"Director of Events & Operations"

Unit Description

The Office for Religious & Spiritual Life guides, nurtures, and enhances religious and spiritual life at Stanford. The office supports religious access for diverse communities and traditions, fosters multifaith engagement and learning, and promotes opportunities to pursue meaning and purpose through contemplative practices, academic coursework, spiritual care, musical concerts, and signature lectures. The office hosts hundreds of events, large and small, in support of this mission.

Position Summary

Stanford’s Office for Religious & Spiritual Life (ORSL) seeks an experienced and highly skilled Director of Events & Operations to manage signature events for the department and the wider University and lead the operations of the department.

Event direction includes high-profile speakers through our Rathbun Program and Heyns Lecture, University celebrations including Baccalaureate and Commencement ceremonies, our signature Wedding and Memorial Program, and diverse opportunities for student engagement through workshops, courses, concerts, and lectures. This position is responsible for managing all calendaring, bookings, and schedules for the three primary ORSL spaces: Stanford Memorial Church, the CIRCLE Multifaith Center, and Windhover Contemplative Center. For major events, the Director serves as the on-site event manager. For smaller events, the Director is responsible for training and supervising a team of event staff to facilitate those programs. The Director must be able to lead this team toward success in producing high-quality events. To be successful in this role, they must bring experience and skill supervising individuals and managing diverse teams.

The Director of Events & Operations leads an operational team comprised of the Wedding and Memorial Coordinator, Finance and Building Coordinator, and event and contingent staff. The Director is responsible for departmental operation management and leadership, including supervision of operational staff and delegation of operational tasks within the team.

The Director of Events & Operations will need to exercise good judgment regarding how to prioritize tasks in the face of frequently shifting priorities. It is essential to have excellent judgment, integrity, flexibility, and creativity as well as a positive attitude, the ability to collaborate and consult, and work well with others within the office and across campus.

In this role, you will:

• Provide strategic leadership for the development and execution of events through the Office for Religious & Spiritual Life. This includes serving as project manager of multiple events and activities, scoping out project tasks/team assignments and guiding team to create work plans and schedules, monitoring progress, and meeting milestones.
• Oversee the management of operational and event teams and/or production consultants to produce quality, multi-faceted events and productions. Hire and oversee staff, students, and contingent event staff. Delegate routine and important tasks and decisions while assuming final responsibility for event logistics and departmental operations through effective team management.
• Scope the length and difficulty of tasks, projects, and events; help the team break down work into process steps. Identify opportunities for synergy and integration.
• Monitor and respond to requests submitted through email, phone, or the University reservation system and manage a portfolio of events and programs, working with a diverse constituency of staff, faculty, and students to produce logistically precise events.
• Resolve scheduling conflicts and optimize venue reservations, working closely with ORSL partners.
• Analyze successes and failures and implement improvements; marshal resources to accomplish goals.
• Oversee building use policies and protocols for Stanford Memorial Church, including working with student organizations and University offices and departments who wish to reserve space, setting, implementing, and assessing agreements for use, and working collaboratively with University constituents to provide access to Office for Religious & Spiritual Life spaces for University purposes.
• This position requires evening, weekend, and holiday hours, including Christmas Eve.

To be successful in this role, you will bring:

• Bachelor’s degree and five years of relevant experience or combination of education and relevant experience.
• Superior project and event management skills.
• Demonstrated history in creating innovative event planning strategies and successful event collaborations. Excellent judgment and decisiveness, high integrity, enthusiasm, diplomacy, and tact.
• Leadership to engage and empower an organized team, fostering a strong, cohesive work environment.
• Superior verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to supervise and manage a diverse team of staff and contingent labor, holding them to deadlines and the highest quality output.
• Demonstrated experience with financial management of complex event budgets requiring excellent analytical skills.

Certifications and Licenses:

Must possess and maintain a valid California non-commercial Class C Driver’s License.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Frequently stand/walk, sit, perform desk-based computer tasks, and use a telephone.
• Occasionally kneel/crawl, twist/bend/stoop/squat, grasp lightly/fine manipulation, and grasp forcefully, lift/carry/push/pull objects that weigh 21-40 pounds.
• Ability to drive day and night.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

May require some travel and working evenings, holidays, and weekends.