Head of Event Management (Secaucus, NJ, United States of America(US), 07094)

Secaucus, NJ, United States

WORK OPTION: ((Hybrid))

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball. Built around five professional sports leagues: the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 214 countries and territories in 60 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2023-24 season featured a record 125 international players from 40 countries and territories. NBA Digital's assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass. The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with more than 2.3 billion likes and followers globally across all leagues, team and player platforms. NBA Cares, the NBA's global social responsibility platform, partners with renowned community-based organizations around the world to address important social issues in the areas of education, inclusion, youth and family development, and health and wellness.

Position Summary:

The Head of Event Management will be responsible for leading the event development and planning team accountable for designing and producing a breadth of events: youth & grassroots, fan engagement, marquee events across the NBA, WNBA, G League, USAB and 2K League properties. In this role, you will drive the end-to-end design, programming, and execution of league events around the world.

This person will be part of the Events senior leadership team and directly manage a team of 20+ professionals and indirectly a dozen regional event managers, as well as dozens of agencies and vendors to support execution.

Major Responsibilities:

Business leadership

Lead development of ambitious, innovative programming to support and drive our fan-first business approach partnership with GPM, DTC, Communications, and other teams.

Drive programming, business partnerships and superior delivery of experiences while establishing effective repeatable and sustainable processes to support growth.

Lead highly visible projects and work cross-departmentally to analyze key short-term efficiency opportunities and long-term growth platforms.

Negotiate sound and innovative business partnerships that drive revenue, fan engagement and overall business impact.

Grow and strengthen the role the League(s) programming with Teams, Promoters, Partners, Cities, and other sports & entertainment properties.

Establish systems and processes to share best practices and explore new opportunities to continuously refresh and elevate the NBA fan experience and align with overall League business objectives.

Represent the department internally with senior management and associates alike as well as with external constituents ranging from teams, industry leaders to media.

Team building and people development

Serve as an inspirational leader and role model for staff; promote a culture of strong integrity, high performance, meaningful collaboration, and continuous improvement that values commitment to equity, learning, and quality.

Define success and galvanize the team around it.

Effectively handle performance across the team to hit goals and manage out poor performers.

Play a key role in catalyzing a unified, global events function and team, integrating efforts and people across the world.

Stakeholder management and influence

Collaborate with diverse sets of stakeholders to align on and prioritize what's most important.

Identify critical stakeholders and engage them to shape a shared vision.

Take extreme ownership for outcomes and remain engaged with prior efforts to ensure strategies drive desired outcomes; identify pivots as needed.

Present verbal and written recommendations; lead discussions with all levels of management including SLT.

Develop and deliver high-impact presentations to communicate plans and vision to internal and external constituents.

Experiential design and implementation

Execute against the roadmap to produce diverse, scalable, and profitable events.

Lead the development and presentation of planning to communicate key milestones, storylines, activation plans with all key stakeholders.

Bring strong, established, and actionable relationships with vendors, production companies, and important stakeholders; deepen active partnerships, as well as build ones with new vendors, clients, and stakeholders.

Lead initiatives to increase efficiency across all areas of event management processes, including but not limited to planning processes, finances, vendor management, event design, venue selection and activation.

Work effectively, transparently, in a partner-like fashion with the leadership team; ensure buy-in to key decisions, agreement on strategic direction, alignment of cross-functional resources and activities.

Help to build the event teams and manage resources; identify, negotiate and book external resources needed in partnership with the Operations Lead.

Work with marketing and event partners including agencies, talent, venues, suppliers, security, registration, hotels, transportation, health and safety, creative services, facilities, shipping, and another event logistics.

Multitask and lead several projects simultaneously.

Required Experience:

Industry Experience

Significant experience in the consumer, sports, media, and/or entertainment industries at companies whose best-in-class live experiences have driven rapid growth. Understanding of a diverse set of business models is ideal.

Event Leadership Expertise

Premium live event development, production, and management skills with a track-record of delivering game-changing and profitable in-person and virtual experiences that have transformed companies.

Have a demonstrated track record of driving event revenue and cost efficiencies.

Business Growth

A performance history of driving organic, profitable growth and value creation by developing and effectively monetizing an innovative, global events strategy.

Be analytical and a data driven decision maker who can measure performance and benchmark success.

Team Leadership

Track-record building and leading high-performing, global events teams scale.

Proven commitment to DE&I and track record of cultural agility.

Stakeholder Management Skills

The role requires excellent written and oral communication skills, data-driven analyses and insights, astute business judgment, successful navigation of ambiguity, deep curiosity about how things work, and a passion for creating unprecedented experiences.

Proven external and internal stakeholder management skills and experience collaborating effectively cross-functionally with revenue, marketing, and content leaders.

Required Qualifications:

15+ years' experience in the sports or entertainment industry within events, media, and technology.

Inspirational leadership style and hands-on approach.

Outstanding organizational skills and time management.

History of decision-making and proven results based on business metrics.

Exceptional project management skills and attention to detail, along with high levels of emotional intelligence and partnership skills!

Strategic thinker who can take broad visions and concepts and develop structured plans, actions and measurable metrics and then execute on those plans.

Decisive, action-oriented, and able to motivate, inspire, and lead cross-functional teams in different geographies and business units.

A strong leader and excellent communicator who can drive consensus and articulate recommendations and tradeoffs to senior executives.

Ambitious self-starter with demonstrated ability and willingness to roll up sleeves and execute to get the job done!

Ability to succeed in a fast-paced, innovative, and rapidly evolving industry and business organization.

Travel ~50% of the year

Salary Range: (($235,000 - $295,000))

The NBA does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms or any other third parties. Any unsolicited resume sent to the NBA will be considered NBA property, and the NBA will not pay a fee should it hire the subject of any unsolicited resume.

The NBA considers applicants for all positions on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs, and without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, alienage or citizenship status, ancestry, marital status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, veteran status, familial status, status as a victim of domestic violence, or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

About the NBA

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball. Built around five professional sports leagues: the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 215 countries and territories in more than 50 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2021-22 season featured a record 121 international players from 40 countries. NBA Digital's assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass. The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 2.1 billion likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms. Through NBA Cares, the league addresses important social issues by working with internationally recognized youth-serving organizations that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes.

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