Talent Manager Jobs in Chicago, IL
Talent Manager jobs in Chicago are concentrated in the Loop, River North, and Fulton Market, where entertainment companies, talent agencies, staffing firms, and media groups cluster. Employers hiring right now include CDW, OFI, and AXIOM. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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Excel Sports Management is an industry-leading sports agency representing top-tier talent, blue-chip brands and marquee properties. Our success is rooted in our people, our high character reputation and our commitment to creating a diverse and welcoming workplace. We focus on team chemistry, collaboration, strong relationships, valuable networks, and ambitious ideas to deliver innovative solutions that keep our clients and agency ahead of the curve.
Excel Sports Management is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE).
Position Summary: We are looking for a Senior Manager, Talent Marketing Analytics to serve as the dedicated analytics partner for our Talent Sales and Marketing teams. This role can be based in our West Hollywood, New York or Chicago offices. While this role is an internal client-facing, insight-delivery position, there is a parallel mandate related to how this work is conceived, developed and deployed: you will own the measurement frameworks, benchmarking methodologies, and analytical standards that make your work credible and scalable. The ideal candidate is a sharp analytical storyteller who understands the creator economy from a data perspective: how performance is measured, what benchmarks mean, where data comes from, and how to package it into a story that moves a deal forward. You are equally comfortable in a pitch room and a spreadsheet, and you bring the rigor to back up every narrative you build.
Role and Responsibilities:
Client-Facing Insight & Pitch Support
- Serve as the primary analytics partner for Talent Sales and Marketing, collaborating with Analytics and Talent Sales colleagues to define and evolve our mix of standard and customized analytics services
- Embed into pitch development, client commercial strategy initiatives, and client renewal conversations to provide data-driven narratives and measurement insights that demonstrate client value and marketability.
- Surface trends, benchmarks, and audience insights that help talent teams identify new business opportunities, position clients competitively, and articulate unique value in the marketplace.
- Collaborate with Sales Operations to evolve and manage the intake and prioritization process for new deliverables
- Partner with internal Analytics peers along with Talent Sales & Marketing colleagues to define measurement approaches for endorsement deals, more tactical paid media campaigns and emerging formats, ensuring the agency can report effectively on the work it sells.
Measurement Frameworks & Capability Development
- Design and own the measurement frameworks that define how talent performance is evaluated across the agency — including KPI architecture, benchmark development, data standardization, and methodology documentation.
- Develop and maintain standardized, scalable Analytics solutions that give account and talent teams consistent, reliable sources of client insights across key use cases such as audience profiling, brand fit analysis, commercial opportunity landscapes and others as appropriate
- Build methodologies for sentiment analysis, brand conversation tracking, earned media valuation, and audience quality assessment — ensuring all approaches are documented, repeatable, and defensible in client-facing contexts.
- Lead the evaluation and selection of third-party analytics vendors and platforms (e.g., CreatorIQ, Brandwatch, ListenFirst and audience insights solutions); serve as the internal owner and day-to-day expert for the agency's talent/creator analytics tool stack.
- Work closely with Analytics team partners to communicate analytical requirements, inform what data gets captured and surfaced, and ensure infrastructure decisions reflect the needs of the measurement function.
- Stay current on developments in talent/creator analytics, platform data capabilities, and measurement industry standards, continuously identifying opportunities to close gaps and strengthen the agency's analytical capabilities.
Team & Cross-Functional Leadership
- Develop and nurture relationships with a diverse set of key stakeholders across talent sales, talent marketing, client management, brand marketing and Analytics
- Collaborate closely with relevant internal Talent and Analytics stakeholders to align analytical priorities with business needs and client commitments.
- Serve as the internal subject matter expert on talent, creator and influencer measurement, educating partners across the agency on best practices, platform KPIs, and evolving industry standards.
Education and Experince:
- 5–7 years of experience in analytics, measurement, or insights roles with a strong focus on talent, creator or influencer marketing, ideally in a sports or entertainment environment
- Demonstrated track record in client-facing analytics work — building pitch materials, presenting performance narratives, and advising on measurement strategy for talent or creator clients
- Proven experience designing measurement frameworks and benchmarking systems from scratch, not just executing against existing ones.
- Agency or talent industry background strongly preferred; comfort working in a fast-paced, client-service environment with multiple concurrent priorities is essential.
- Experience working alongside data engineering or technology teams to translate analytical needs into system requirements without directly owning the technical build.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Technical & Analytical Skills
- Deep fluency with creator and influencer analytics platforms, including hands-on experience with a range of tools such as creator discovery/analytics, organic/paid content performance, social listening, audience insight and other relevant platforms.
- Strong proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint, along with a demonstrated capability to effectively leverage advance AI tools to accelerate and elevate your work
- Working knowledge of social platform native analytics across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, and emerging platforms.
- Familiarity with data pipeline concepts, API-based data sourcing, and platform data infrastructure sufficient to inform analytical design and communicate requirements to technical partners.
- Experience with social listening, sentiment analysis, earned media value (EMV) frameworks, and audience quality assessment methodologies.
- Comfort aggregating data across multiple vendor sources; SQL or Python proficiency is a plus, not a requirement.
Storytelling & Communication
- Exceptional ability to translate complex, multi-source data into clear, visually compelling narratives tailored to both creative and business audiences.
- Proven experience building pitch materials and performance decks that drive decisions — not just decks that report on them.
- Strong verbal communication and stakeholder management skills; comfortable presenting to C-suite and senior client audiences.
Creator Economy Fluency
- Genuine understanding of the creator economy: how creators build audiences, what drives engagement, how brand partnerships are valued, and what metrics actually matter to brands versus what gets over-reported.
- Awareness of the evolving platform landscape and its implications for measurement, including the shift away from vanity metrics toward business outcome attribution.
The pay range for this position is: $110,000 per year - $120,000 per year. This position is also eligible for benefits and discretionary bonus.
Ultimately, the salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in role, business sector, and geographic location, among other criteria.
This position is not eligible for sponsorship.
Excel Sports Management provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
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- Technology & Software
Talent Manager Jobs in Chicago: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a talent manager job in Chicago?
The strongest path into talent manager roles in Chicago is through the city's dense entertainment, sports, and media sectors, particularly agencies and production companies based in River North and the Loop. Experience in artist relations, casting, or talent coordination at a Chicago-area firm carries real weight here. Networking within the city's theater community, music industry, or sports organizations gives local candidates a measurable edge over outside applicants.
Which companies hire talent managers in Chicago?
Chicago talent manager roles are posted by CDW, OFI, and AXIOM and others right now, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. The Chicago market includes a mix of full-service talent agencies, corporate HR and workforce teams, sports franchises, and entertainment production companies, many headquartered downtown or in the Near North Side.
Are there remote talent manager jobs in Chicago?
Yes, though talent management is often relationship-intensive and partly on-site, especially for roles involving in-person client or artist contact. About 71% of talent manager openings tied to Chicago are remote or hybrid as of August 2026, reflecting demand across both hands-on agency roles and desk-based corporate talent functions. Administrative, sourcing, and scheduling components of the role are most commonly handled remotely.
How can I get a talent manager job in Chicago with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry point in Chicago is a talent coordinator or recruiting assistant role at a mid-size agency, staffing firm, or corporate HR team in the Loop or River North. Chicago's robust theater and live events scene also hires entry-level production and artist-support staff who frequently transition into talent management. Building local contacts through industry events, theater organizations, or Chicago-based talent showcases accelerates that move significantly.
Which industries hire the most talent managers in Chicago?
The sectors hiring the most talent managers in Chicago are Technology & Software, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. Chicago's position as a Midwest hub for advertising, live entertainment, and corporate headquarters means demand is driven by both creative industry agencies and large enterprise talent acquisition teams operating out of the city.
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