Rival is looking for an Associate to join our Cape Town-based team.
As an Associate, you will play a key role in supporting the smooth running of Rival’s business across our core functions: delivery, finance, legal, and people operations. You’ll work closely with our London-based Operations Director and also support the CEO across sales, marketing, and partnerships. This is a rare opportunity to get exposure to nearly every part of how a fast-growing agency works—and to help shape how we scale.
Role
The focus of this Associate role will be on supporting the day-to-day running of our internal operations.
You will spend most of your time assisting the Operations Director with tasks across project delivery, financial processes, legal and HR administration, and general team coordination. You’ll also work with the CEO on special projects related to sales, marketing, and partnerships.
You’ll have scope to work autonomously and the ability to make a real impact as we grow.
Opportunity
You’ll be joining Rival at an exciting time—we are three years in, growing quickly, and have big plans for the next few years!
This is a unique opportunity for someone early in their career who wants to understand how a modern marketing consultancy operates—and to learn from a senior team while developing a future path in either operations or marketing.
You’ll be embedded in our Cape Town team, working with a global group of talented marketers, strategists, and operators across North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
We’re a small (but mighty!) team of around 35 people globally, which means you’ll get to work on a wide range of projects and learn quickly.
This role holds a ton of potential for the right person, as you’ll be supporting the core of our business and working closely with our leadership team.
Requirements
We’d like to hear from you if…
• You’re a recent graduate with a degree (or relevant experience) in marketing, business, or a related field
• You have strong organizational skills and enjoy juggling different types of tasks
• You’re curious about how businesses run and want to learn by doing
• You’re proactive, resourceful, and not afraid to get stuck in
• You’re a clear communicator, both written and verbal
• You’re excited to work in a start-up-style environment with lots of opportunity and responsibility
• You’re based in Cape Town and open to hybrid/in-person work
We would be particularly excited if…
• You’ve had any internship or part-time experience in an agency or business ops environment
• You’ve worked in a fast-paced, high-growth company (even as a student)
• You’re interested in a future career in operations, consulting, or marketing
How to apply…
If you’d like to apply, please use the “apply button” below. Alongside sharing your CV, we’d like you to please do the following:
- Highlight a challenger brand you think is crushing it. You just need to write “CHALLENGER BRAND: X” and a few sentences on why you think they are interesting from a marketing perspective.
- Answer why building a B2B media business is interesting to you. (No more than 300 words)
Compensation - once converted to a Permanent Employee
- Our compensation philosophy is to “mid-market base, top-market upside”. As a start-up we can’t compete with big agency/consultancy salaries, but we offer everyone the opportunity to share in the upside of what we’re building together.
- There are three components to our compensation package
- Base Salary - market average for marketing consultancy/agency
- Profit Share - eligibility for a profit share distribution twice a year (after one year of employment) based on company and individual performance
- Employee Liquidity Plan - eligibility for our “shadow stock” plan (after one year of employment)
Benefits - once converted to a Permanent Employee
- 28-days vacation days for South African employees + public holidays
- 21 discretionary vacation days
- 7 company ‘recharge days’ during the year - these are mandatory days that everyone takes off to relax and focus on family, friends and ourselves.
- Office-first but flexible working environment
- Our default policy is for everyone to be in the office two-three days per week (currently Tues/Wed/Thurs). We believe in and have seen the impact of in-person collaboration on our work, culture, and development. However, we hire grown ups and trust people to manage their time and schedule. We understand there will be exceptions to the default rule, as long as we’re all focused on what’s best for the team.
- The equipment and technology you need to be successful, plus additional support if you need to enhance your work from home set-up
- Discovery Health Medical Aid contribution
- Rival will contribute up to R3750 per month
- Retirement Annuity
- Rival will contribute a maximum of 3% of the employee's Cost to Company (CTC) to the RA fund.
- The employee must at a minimum match the company’s contribution of 3%.
- Parental/Family/Maternity/Adoption Leave
- Quarterly ‘Team Weeks’
- One week a quarter we focus on planning, team building, and professional development. This can involve the opportunity to travel to other offices.
- Rival Retreats
- Every once in a while we’ll turn a Team Week into a Rival Retreat, which is a full-company, all-expense paid trip to spend a week together in a fun location
- Various surprise and delights & Rival events throughout the year.
About Rival
Rival is a marketing consultancy for challengers. We believe incumbent best practices lead to average results. We use the playbook of challenger brands to deliver outsized impact for CMOs who need to do more with less.
Our Hiring Ethos
We want to build a home for the world’s best marketing talent while advancing diversity in our industry. Hiring is the most important thing we do at Rival. Finding and attracting the best talent in the industry is key to our long-term success and day-to-day happiness, but it’s also the most direct way we can have an impact on driving positive change in our industry and for our clients.
Our goal is to deliver a best-in-class interview experience for candidates:
- Upfront alignment on what good looks like
- We compensate candidates time for any interview that requires a task
- Timely, respectful communication
- Opportunity for all candidates to provide feedback
- All employees undergo unconscious bias training
- Global Equality Collective membership to upskill ourselves in all aspects of hiring
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
At Rival, we're invested in a thoughtful, long-term hiring approach that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion. We care about creating a global community with a combined mission, but not at the expense of losing individual identity, which is critical to our innovation. It’s essential that we bring our authentic selves to work every day, no matter our age, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, neurodiversity, or otherwise.
We listen to our employees, take direction and are taking continual action to better ourselves in this mission. Inclusion isn't just an initiative at Rival. We strive to embed it into all aspects of our business model and how we operate.
B Corp
Rival is proud to have gained B Corp Certification in 2023, we joined a fleet of B Corp businesses around the world who all have the same goal, driving global social and environmental change. We aim to set a new standard for corporate social responsibility in our industry. We believe we have a responsibility to not just do well for ourselves and our clients, but do good for others and the world at large. We don’t believe we can change the world on our own. But we do believe we can make a meaningful difference in this industry and set a meaningful example for others to follow.
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