Business Development Associate

Samba is a media intelligence company. We know what the world is watching, reading, and thinking about — in real time, at scale, across every screen. Our data exists with the consent of over a billion people, organized into the most complete picture of consumer attention ever built. The biggest brands in the world use that picture to make smarter decisions. We think it’s the most interesting data asset on the planet, because it’s the most culturally relevant.

You sit at the centre of Samba's commercial partnerships function, supporting the origination, evaluation, negotiation, and ongoing management of complex partnerships — initially across EMEA, with scope to grow into deals beyond it — through which Samba's data, products, and capabilities are monetised with third-party platforms and technologies. Working closely with senior leadership on Samba's most commercially significant deals, you build real expertise in deal structuring, commercial negotiation, partner economics, and data licensing. You likely bring 2+ years in investment banking, private equity, M&A, corporate development, or consulting — a background that builds the analytical discipline these deals require and prepares you for the uncomfortable stages of a negotiation: conflicting incentives, incomplete information, and difficult counterparties. That means transaction-grade analytical discipline applied to commercial partnerships — how to structure a partnership, evaluate a licensing arrangement, value the capabilities each party contributes, and reach a defensible view on whether a partnership is worth pursuing at all — along with fluency in financial modelling and a real interest in the media and technology sectors. Samba is an AI-first company — the AI and agentic ecosystem is central to our next wave of monetisation, and you help shape the commercial models that capture it.

Source & Structure Partnerships: Support the origination, evaluation, structuring, and execution of partnerships across the media, technology, and data analytics sectors, initially with an EMEA focus — working closely with senior leadership on deals with platforms (DSPs, SSPs, ad servers, CDPs, and data marketplaces), OEMs, advertisers, publishers, and data partners. Design Commercial Models: Prepare business cases to evaluate business development opportunities and design the commercial model appropriate to each engagement — fixed or minimum-guaranteed fees, usage- or performance-based structures, value-exchange arrangements in which each party contributes capability rather than cash, or a hybrid of these — modelling the multi-year economics of each option; the most effective structure is often not the most obvious one, so creativity and lateral thinking matter here. Monetise the AI Ecosystem: Identify and evaluate opportunities to monetise Samba's data and capabilities within the AI and agentic ecosystem — AI platforms, model developers, and agent-based products — and support the development of commercial models for those opportunities. Build Deal Materials: Create partner-facing decks, term sheets, and deal summaries for strategic discussions with prospective and existing partners. Run Diligence & Benchmarking: Conduct commercial and financial diligence on prospective partners — reviewing financial statements, key performance metrics, product maturity, and business models — to assess partner viability, the value of the capability each partner brings, and whether the combined economics justify a partnership, and maintain competitive benchmarking of comparable partner and vendor terms in market so that terms offered to Samba are tested against alternatives rather than accepted at face value. Negotiate & Coordinate: Support the negotiation of partnership terms across scope of licence and intellectual property (IP) ownership, usage rights and permitted-use restrictions, pricing and commercial structure, service levels and performance remedies, and liability, termination, and exit — coordinating with finance, legal, privacy, product, and engineering teams to support deal execution and partnership implementation while protecting Samba's commercial and compliance position. Know the Market: Conduct industry research and competitive analysis to identify emerging trends, potential partners, and strategic opportunities across the streaming, advertising technology, and AI landscape, and develop and maintain relationships with existing and prospective partners — attending industry conferences and networking events to surface opportunities and maintain market awareness. Work AI-First: Apply AI and agentic tooling to your own workflow — research, diligence, modelling, drafting, and pipeline management — to improve both the speed and quality of your output, and maintain partnership pipeline tracking and status reporting for ongoing business development activities.

2+ years of experience in investment banking, private equity, M&A, corporate development, management consulting, or a commercial role in media, advertising technology, or data — you have worked on complex deals, you understand how they come together, and you are able to work through the difficult and uncomfortable stages of a negotiation. Strong analytical foundations — proficiency in Excel and the ability to build and maintain models assessing deal economics, valuation, and returns — paired with the creativity to think laterally about commercial structure and the confidence to propose an unconventional model and explain why it is the right one. Comfort with AI and experience using it in your own role to improve performance and outcomes — Samba is an AI-first company and looks for that instinct in every hire; you can get up to speed quickly on how AI and agentic tooling are changing the media, advertising, and data landscape and where the commercial opportunities sit for a company holding data assets like Samba's. Experience in this sector is not required, but the ability to learn it quickly is. Demonstrated ability to synthesise complex financial and business information and communicate findings clearly and concisely to senior leadership, with excellent written and verbal communication skills and experience creating executive-level presentations. Comfort working with contracts and commercial terms — able to read a term sheet or master services agreement (MSA) and identify what is missing, what is one-sided, and what would constrain Samba commercially in future, even if you are not the lawyer in the room — and treating privacy and data compliance as a design consideration rather than a box to tick, with awareness of the regulatory and industry frameworks governing the use of consumer data in advertising and measurement. Curious and quick to learn — you want to understand Samba's products deeply and stay close to what's happening in the TV, streaming, programmatic, and AI landscape. Highly organised and detail-oriented — a self-starter who works independently with minimal supervision, contributes positively to the culture as a team player, manages multiple workstreams simultaneously in a fast-paced environment, and is willing to travel as needed for partner meetings and deal execution. Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, or Business, or equivalent practical experience.

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