Director, Event Operations

Lead the operational planning and execution of Crain's event portfolio, establishing consistent processes, operational excellence and best practices across all brands. This role serves as the operational leader for the Events team, ensuring seamless execution while building scalable systems to support future growth.

Location
Will work onsite 3 days a week from one of our larger offices: Chicago, New York City, Detroit or Houston. You'll be coming in-office three days a week. You must be able to travel within the US and internationally 30-50% with trips being typically in the 3-5 day range.

Primary Responsibilities

• Partner with Events leadership to develop and manage event budgets.
• Lead venue sourcing and vendor negotiations while partnering with Events leadership on final recommendations and contract approvals.
• Oversee food & beverage planning, production schedules, registration, signage, audiovisual coordination and all event logistics.
• Partner with Events leadership to develop event timelines, operational plans and resource allocation.
• Develop and maintain standardized run-of-show documents, timelines and operational playbooks.
• Direct onsite event operations and proactively troubleshoot execution issues.
• Manage relationships with production partners, venues and event vendors.
• Lead, mentor and develop members of the event operations team.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to align event objectives, operational priorities and execution strategies.
• Manage multiple events simultaneously while maintaining exceptional execution standards.
• Establish operational best practices that improve efficiency, scalability and the attendee experience.
• Support Events leadership with post-event operational reviews and continuous process improvements.
• Leverage event technology and registration platforms (Cvent preferred), along with project management tools, to improve planning, attendee experience and operational efficiency.

Ideal Candidate
An experienced event operations leader with a proven track record producing conferences, executive events or large-scale business events. Must have at least 8 years of experience.

The ideal candidate brings expertise in budgeting, venue management, production, logistics, vendor negotiations and onsite execution, while demonstrating strong leadership skills and the ability to build scalable operational processes across a growing portfolio.

Experience with Cvent and other event technology platforms is strongly preferred.

Pay Transparency Disclosure:

The estimated salary range for this position is $120,000 to $140,000.

The final salary offering will take into account a wide range of factors, including experience, accomplishments and location. The salary range provided should not be considered as a salary limit or cap. In addition to base salary, Crain also offers competitive benefits including retirement plan savings contributions and bonus opportunities based on individual and company performance.

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