Senior director of business operations, experiential events

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior Director of Business Operations, Experiential Events based in the United States.

Lead operational excellence at a growing experiential marketing and events agency creating immersive brand experiences for global clients. As Senior Director of Business Operations, you will shape how the organization operates, building scalable systems that support consistent project delivery, profitability, and long-term growth. You will oversee the full project lifecycle, from initial proposals and resource planning to execution, financial tracking, and close-out. Working through team leads and program managers, you will establish clear processes, performance standards, and accountability across a distributed team. You will also equip leadership with real-time insights into capacity, project health, margins, and operational risks. This is a hands-on executive opportunity for an experienced operations leader who can turn processes into practical systems that teams consistently follow.

Accountabilities:

In this leadership role, you will build and enforce the operational framework that enables teams to deliver exceptional client work efficiently and profitably. Your responsibilities will include:

• Operating Framework and Process Development: Design, implement, and continuously improve standard operating procedures, workflows, and operating rhythms across the full client and project lifecycle, from intake and requests for proposals (RFPs) through delivery and close-out.
• Project Delivery Oversight: Establish consistent project setup, scoping, staffing, execution, and close-out practices. Ensure projects meet deadlines, maintain clear client communication, and achieve their financial targets.
• Resource Planning and Capacity Management: Own hours forecasting and capacity planning across proposal, project, and support teams. Anticipate upcoming demand, allocate resources effectively, and ensure teams are appropriately staffed for current and future work.
• Profitability and Margin Management: Oversee project budgets, labor hours, costs, and margins. Ensure change orders are properly priced and approved before additional work begins, monitor profitability in real time, and use performance insights to improve pricing and planning.
• Performance Metrics and Reporting: Develop dashboards, KPIs, and reporting systems that provide leadership with real-time visibility into project health, hours consumed, profitability, resource capacity, and operational risks. Identify issues early and drive corrective action.
• Operating Cadence and Accountability: Lead the weekly operating rhythm across functions, ensuring priorities, responsibilities, and outcomes are clearly defined. Escalate critical issues, resolve execution gaps, and prepare actionable updates for leadership meetings.
• Leadership Development: Coach and develop team leads and program managers through clear expectations, individual scorecards, and regular performance discussions. Strengthen their ability to manage their teams, take ownership, and proactively propose solutions.
• Scalable Business Operations: Build a repeatable operating model that supports growth without relying on individual employees to keep processes running. Establish consistent standards across a distributed team and ensure accountability at every level.
• Continuous Improvement: Evaluate operational performance, identify inefficiencies and margin risks, and translate lessons learned into better processes, stronger planning, and more reliable project outcomes.

Requirements:

The ideal candidate is an experienced operations leader who combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution and a proven ability to build systems that teams actually adopt. You should be comfortable managing complex client-service operations, developing leaders, and holding teams accountable for measurable results. Key qualifications include:

• Experience: 8–10 or more years of operations leadership experience in a deadline-driven, client-service environment, ideally within an agency, production, experiential marketing, events, or a similar industry.
• Operational Systems: Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, and enforcing operating processes that improve consistency, efficiency, accountability, and scalability.
• Hands-On Leadership: Willingness to work directly with teams, understand operational details, solve practical problems, and turn process design into effective day-to-day execution.
• Project and Financial Management: Strong expertise in capacity planning, resource allocation, hours forecasting, project budgeting, profitability management, and margin optimization.
• Performance Measurement: Experience developing KPIs, dashboards, and scorecards that measure operational efficiency, financial performance, delivery quality, and business growth.
• People Leadership: Proven ability to develop managers into effective leaders, establish clear expectations, coach performance, and lead through others rather than personally carrying the work.
• Accountability and Standards: Confidence addressing performance gaps directly, maintaining consistent standards, escalating issues when needed, and ensuring teams follow established processes.
• Distributed Team Management: Ability to establish alignment, consistency, and accountability across geographically distributed teams.
• Communication Skills: Clear, direct communication and strong follow-through, with the ability to translate operational challenges into actionable recommendations for leadership.
• Operating System Experience: Familiarity with a formal operating framework such as EOS, including meeting cadences, scorecards, and accountability structures, is a plus.
• Work Schedule: Ability to operate primarily on Eastern Time and travel occasionally as business needs require.

Benefits:

• Base salary: $180,000–$200,000 per year.
• Performance bonuses: Additional compensation based on performance.
• Health insurance: Healthcare coverage as part of the benefits package.
• Dental and life insurance: Coverage to support employee well-being and financial protection.
• Retirement plan: 401(k) with a company contribution.
• Paid time off: Paid vacation, sick days, and company holidays.
• Remote work: Work remotely from anywhere in the United States.
• Leadership impact: Shape the operating model and help build the systems needed for the next phase of business growth.
• Professional development: Opportunity to develop team leads and program managers while strengthening operational leadership across the organization.
• Flexible work environment: Remote work with a schedule primarily aligned with Eastern Time and occasional travel as required.

How Jobgether works: We use an AI-powered matching process to ensure your application is reviewed quickly, objectively, and fairly against the role's core requirements. Our system identifies the top-fitting candidates, and this shortlist is then shared directly with the hiring company. The final decision and next steps (interviews, assessments) are managed by their internal team. We appreciate your interest and wish you the best!

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