, business reviews, and proactive engagement, and capturing and tracking follow-ups.


• Own the DSP tracker, BD pipeline, contract calendar, and partner contact records as live operating tools and sources of truth


• Research and help identify prospective partners across the music and tech ecosystem, providing initial evaluation, and supporting the VP in negotiating initial commercial terms by assembling briefs and comparisons, and coordinating input from Legal and Finance


• Run the mechanics of weekly pipeline reviews: Prep the agenda, capture decisions, track owners and coordinate action items across active workstreams 


• Compile market and partner signal into summaries for the VP and team to inform broader strategy


• Represent UnitedMasters externally as a credible, articulate face of the company with existing partners

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Operates with rigor: clean trackers, clear next steps, follow-through that doesn't require chasing


• Comfortable supporting commercial negotiations on partnerships with established baseline terms, including building economic and term comparisons, redlining to guidance and prepping materials


• Exposure to DSP economics and digital licensing concepts (rev share, MG, MFN, PSM, rate cards) or a track record of ramping fast on adjacent commercial domains


• Proactive relationship builder; stays in front of partners rather than waiting for issues to surface


• Coordinates outcomes across Product, Legal, Finance, Operations, Music, and Label Services; keeps workstreams moving and escalates blockers


• Strong written and verbal communicator; can assist in framing partnership status, renewal recommendations, and commercial trade-offs concisely for leadership

Minimum Qualifications

• 2-4 years of experience in strategic partnerships, business development, account management, licensing, or a closely related commercial function


• Experience supporting partner relationships and/or deal processes, including involvement with diligence, redlines, trackers and cross-functional coordination


• Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct exposure to DSP, music licensing, or music-tech platform partnerships


• Familiarity with music distribution operations and tooling (e.g., FUGA, 7digital, Merlin, iTunes Connect, Ironclad)


• Exposure to contract/renewal processes or CRM/pipeline tooling

About UnitedMasters, Inc.

UnitedMasters Inc. represents the creative solutions company, Translation, and the leading software and services platform for independent creators, UnitedMasters. UnitedMasters enables ownership, exposure, and new paths for financial return for independent creators, while Translation helps brands leverage the power of contemporary culture to achieve transformational growth. Combined, UnitedMasters, Inc. is the world's leading marketplace for cultural capital, connecting independent artists and brands to realize a future in which all creators own their future. Backed by Alphabet, Andreessen Horowitz, and Apple, UnitedMasters, Inc. is reimagining how brands and artists come together to tell their stories, build profitable growth, and push culture forward.

Salary Hiring Range: $83,000-$98,000

Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry, and are one part of many compensation, benefits and other reward opportunities we provide (e.g. bonus, stock options, 401(k) match, etc.).

Individual pay rate decisions are based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skillset, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company. We expect the majority of the candidates who are offered roles at our company to fall healthily throughout the range based on these factors.

The range above is for the expectations as laid out in the job description, however we are often open to a wide variety of profiles, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted. If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated with you as a candidate.

The salary range above is for NY/CA. As a company, we have a location based strategy, which means the salary range could be lower or higher than this if the role is hired in another location.