Noblis

Event & Conference Specalist

Noblis$78K — $123K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Hospitality Management, Business Administration, or related field; advanced degrees preferred.
  • 5+ years of experience in event planning, particularly within the Government Contracting sector.
  • Proven ability to independently manage complex events, budgets, and timelines with minimal oversight.
  • Deep knowledge of the federal marketplace and compliance considerations for event participation.
  • Strong vendor management skills, including contract negotiation and logistics management.

Responsibilities

  • Lead planning and execution of trade shows and industry conferences across various locations.
  • Coordinate with leadership and technical teams to align events with business development priorities.
  • Manage all logistics of industry exhibitions, from strategy to on-site execution.
  • Build and maintain relationships with external partners and vendors, negotiating contracts to maximize ROI.
  • Engage with executive leaders to coordinate internal corporate programs and employee engagement events.
  • Develop event standards and best practices to enhance operational efficiency.
  • Measure event success and provide post-event analysis for continuous improvement.

Benefits

  • Health, life, and disability insurance.
  • Financial and retirement benefits, including tuition assistance.
  • Paid leave and professional development opportunities.
  • Recognition programs for exceptional performance.
  • Support for work-life balance through dedicated programs.
Full Job Description
Responsibilities

This role leads the planning, coordination, and execution of a diverse portfolio of enterprise events across two primary areas of focus: external industry engagement and internal corporate programs. The ideal candidate is an experienced GovCon event professional with exceptional organizational skills, deep knowledge of the federal marketplace, strong vendor management capabilities, and the ability to independently deliver complex, high-visibility events with excellence, creativity, and attention to detail.
  • Lead end-to-end planning, logistics, and on-site execution of trade shows, industry conferences, customer engagements, and executive-hosted experiences across geographically dispersed locations, ensuring timelines, budgets, staffing, risk mitigation, and deliverables are successfully managed.
  • Serve as the primary coordination point with Mission Area leaders, subject matter experts, and technical staff to align event participation with strategic business development priorities, ensuring the right expertise is represented at the right venues with appropriate briefing materials, talking points, and presentation support.
  • Manage all aspects of industry exhibitions and event operations, including exhibit strategy, booth logistics, floorplans, shipping, labor, installation/dismantle, show services, audiovisual production, promotional materials, lead retrieval, registration, attendee experience, signage, branded collateral, digital content, and on-site execution.
  • Build and manage relationships with venues, hotels, exhibit houses, decorators, production companies, transportation providers, audiovisual vendors, and other external partners; negotiate contracts, oversee budgets, evaluate proposals, and maximize return on investment while delivering exceptional event experiences.
  • Partner with Corporate Development, Customer Experience Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Mission Areas, Executive Leadership (CEO, CFO, CPO), external agencies, and industry associations to manage corporate memberships, sponsorships, and executive participation, including speaker logistics, travel coordination, dry-runs, hosting duties, and VIP experiences.
  • Coordinate with geographically dispersed teams and external vendors to ensure consistent brand representation, messaging alignment, and seamless execution regardless of event location or scale.
  • Engage and partner with executive leaders and HR for internal corporate programs including leadership offsites, employee engagement events, all-hands meetings, and executive meetings, ensuring alignment with organizational culture and enterprise priorities.
  • Partner with Shared Services, Human Resources, and Executive Leadership to deliver internal experiences that reinforce employee engagement, organizational values, and leadership visibility.
  • Develop and implement event standards, playbooks, templates, checklists, and best practices to improve consistency, operational efficiency, and scalability across both internal and external event portfolios.
  • Measure event success through KPIs, attendee feedback, budget performance, and business outcomes; provide post-event reporting and recommendations for continuous improvement.
  • Travel as required to support event execution across multiple locations.


Required Qualifications

  • US Citizenship required.
  • Bachelor's degree with 5+ years of experience OR Master's Degree with 3 years of experience OR PhD with 1 year of experience OR Associate's degree with 8 years of experience OR High-School with 11 years of experience.
  • Degrees must be in Marketing, Communications, Hospitality Management, Business Administration, or a related field.
  • 5+ years of progressive experience in event planning and execution, with a strong emphasis on trade shows, industry conferences, and customer-facing engagements within the Government Contracting (GovCon) or federal services environment.
  • Demonstrated ability to independently manage complex, multi-faceted event portfolios from concept through execution with minimal oversight, including full accountability for budgets, timelines, vendor negotiations, and risk mitigation.
  • Deep knowledge of the federal marketplace, including familiarity with major industry conferences, government customer engagement protocols, and compliance considerations for event participation.
  • Proven experience coordinating across geographically dispersed teams and managing multiple concurrent events with competing priorities and tight deadlines.
  • Strong vendor management skills with a track record of negotiating contracts, managing exhibit houses, AV production companies, venues, and logistics providers to deliver high-quality outcomes within budget.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to engage and coordinate effectively with executive leadership, mission area leaders, subject matter experts, and external partners.
  • Proficiency in event management tools and platforms (e.g., Cvent, Eventbrite, project management software) and standard business applications (Microsoft Office Suite).
  • Willingness to travel up to 30-40% to support on-site event execution across multiple locations.

Desired Qualifications

  • Experience managing exhibit programs, sponsorships, memberships, and industry engagement for major federal conferences and professional associations.
  • Knowledge of experiential marketing, executive events, and brand activation strategies that elevate customer and employee experiences.
  • Experience partnering with executive leadership, business development, marketing, and communications teams to support strategic business objectives.
  • Professional certification such as Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP), Project Management Professional (PMP), or equivalent.
  • PMP, CMP (Certified Meeting Professional), or similar certification preferred but not required.
  • Active U.S. government security clearance, or the ability to obtain one.

Overview

Overview

Noblis and our wholly owned subsidiaries, Noblis ESI and Noblis MSD, take on some of the nation's toughest challenges, delivering advanced solutions to our customers' most critical missions. We bring together leading scientific, engineering, and management expertise in a culture grounded in objectivity and collaboration, ensuring our work creates lasting impact across federal missions.

We work with a broad range of government agencies in the defense, intelligence, and federal civilian sectors. Learn more and find opportunities at careers.noblis.org

Remote/hybrid status is subject to change based on Noblis and/or government requirements.

Total Rewards

At Noblis we recognize and reward your contributions, provide you with growth opportunities, and support your total well-being. Our offerings include health, life, disability, financial, and retirement benefits, as well as paid leave, professional development, tuition assistance, and work-life programs. Our award programs acknowledge employees for exceptional performance and superior demonstration of our service standards. Full-time and part-time employees working at least 20 hours a week on a regular basis are eligible to participate in our benefit programs. Other offerings may be provided for employees not within this category. We encourage you to learn more about our total benefits by visiting the Benefits page on our Careers site.

Compensation at Noblis is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the combination of education, certifications, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience, internal and external equity, location, clearance level, as well as contract-specific affordability, organizational requirements and applicable employment laws. The projected compensation range for this position is based on full time status. For part time or on-call staff, compensation is proportionately adjusted based on hours worked. While monetary compensation is important, it's just one component of Noblis' total compensation package.

Posted Salary Range

USD $78,900.00 - USD $123,300.00 /Yr.

About Noblis

Noblis is an American not-for-profit science, technology, and strategy organization that provides technical and advisory services to federal government clients. Noblis works in the areas of national security, intelligence, transportation, healthcare, environmental sustainability, and enterprise transformation. Noblis was created in 1996 when Mitretek Systems Inc. was split into two separate entities. The other entity became known as Noblis ESI. Noblis has been recognized as one of the best places to work in the Washington, D.C. area by the Washington Business Journal and the Washingtonian.
Learn more about Noblis
Size
1,500 employees
Industry
Founded
1996

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