The
Director, Event Strategy & Operations will lead the company-wide events function for QTS, including executive-level meetings, customer and partner events, internal leadership events, industry engagements, tradeshows, site activations, and other high-visibility brand moments. This role is responsible for shaping event strategy, bringing forward fresh ideas, and translating business priorities into events that are thoughtful, well-run, and aligned to QTS goals.
This leader must be able to think strategically while also operating as a doer. They will own planning, logistics, run of show, vendor coordination, budget management, executive stakeholder communication, onsite execution, and post-event reporting. The role requires strong executive presence, high professionalism, sound judgment, discretion, and the ability to build trusted relationships across the company.
What You Will Do:Event Strategy and Creative Leadership- Lead the event strategy for QTS-hosted and attended events, ensuring each event has a clear purpose, audience, business objective, and desired outcome.
- Bring forward creative, executive-ready event concepts that elevate QTS, support the brand, and create stronger engagement with customers, partners, employees, and communities.
- Serve as the events thought partner to Brand, Marketing, Communications, Sales, External Affairs, and senior leadership teams.
- Identify new approaches, industry trends, and experience opportunities that help QTS show up with more polish, consistency, and impact.
Executive and C-Level Event Ownership - Own planning and execution for high-profile, C-level, CEO, customer, partner, and board-facing events, including executive briefing needs, guest experience, run of show, and onsite readiness.
- Interact directly with executives and senior stakeholders with confidence, clarity, professionalism, and appropriate urgency.
- Anticipate executive needs, risks, sensitivities, and decision points before they become issues.
- Ensure events reflect the right tone, level of quality, and business importance for the audience.
Operational Execution and Team Leadership - Lead the centralized event planning team and establish clear swim lanes, priorities, timelines, and standards for execution.
- Administer all phases of the event process, including planning, logistics, registration, staffing, catering, transportation, audiovisual, signage, collateral, run of show, onsite execution, teardown, and post-event follow-up.
- Operate as a hands-on leader who can both direct the work and step in to execute when needed.
- Build strong team routines, including planning meetings, status updates, check-ins, decision logs, and issue escalation paths.
- Coach, develop, and hold team members accountable for quality, professionalism, responsiveness, and follow-through.
Process, Reporting, and Measurement - Build repeatable pre-event and post-event processes that create consistency across event types and reduce last-minute fire drills.
- Develop event intake, planning, reporting, and prioritization tools that help the organization understand workload, goals, outcomes, and resource needs.
- Create an event ROI and impact model appropriate to the event type, including attendance, engagement, stakeholder feedback, budget performance, and business outcomes where available.
- Use post-event learnings to improve future planning, vendor decisions, team resourcing, and executive reporting.
Budget, Vendor, and Risk Management - Manage event budgets, vendor relationships, contracts, negotiations, timelines, and invoice reconciliation in alignment with QTS policies and processes.
- Partner with procurement, legal, accounting, security, facilities, and other teams as needed to support compliant event execution.
- Identify risks and dependencies early, provide clear recommendations, and manage tradeoffs without losing momentum.
- Ensure all events are delivered with strong attention to detail, cost discipline, and operational readiness.
What You Will Need to be Successful: - Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
- 10+ years of experience leading large-scale corporate events, executive meetings, customer or partner events, conferences, tradeshows, site activations, or similar high-visibility events.
- 5+ years of people leadership experience directly supervising an event planning function or event team.
- Demonstrated experience owning executive-level or C-level events from strategy through onsite execution and post-event follow-up.
- Experience managing event budgets, vendor negotiations, contracts, timelines, logistics, and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Ability to travel and work outside standard business hours as needed, approximately 40% travel.
Nice To Have: - 10+ years of management experience directly supervising an event planning function and team.
- Experience supporting events in a fast-paced, high-growth, B2B, technology, infrastructure, real estate, data center, or similar business environment.
- Experience with executive briefing, customer experience, partner engagement, community/site activation, or board-level event support.
- Experience building event processes, intake models, calendars, reporting dashboards, ROI frameworks, or event playbooks.
- Experience overseeing branded merchandise, fulfillment vendors, executive gifting, or promotional inventory programs.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: - High level of professionalism, executive presence, tact, diplomacy, discretion, and judgment in sensitive or confidential matters.
- Creative and innovative thinker who can bring new ideas while staying practical about budget, timing, resources, and execution.
- Strong operator who is organized, detail-oriented, decisive, and able to manage multiple demands and changing priorities.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to brief executives and align stakeholders quickly.
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills with the ability to build productive relationships across all levels of the organization.
- Strong team leadership, coaching, performance management, and delegation skills.
- Advanced project management skills, including timeline management, dependency tracking, issue resolution, and risk mitigation.
- Ability to apply analytical and problem-solving skills to event planning, team workload, budget, and post-event measurement.
- Commitment to customer service for internal and external audiences.
- Ability to operate under pressure, deadlines, and the demands of a busy office environment.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and related presentation, database, and spreadsheet applications.
