Head of Event Operations in City of London

SUMMARY
To lead the operational strategy for all TMT Finance events, prioritising excellence in all aspects of delivery and onsite experience. As budget owner, responsible for designing and maintaining the event P&L, recommending investment priorities and managing all direct costs. A key customer-facing role that’s responsible for ensuring event delivery that’s operationally seamless and experientially innovative for TMTF customers, external and internal. Working closely with the Event team and wider business stakeholders to ensure overall success of every aspect of the event in line with business objectives. This role is pivotal to scaling our global events portfolio and will champion innovation, process optimisation and customer‑centric thinking across all touchpoints.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• General
  • Direct and oversee operational delivery of each TMT Finance event (conferences and awards) – currently EMEA (London), APAC (Singapore) and USA (New York) plus any other event products planned by the company.
  • Be the functional lead and the ‘face’ of Event Operations, contributing to departmental strategy and presenting at company meetings as required.
  • Lead the Event Operations team, while working closely with Commercial, Production and Marketing to ensure operational excellence.
  • Manage and professionally develop the Event Operations team members.
  • Review and develop as necessary processes and best practice guidance for all Events and Awards delivery, prioritising cross-functional alignment and clear ownership.
  • Work with wider company to understand and facilitate their objectives at each event.
  • Attend event industry functions where possible to develop ideas, network with industry peers, learn about new initiatives and broaden knowledge of conference management and the onsite experience.
  • Establish a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring the team proactively identifies operational efficiencies and opportunities to enhance event quality.
• Budget
  • Responsible for creating, holding and maintaining the budget – presenting the initial plan to MD/FD and meeting regularly with MD to update on tracking and variances.
  • Include anticipated spend at budget creation by obtaining draft quotes from suppliers in advance.
  • Monitoring event P&L and setting meetings to discuss any concerns.
  • Model cost scenarios and ROI projections to support data-led decision-making around investment in new initiatives.
• Attendee Experience
  • Build an overarching and event-specific onsite strategy that’s focused on increased customer engagement and elevated experience.
  • Evaluate and prioritise investment in key areas including onsite event tech, entertainment and additional add-on events that will elevate the attendee experience.
  • Source ideas from other shows and build a case for implementation at TMTF events.
  • Develop a measurement framework for attendee engagement and satisfaction, ensuring insights are captured and fed into future planning cycles.
• Event Delivery
  • Accountable for overall operational delivery of each and every event, striving to hit targets for attendee engagement and satisfaction metrics (NPS) while managing agreed spend on direct costs.
  • Direct and prioritise workload of Event Operations Manager, ensuring highest standards of quality in preparation and execution.
  • Create and manage staffing plan for onsite delivery.
  • Lead the team onsite, acting as the highly visible and front-facing director of all delivery aspects.
  • Responsible for developing and submitting for approval a Risk Assessment per event, and for ensuring adherence to H&S frameworks.
• Venues
  • Event venue sourcing – work to a 2- or 3-year cycle for each event (where possible).
  • Create a venue sourcing brief and lead on contracting negotiation, ensuring the best possible rates are secured.
  • Ahead of each event, set up site visits for future venues (following and future years).
  • Work with event team to map event flow and ensure optimal use of space against the agenda and wider programme.
  • Evaluate offsite venues for add-on/private events with a KPI of 3 final options per add-on/private event.
  • Build and maintain a venue performance database to support future decision‑making.
• Contractors
  • Source contractors for each event – work to a 12-month cycle for each event (to include AV, furniture, graphics, sponsorship items as applicable).
  • Create a specification for key suppliers.
  • Contract negotiation, always ensuring best rates.
  • Liaise with Sponsorship, Production and Subscriptions on their requirements from contractors (e.g. AV setups and branding opportunities).
• Sponsors
  • Work with the Sponsorship Sales team to present branding/physical inventory and ideas for each event, including a detailed summary of possibilities based on venue.
  • Lead the post-sale relationship plan for sponsors, including management of their requirements and execution of package details per contract.
  • Design and imbed process for post-sale communications with sponsors, working with Sales and Marketing to ensure consistency of tone and messaging.
  • Create a structured sponsor fulfilment reporting process to demonstrate value and support renewals.
• Business Operations
  • While the role sits firmly within the Events department, contribution as required to designing and implementing wider company policies around relevant areas of overlap, including company travel, expenses, risk and H&S.
  • Evaluate, negotiate, propose and manage the event insurance policy.
  • Work with Finance to improve and streamline processes around supplier management, invoice processing and tracking.
  • Develop dashboards and operational KPIs to track efficiency and effectiveness.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE & SKILLS

• Minimum of 7 years’ experience in B2B event operations.
• Minimum of 1-2 years' experience in a leadership/management role.
• Experience of running events for finance, professional services or a related industry preferred.
• Strong financial acumen, with prior experience of budget ownership and cost management.
• Experience of high-value contract negotiation, including £500k+ venue contracts.
• Meticulous attention to detail in both planning and execution.
• Collaborative, with an ability to work across the Events team and the wider business.
• Excellent presentation skills and ability to communicate a vision to senior leadership.
• Innovative, with a strong eye for customer experience design and delivery.
• Strong project management capability, with the ability to balance multiple large-scale projects simultaneously.

WHY JOIN US?

• Be part of a high-growth premium events business: Opportunity to help shape the future of a rapidly-scaling global events portfolio and influence business-wide strategic direction.
• Flexible Working: Hybrid model: 3 days in our Central London office (Tues–Thurs), 2 days remote.
• Time Off & Wellbeing: 25 days annual leave + your birthday off, competitive pension scheme, Employee Assistance Programme with 24/7 confidential support, perks platform with discounts and rewards, paid personal and group volunteering. Annual charitable donations from company profits.
• Culture & Environment: A bright, spacious office with breakout spaces, a library, and social areas including pool, darts, and table tennis. We offer a collaborative, values-led culture built around Real People, Real Relationships, Real Intelligence, and Real Impact.
• Vibrant Location: 32 Lafone Street, London SE1 – just minutes from London Bridge Station.

About TMT Finance
Founded in 2009, TMT Finance empowers decision-makers in digital infrastructure through actionable intelligence, proprietary data, and exclusive industry insight. Our platform is the go-to source for M&A, financing, and investment intelligence across the datacentres, fibre, telecoms, towers and cloud subsectors. Our flagship live events and awards programmes are market-leading, connecting the most senior dealmakers in digital infrastructure across EMEA, APAC and the US. We’ve grown 40%+ annually over the past five years and are scaling rapidly - with major investment in product, expansion into the US and APAC, and plans to grow from 65 to 100+ employees in the next 3-5 years. We’re looking for driven, strategic thinkers who thrive in fast-paced environments and want to make a real impact.

TMT Finance welcomes applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith, or disability. All appointments will be based on merit and a fair and transparent process.