Sr. Director of Events & Experiential

Smartly is seeking a strategic, commercially-minded Senior Director of Events & Experiential to lead our global event strategy and experiential marketing engine. Moving beyond traditional event coordination, this role is a core commercial growth driver and brand steward. Reporting directly to marketing executive leadership, the Senior Director will lead a global team across New York and London to design, execute, and scale tier-1 industry summits, Customer Advisory Boards (CAB), and regional executive activations. The Director of Events & Experiential will also be responsible for overseeing Employer Brand Experiences and Workplace Events. What You Will Do Commercial Growth & Pipeline Acceleration • Drive Event-Influenced Revenue: Own global commercial event strategy to expand event-influenced sales pipeline. • GTM Anchor Campaigns: Position flagship event activations (e.g., Cannes Lions, regional executive forums) as primary forcing functions that compel product, sales, and marketing teams to rally around unified market narratives and GTM launches • Pipeline Attribution & Sales Enablement: Partner closely with Marketing Operations (MOPs) and Revenue Operations (RevOps) to leverage automated 4-, 8-, and 12-week post-event pipeline reporting • Equip Sales and Customer Success teams with actionable post-event attendee insights via follow-up assets from PMM & Enablement Brand Reputation, Experiential Strategy & Agency Governance • Experiential Storytelling & Tier-1 Summits: Conceptualize and direct high-visibility experiential activations that solidify Smartly’s market leadership, thought leadership, and employer brand advocacy • Agency Ideation & Vendor Management: Direct external creative agencies for experiential ideation and event production, maintaining internal team focus strictly on operational governance, fiscal management, and execution SLAs • Executive & Analyst Integration: Align high-touch executive programs with PR, corporate communications, and industry analyst touchpoints (targeting an increase in 3rd-party market validations) Retaining & Growing Existing Business • Customer Retention Target: Structure customer-facing event tracks, certification workshops, and executive immersions to retain and grow existing business • Customer Advisory Board (CAB) Leadership: Lead the strategic agenda, content curation, and operational execution for the global Customer Advisory Board to deepen executive client partnerships • Product Adoption & CS Alignment: Collaborate with Customer Success to embed product education, alpha/beta invitations, and customer case study opportunities directly into event programming Scope Control & Process Governance • Fiscal & Budget Discipline: Direct multi-million dollar annual event operating budgets, daily invoice tracking, and vendor negotiations to ensure agile capital allocation • Lead Window Enforcement: Require cross-functional partners (Partnerships, Product Marketing) to adhere to strict 12-week lead times and standardized briefs for joint co-marketing activations We’re looking for someone who... • Experience: Has 8–12+ years of progressive B2B SaaS event marketing leadership, with a proven track record of managing multi-million-dollar global event budgets and driving quantifiable sales pipeline (SALs, SQLs). • Team Leadership: Experience managing direct reports across international hubs (specifically US and EMEA) and governing tier-1 experiential agency partners • Commercial Acumen: Strong fluency in CRM/Marketo data flows, pipeline attribution models, and sales enablement workflows (partnering directly with RevOps) • Process Governance: Demonstrated ability to enforce planning lead times, brief hygiene, and cross-functional SLA boundaries under fast-paced conditions What