Chicago Fire Football Club is a Major League Soccer team that was founded in 1997. Under new ownership, the Club recently returned to Chicago’s iconic Soldier Field, opened a new 50,000-square foot office in the heart of the city, and will unveil a premium state-of-the-art Performance Center in January 2025. With tremendous growth and expansion, the Club is laying the foundation for an audacious and ambitious vision that will transform the brand and the company in the coming years.

At Chicago Fire Football Club, we’re on a mission to entertain, serve, and unite Chicago by delivering excellence on and off the pitch to ensure a world-class experience. As a club we let our values guide everything we do: we uphold uncompromising integrity, show respect for all at all times, never settle for less, constantly innovate, and hold ourselves relentlessly accountable.

Position Overview:

Chicago Fire Football Club is looking for a dynamic and experienced Marketing Manager to help bring the Fire brand to life across multiple touchpoints, with the ultimate goal of driving brand awareness and increasing fandom locally and beyond. The Marketing Manager will be responsible for concepting and executing strategies that enhance our brand presence, engage and grow our fan base, and further support our mission of entertaining, serving, and uniting Chicago. This role is ideal for a proactive, solution-oriented, strategic thinker with a passion for connecting communities, building meaningful experiences, and enhancing our Club and player profiles through thought-provoking and inspiring initiatives that propel the brand forward.

The ideal candidate has experience developing and executing marketing plans while being able to adapt swiftly and quickly in a fast-paced environment. This candidate understands the importance of how their work and deliverables impact our social media, digital marketing, corporate partnerships, and communications strategies. They have experience supporting influencer programs, executing on-the-ground activations and events in sports and sports-adjacent industries, and coordinating and managing Match Day responsibilities. Additionally, this person will be responsible for ideating initiatives that open us up to new audiences, connect us with relevant brands, public figures, and organizations, and increase our footprint locally, regionally, and nationally. Lastly, this person has experience and general knowledge of media relations, influencer campaigns, social media, and digital content strategy.

This role will sit within our Brand Marketing team, working hand-in-hand with our Comms, Social, and Digital Content teams, reporting directly to our Director of Brand & Marketing. This is not a typical 9am-5pm position as there will be expectations to work all home matches, with the addition of some away matches as well as the occasional weekend and evening events.

Given the nature of the role, individuals with a strong understanding and passion for soccer (both the sport and its role in culture) as well as the local Chicago landscape will be prioritized.

Job Responsibilities:

Concepting and executing marketing initiatives that live beyond the traditional match day and season-related events, and increase our exposure to new and untapped fans and audiences
Thinks creatively and critically about opportunities that support our goals to increase revenue, grow fandom, and drive brand awareness, and creates an action plan to drive the ideas from concept to completion
Ideating and concepting content ideas that will perform well and increase engagement across social platforms
Builds strategic and impactful marketing plans that generate earned media and help create more compelling storytelling moments across owned channels
Trend and insight mining and reporting that informs our brand strategy and positioning within the category
Forging relationships with local and national brands for partnerships, pop-ups, events and collaboration opportunities
Works hand-in-hand with our Comms, Social, Digital Content, and Corporate Partnerships teams to ensure concept, messaging, tone of voice, and objectives are clearly communicated
Partners with our Director of Brand & Marketing to concept and execute campaigns tied to timely moments, news, and announcements across the Club and organization
Manages ongoing MLS initiatives throughout the year, ensuring we’re meeting deliverable deadlines and creating best-in-class examples
Thought partnership on brand development, community involvement, and ways to amplify the CFFC brand throughout various verticals and adjacent spaces
Attend home matches and club events to ensure the brand is properly represented across all match-day touchpoints

Qualifications:

4+ years of experience in marketing and/or brand strategy with general knowledge and understanding of media relations, social media, and digital marketing
Experience crafting end-to-end marketing plans and go-to-market strategies
Exceptional project management skills with the ability to craft and keep track of timelines, deliverables, and work across multiple departments to ensure alignment and success
Strong soccer fandom and understanding of the sport and the culture
Strong passion and knowledge surrounding Chicago with a good pulse on the local landscape and the cultural trends that are shaping the city
Interest and experience in bringing creative brand campaigns to life across multiple touchpoints
Good relationship builder, across both the business & sporting sides of the organization
Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to present ideas and results to stakeholders
Willingness to learn in a fast-paced, performance-driven work environment
Ability to work non-traditional hours, in non-traditional settings, including all home games (or other work events) that fall on nights, weekends, and/or holidays.

Please note:

Chicago Fire FC is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. Our diversity initiatives start with the recruitment and selection process; therefore, we’d like to welcome all diverse candidates to apply to opportunities within our Club.
CFFC is committed to providing equal employment opportunity and maintaining a workplace for employees and applicants for employment that is free from discrimination. The Company does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, citizenship, age, veteran or military status, disability, sexual orientation, sexual orientation or expression, marital status or any other characteristic protected by law. This policy governs all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, compensation, discipline, termination, and access to benefits and training.
- If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please contact the People & Culture Department at [email protected] to let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

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Manager, Marketing