Sports & Entertainment Cross-Department Project Manager

Introduction

IBM is bringing technology innovation and consulting expertise to the world of sports and entertainment, transforming fan experiences across golf, tennis, motorsports, football, UFC, and music.

Our solutions enable partners to deliver world-class digital experiences that resonate with fans globally. We collaborate with brands that represent the pinnacle of achievement, cultural significance, and passion-leveraging commercially available technology to showcase IBM's capabilities in authentic, meaningful ways that both clients and fans can experience first-hand.

Your role and responsibilities

The SEP Project Manager (SPM) plays a critical role across SEP and cross-functional teams, overseeing the portfolio of project timelines spanning technology and MCC partners. The SPM is responsible for creating, managing, and implementing an integrated project timeline that keeps all stakeholders aligned and provides a single, transparent view of SEP programs and deadlines.

The role is anchored in three key areas: program transparency, partner management (internal and external), and operational excellence.

• SPM collaborates with Program, Hospitality, and Technology Leaders to build timelines that account for all team needs and deadlines.
• Aligns with Operations to integrate financial milestones into timelines.
• Understands overall workflow and partner requirements, mapping clear milestones for SEP partners.
• Coordinates with cross-functional partners to capture key dates and consolidate them into a single master timeline.
• Partners closely with Brand Creative, Blue Studio, social teams, and agency partners to track progress and enforce deadlines.
• Supports continuous improvement by evolving processes and documenting best practices.
• Distributes weekly updates to cross-functional teams with upcoming milestones and priorities.
• Supports Program Leaders in meetings, driving alignment and key decisions.
• Sets up cross-functional status meetings, timelines, and documents, ensuring inputs are collected in advance.
• Monitors deliverables to ensure quality control and timeliness.
• Leads project closeout, including retrospectives with internal teams, agencies, and partners.
• Collects and organizes all final program assets.
• Escalates risks and missed deadlines to VP as needed.
• Ensures creative workflows and prioritization exercises are followed, raising blockers proactively.
• Role reports directly to VP Sports and Entertainment.

Required education

Bachelor's Degree

Preferred education

Bachelor's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• Demonstrated success developing and managing major sponsorships, partnerships, and experiential campaigns at live events.
• Deep understanding of sports and entertainment industries, including talent, rights holders, media platforms, and fan engagement.
• Experience working with sports/entertainment properties and agencies.
• Established network within sports leagues, entertainment studios, talent agencies, and influencer communities.
• Familiarity with digital and social media strategy as it relates to sponsorship and content activation.

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Minimum 5-7 years of experience working in a matrixed organization or agency.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you'll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you'll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM's greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we're also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it's time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

IBM offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program. Eligible employees may have access to:

• Healthcare benefits including medical & prescription drug coverage, dental, vision, and mental health & well being
• Financial programs such as 401(k), cash balance pension plan, the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan, financial counseling, life insurance, short & long- term disability coverage, and opportunities for performance based salary incentive programs
• Generous paid time off including 12 holidays, minimum 56 hours sick time, 120 hours vacation, 12 weeks parental bonding leave in accordance with IBM Policy, and other Paid Care Leave programs. IBM also offers paid family leave benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law
• Training and educational resources on our personalized, AI-driven learning platform where IBMers can grow skills and obtain industry-recognized certifications to achieve their career goals
• Diverse and inclusive employee resource groups, giving & volunteer opportunities, and discounts on retail products, services & experiences

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full-time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro-rated for those who start working during the calendar year.

This position is eligible for participation in an IBM Sales Incentive plan. Actual incentive opportunity will be based on performance and the eligible Target Incentive, as addressed in the applicable plan, all of which is subject to change. The compensation range listed for this position is the IBM Reference Salary that is used when you are not actively participating in a sales plan. Your actual base pay plus incentive opportunity will be determined by the Incentive Plan assigned to you.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 15 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role.

IBM will not be providing visa sponsorship for this position now or in the future. Therefore, in order to be considered for this position, you must have the ability to work without a need for current or future visa sponsorship.

Client-provided location(s): Austin, TX

Job ID: IBM-59104

Employment Type: OTHER

Posted: 2025-10-11T18:47:49