Affiliate Manager

Who we are

We're the agency other agencies benchmark against. Brands come to us when an affiliate program has plateaued, when it has quietly filled up with partners who add nothing, or when nobody in-house has the bandwidth to run it properly. Fixing that is the work.

The role

You own the strategy, not just the execution.

You'll manage a portfolio of client programs that can span several verticals. For each one, you set the KPIs, build the action plan, produce the forecast, own the program budget, and run the client relationship, including the quarterly review where you're the person accountable for whether the number moved. You are the client's primary point of contact for the channel, and you present to various client-side POCs (typically e-commerce and marketing decision-makers) without a Director in the room.

Concretely, the following program recommendations are yours to own with your Client: which partners get approved into the program and which get removed, how commission structure and incentive offers are set within the agreed budget, what the recruitment and activation plan looks like each quarter, and which placements are worth negotiating for. You escalate to your Director when a client relationship or a contract is at risk, not to get a program decision made.

You'll also be responsible for the training and development of those supporting your accounts.

What you'll actually do

Set the strategy

• Build a proactive affiliate strategy for each client against their specific goals

• Define the KPIs and the action plan, then hold the program to them

• Produce the forecast and set the program budget

• Track partner performance against vertical benchmarks and reset the plan when the data says to

Run the client relationship

• Lead all client-facing calls, quarterly business reviews, and periodic program reviews

• Communicate results and recommendations directly to decision-makers and secure buy-in

• Deliver the annual program proposal and the monthly performance narrative

• Educate clients on Gen3's wider capabilities and surface opportunities to expand the engagement

Grow the partner portfolio

• Lead recruitment, activation, payment, compliance, and communication across your partners

• Build and strengthen publisher relationships; negotiate placements, added exposure, and deals

• Design acquisition and retention initiatives that grow partner-driven revenue

• Source and nurture new partnerships against each client's channel objectives

Own the numbers

• Own daily, weekly, and monthly reporting, and the optimization decisions that come out of it

• Define, monitor, and analyze KPI trends across your portfolio

• Execute creative and promotional changes against each client's content calendar

• Investigate tracking discrepancies and attribution anomalies before a client raises them

Develop your Coordinator

• Review and remain accountable for the day-to-day work of the support roles actioning on your accounts

• Give specific feedback tied to a development plan, not just task correction

Where this goes

Affiliate Managers who perform typically move to Senior Affiliate Manager or Strategist, taking on strategic accounts and continuing to oversee support roles. From there, the delivery track runs to Associate Director and Director. You'll have a documented development plan and a named manager responsible for it.

What we're looking for

This is a mid-level role with genuine account ownership.

• 2-4 years managing affiliate or partnership programs end to end

• Hands-on proficiency in Impact, Rakuten Advertising, Awin, ShareASale, CJ, and/or Partnerize. Familiarity with Google Analytics and/or Amazon Affiliate is a plus; we'll train you on the ones you haven't used.

• You have owned a program forecast and budget, and you can talk about a time your forecast was wrong and what you changed

• You can present performance to a client-side decision-maker, take a hard question, and hold your recommendation

• Comfort with messy data, reconciling network reporting against client-side systems and explaining the gap in plain language

• Experience in multiple verticals preferred