Director, Event Strategy & Operations

About this role

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

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