The Local Project is one of the fastest growing design publications across Australia, New Zealand and North America. We tell the stories of extraordinary local design and its global impact through premium print, digital, video and social content, reaching a global audience each month. In 2024 we launched The Local Production, a full service creative studio built to elevate brands through considered storytelling and high end content.
This is a commercial role at the centre of our New York business. You will work directly with the Chief Partnerships Officer to grow revenue, build and manage partner relationships, and carry deals from first conversation through to delivery and renewal. It is a role designed to be grown into. You will be given real ownership early, taught the way The Local Project sells and the standards we hold, and supported to build toward carrying your own book and your own number.
We are looking for someone with commercial instinct and genuine curiosity, who already works with AI as a default part of how they operate, and who wants to learn the craft of premium brand partnerships from the people who built ours.
— Carry and grow partnerships. Support the Chief Partnerships Officer across the full partnership lifecycle, from pitch and proposal through to delivery, reporting and renewal. Take ownership of a growing set of accounts over time, including seed accounts passed to you, with a clear path to carrying your own book.
— Hold partner relationships with care. Manage day to day partner communication with professionalism and warmth. Keep things timely, considered and aligned to our tone, and deliver a high touch experience that reflects the brand.
— Own contract and booking discipline. Make sure every deal is properly papered. Drive booking forms and contracts to signature before work begins, track terms and timelines, and hold the line on the commercial detail that protects revenue. This is core to the role, not an afterthought.
— Own CRM and forecast accuracy. Keep HubSpot clean, current and trustworthy. Maintain accurate deal stages, values and dates so the pipeline and forecast can be relied on. You are the person who keeps the commercial picture honest.
— Build proposals and pitches. Prepare proposals, decks and renewal presentations that reflect the premium positioning of The Local Project. Pull audience insight, case studies and the right format for each partner, and keep our sales materials sharp and current.
— Run reporting that informs strategy. Prepare monthly and quarterly performance reporting across the agreed metrics, and turn results into clear insight that supports renewals and future strategy.
We use AI across the business as a genuine multiplier, and this role is no exception. You will be expected to reach for AI by default: to research partners and markets, draft and refine proposals, structure reporting, prepare for meetings and move faster without losing quality. We will give you the tools and the method. We want someone who already thinks this way and will push it further.
This is an entry point into a long term commercial career at The Local Project. You will be mentored directly by the Chief Partnerships Officer and exposed early to pricing, packaging, negotiation, renewals and partner strategy. As you grow, you will take on more ownership across account management and revenue, with a clear path toward carrying a full book and, in time, leading partnerships of your own and supporting hires beneath you.
— Three to five years in partnerships, brand, media sales, agency account management or a related commercial role. You have supported or part carried a book of business. You are not a finished senior with a fixed playbook, and you are not learning what a pipeline is. You are ready to be shaped.
— Commercial instinct. You can read a deal, you know when to push and when to hold, and you want to own a number. You are motivated by outcomes and energised by the sell.
— AI native. You already use AI as a core part of how you work, and you are excited to push it further. This is how we operate and it is not optional.
— Relationship intelligence and taste. You hold a premium room well, you are client first, and you have a real or fast developing literacy in architecture, design and premium brand storytelling.
— Coachable and low ego. You lead with curiosity about how we do things rather than how you have always done them. You want to be taught.
— Organised and accurate. You manage multiple partners and timelines at once, and you hold yourself to a high standard on detail, contracts and data.
— Eligible to work in the United States. You hold existing US work rights. This role is based in our New York City office, four days onsite and one day from home.
Base salary: 85,000 - 95,000 USD per year.
Commission: On target commission of 60,000 USD per year.
The Local Project celebrates extraordinary design across a range of platforms, championing the best from industry leaders and emerging designers alike. After launching in 2016 with a focus on Australian architecture and design, we broadened our scope in 2019 to include New Zealand, and again in 2023 to encompass North America. Our print periodical features three titles – The Local Project, The Commercial Project and The Local Marketplace – and we recently launched our first hardcover book, 10, compiling highlights from our first 10 issues in print.
We are honoured to have been recognised twice at the Mumbrella Publish Awards; in 2022, we were awarded Best Use of Video for our video of James Stockwell Architect’s Bunkeren and in 2023, we were named Publication of the Year. Our hardcover book was also highly commended for Special Edition of the Year.
Our audience is a genuine cross-section of the design community, encompassing design-lovers and industry professionals. As such, we aim to inform, educate and inspire, exploring current questions, ideas and conversations through compelling and informed content. As we continue to grow, cultivating authentic and engaged communities is a vision that remains at our very core.
