Cars.com is seeking a dynamic, self-motivated business professional to join the Strategy and Business Development (SBD) team and lead the traffic distribution theme to drive incremental traffic and value to Cars.com. This position reports to the Senior Manager in SBD and has high visibility with strategic partners as well as Senior Management and various internal stakeholders (Marketing, Legal, Operations, and Technology). It presents a lucrative opportunity for the ideal candidate to make immediate impact, and build a long-term career as a business development professional in the online automotive industry.

 Key Responsibilities

• Evaluate potential traffic distribution partners, negotiate agreements and onboard them to drive incremental traffic to Cars.com. Responsibility includes building strong partnership pipeline, partner selection, negotiation and partner onboarding process support.
• Work in collaboration with colleagues managing partnerships and internal stakeholders to ensure that partnership terms are adhered to and contract execution matches plan.
• Conduct analytics by bringing together web metrics and business performance data to evaluate KPIs, partnership enhancement opportunities and support long-term growth of strategic partnerships.
• Be the primary point of contact for potential partners and deliver superlative experience through clear communication, effective management of expectations, and drive for business results.

Required Skills

• Strong understanding of creating process workflows, and discipline for methodical execution to get things done in most efficient way while maintaining focus on high priority items
• Candidate should have strong customer focus, negotiation skills and knowledge of business contracts.
• This position requires attention to detail and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Candidate should be able to hold things together under pressure and put others at ease
• The ability to keep key internal and external participants informed is critical, as the individual will be interacting regularly with co-workers and external partner teams. This interaction will occur via phone, email and in-person, therefore requiring strong professional verbal and written communication skills
• Strong analytical skills and structured approach to problem solving are pre-requisites for the position.
• Strong networking and relationship building skills to uncover new opportunities and market intelligence.
• Candidate must be comfortable with Microsoft Office Suite and strong at Excel. Exposure to BI tools (Business Objects), Web analytics (Omniture), basic statistical analysis will be preferable. Exposure to CRM (Dynamics CRM/SalesForce.com, LinkedIn, etc.) would be beneficial.

• MBA with 3-5 years of experience or Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics etc. with 6-8 years of relevant professional experience (partnership management, account management, other client-facing roles)
• Past experience in Project and Partnership management is required.
• Past experience in digital industry is required. Experience in online automotive category would be preferred.