Vice President, Business Development & Growth Strategy

Sesame Workshop is seeking a Vice President, Business Development and Growth Strategy to drive revenue growth by expanding existing businesses and developing entirely new lines of opportunity. This role identifies, evaluates, and executes high-impact partnerships and media distribution opportunities across emerging platforms, technologies, and global markets. The VP will lead strategy development, dealmaking, and partner management—with an emphasis on innovative revenue models, media rights monetization, and market expansion—while ensuring alignment with Sesame’s mission and brand values.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Market Intelligence

• Lead business development strategy aligned to organizational goals and market trends across global multi-platform content distribution.
• Monitor emerging trends in children’s media, distribution, FAST/AVOD, and technology sectors to proactively identify new opportunities and threats.
• Collaborate with the executive team to define and evolve the organization’s go-to-market strategy across key platforms.
• Stay informed on industry trends, competitive landscape, and partnership innovations. Utilize/Conduct market research and competitive analysis to identify new business opportunities and inform new business strategy.
• Monitor partner performance and surface insights to inform strategic decisions and new initiatives

Partnership Development & Deal Execution

• Identify, evaluate, pitch and negotiate new partnerships and revenue-generating deals across media distribution, FAST channels, content licensing, rights deals, interactive content, edtech, AI, licensing, co-productions, and distribution platforms.
• Build relationships with key partners including streaming platforms, digital distributors, gaming studios, edtech and AI companies.
• Work alongside Business Affairs to construct media rights frameworks, working cross-functionally with legal, finance, product, production and content teams. Negotiate agreement terms and manage execution timelines.
• Own and manage key partner relationships, serving as a primary point of contact and advocate throughout the partnership lifecycle.
• Leverage your knowledge of industry verticals and relationships with key players to support deals across new technologies and platforms

Execution & Revenue Delivery

• Drive execution from signed deal to launch, ensuring high-quality implementation, partner satisfaction, and alignment with brand and educational values.
• Track performance of strategic deals, optimizing revenue contribution, audience reach, brand value, and learning impact.
• Own business forecasts and dashboards related to partnership revenue and performance metrics.

Team Collaboration & Representation

• Collaborate closely with departments throughout the organization, including revenue, production, product, education, research, marketing, and philanthropy teams to ensure partnerships enhance mission and organizational priorities.
• Represent the organization externally at industry events, conferences, and partner meetings to position the brand as a leading voice in children’s educational media.
• Avoid words that are open to interpretation – for example instead of “handle incoming mail” use “sort and distribute incoming mail”

Qualifications

Must haves include:

• 12+ years of experience in business development, media distribution, content licensing, partnerships, within media, entertainment, gaming, or consumer products.
• Deep expertise in media distribution models, media rights construction, and multi-platform monetization (SVOD, AVOD, FAST, broadcast, digital)
• Demonstrated success collaborating cross-functionally to bring complex deals from idea to execution.
• Strong understanding of children’s media, educational IP, or mission-based brand management.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with comfort navigating ambiguity and leading through influence.
• Strong analytical and financial modeling skills to assess deals, partnership value and strategic fit
• Exceptional executive presence with experience briefing C-level stakeholders and boards
• Experience negotiating and executing high-impact, multi-stakeholder deals
• Comfort operating in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment with a strong sense of ownership
• Excellent negotiation, communication, and storytelling skills.

Nice to have:

• Experience leading global expansion, M&A, or strategic investments in the media or tech sector
• Experience in the DTC media space
• Background in corporate development, strategy, or management consulting

Equal Opportunity Employer/Minorities/Females/Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity