Business Development Associate at Pillar4 Media in Charlotte, NC, USA

Job description

• Pillar4 Media is seeking a Business Development Associate to join our growing Commerce Marketplace team.
• This role sits at the intersection of business development, strategic partnerships, category expansion, and performance marketing. You will help Pillar4 identify, develop, and commercialize new opportunities across our portfolio; whether that means establishing a relationship with a high-potential brand, expanding an existing partnership, entering an entirely new consumer category, or developing a new commercial model.
• You will own and grow relationships with leading brands across health, wellness, sleep, aging, fitness, nutrition, and adjacent consumer categories, including many Fortune 500 companies. At the same time, you will research emerging markets, identify high-potential prospects, build business cases, structure partnership opportunities, and help bring new initiatives from concept through launch and optimization.
• This is a highly cross-functional and commercially oriented role. The ideal candidate is comfortable moving between relationship management, outbound business development, quantitative analysis, deal creation, and execution and is excited by the opportunity to help build the next meaningful growth engine for Pillar4.
• Pillar4's mission is to help people live healthier lives through access to trusted resources, in-depth product reviews, and supportive communities. Our vision is to build the #1 content and commerce engine connecting consumers directly with the best brands across the pillars of health and wellness.

Responsibilities

• Business Development & Category Expansion
• Identify, research, source, and qualify new brand, partner, and marketplace opportunities that improve performance and/or unlock net-new categories of business.
• Evaluate new markets and categories based on consumer demand, competitive dynamics, monetization potential, brand landscape, and Pillar4's ability to win.
• Research high-potential brands, publishers, affiliate programs, competitors, and other prospective partners across Pillar4's core and adjacent verticals.
• Conduct thoughtful outbound outreach and manage conversations with prospective partners from initial contact through pitch, negotiation, and launch.
• Develop business cases for new partnership and category opportunities, including projected revenue, traffic, conversion, compensation, and broader commercial impact.
• Identify opportunities to expand Pillar4's addressable audience and create demand beyond existing organic search and affiliate commerce channels.
• Stay informed on industry trends, emerging brands, new business models, and market opportunities through industry research, newsletters, conferences, competitive intelligence, and other sources.
• Brand Partnerships & Deal Management
• Build and maintain strong relationships with leading brands across health, wellness, sleep, aging, and adjacent consumer categories.
• Serve as a client-facing point of contact, developing a strong understanding of partner objectives, priorities, and opportunities for growth.
• Create compelling partnership proposals, pitch materials, and prospect packages tailored to both partner objectives and Pillar4's commercial goals.
• Structure commercial terms and activation concepts that create meaningful incremental value for both Pillar4 and its partners.
• Support negotiations and maintain partnership opportunities from initial conversation through execution and ongoing optimization.
• Identify opportunities to expand existing partnerships across editorial content, product testing, audience, paid media, paid social, CRO, lead generation, and other performance channels.
• Develop trusted, long-term partner relationships while continuously looking for new ways to grow the business together.
• Analytics & Commercial Strategy
• Analyze partner, category, traffic, SEO, conversion, and revenue data to identify growth opportunities and prioritize business development efforts.
• Build financial models and opportunity-sizing analyses to estimate the potential impact of proposed partnerships, categories, and commercial structures.
• Model volume and revenue opportunity based on anticipated compensation, conversion performance, traffic, and other relevant benchmarks.
• Use data to inform negotiations and structure commercially meaningful and incremental deals.
• Monitor partner and category performance and proactively recommend tests, optimizations, and new growth opportunities.
• Develop a strong understanding of the performance metrics, economics, and commercial drivers behind Pillar4's commerce business.
• Translate quantitative analysis into clear recommendations for both internal stakeholders and external partners.
• Pipeline Management & Prospecting
• Build and maintain a well-organized pipeline of prospective and existing brand partners.
• Maintain accurate prospect information, engagement status, next steps, commercial opportunity, and other relevant business metrics.
• Prioritize opportunities based on strategic fit, revenue potential, likelihood to close, and expected business impact.
• Leverage CRM, competitive intelligence, affiliate, SEO, and other research tools to identify and track potential opportunities.
• Maintain consistent follow-up and ownership across multiple active prospects, partnerships, and internal workstreams.
• Cross-Functional Execution
• Partner closely with Revenue Operations and Marketing Operations to operationalize new partnerships and maintain accurate pipeline, forecasting, and performance reporting.
• Collaborate with Editorial and Central Testing teams to identify opportunities for new brands, products, content, and categories.
• Work with Paid Media and Paid Social teams to develop and evaluate partnership opportunities beyond traditional organic commerce.
• Partner with SEO and Content teams to understand audience demand, competitive positioning, and marketplace expansion opportunities.
• Coordinate with Finance & Accounting on deal economics, forecasting, invoicing, and other commercial requirements.
• Contribute to initiatives involving conversion rate optimization, lead generation, audience development, and full-funnel performance.
• Drive opportunities forward across multiple stakeholders, maintaining clear ownership, communication, and follow-through from initial concept through launch and ongoing optimization.

Requirements

• 1+ years of relevant experience in business development, partnerships, consulting, performance marketing, affiliate commerce, digital media, or a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to identify, source, qualify, and develop new partner or business opportunities.
• Strong commercial instincts and an ability to understand what makes a partnership strategically and financially incremental.
• Highly analytical and comfortable working with traffic, revenue, conversion rates, forecasts, unit economics, and other quantitative performance metrics.
• Experience developing partnership proposals, pitch materials, financial analyses, or business cases.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to craft effective outbound communication and confidently interact with external partners and internal stakeholders.
• Strong ownership mentality, judgment, organization, and follow-through.
• Ability to manage a pipeline of opportunities while balancing multiple active partner relationships, projects, and competing priorities.
• Strong spreadsheet skills and comfort using tools such as Google Sheets, Excel, CRM platforms, and other analytical or reporting tools.
• Resourceful, intellectually curious, and motivated to learn new industries, tools, business models, and performance channels.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, cross-functional environment where opportunities may require building the playbook rather than following one.
• Competitive drive and an entrepreneurial mindset with a desire to continuously identify and pursue new opportunities.
• Experience in digital media, affiliate commerce, publishing, consumer marketplaces, or performance marketing.
• Experience working directly with large consumer brands, particularly across health, wellness, sleep, aging, fitness, nutrition, or related categories.
• Familiarity with paid search, paid social, affiliate marketing, SEO, content commerce, CRO, lead generation, or other performance acquisition channels.
• Experience building financial models or evaluating the unit economics of new business opportunities.
• Experience with SQL and/or Power BI.

Skills

Preferred

• Experience with SQL and/or Power BI.

Benefits

• Results: Pillar4 has built a market-leading digital media business in sleep health and continues to expand across fitness, nutrition, mental health, aging, and other high-consideration consumer categories.
• Stability: We are privately owned, have a long-term investment horizon, and have significant capital available to invest in continued growth.
• Exposure: You'll have a front-row seat to growing a business and work alongside teammates with experience building and selling companies, managing large teams, and partnering with Fortune 500 brands.
• Market opportunity: Health and wellness represents a massive and rapidly evolving consumer market, creating significant opportunities for new brands, categories, audiences, and business models.
• Career growth: There is no artificial cap on growth, responsibility, or the opportunity to put your stamp on meaningful projects. Demonstrate impact and you'll be given opportunities to take on more.
• Learning: You'll work alongside subject matter experts across business development, content, SEO, product testing, paid media, analytics, creative, finance, and more.
• Impact: Team members have opportunities to participate in company initiatives supporting organizations such as Beds for Kids and The Green Chair Project and contribute to the needs of our local communities.
• Culture: We maintain a high bar for performance while building a team that enjoys working together and making the work fun.
• Base salary and performance-based bonus commensurate with experience.
• Pillar4 offers competitive benefits, including health insurance, a 401(k), a monthly wellness stipend that can be used toward services such as house cleaning, gym memberships, grocery delivery, or massages, and cell phone reimbursement.