Director, Events Jobs

Who We Are

UnitedMasters is building a marketplace that connects artists, brands and fans - empowering artists to earn and grow. UnitedMasters has taken the bold step of building a music distribution service that, radically, puts artists first - disrupting the legacy music business by letting up-and-coming artists distribute their music directly to fans through streaming services while maintaining ownership of their master recording rights and up to 100% of royalties. Through the combination of UnitedMasters’ music distribution platform and its deep ties to brands, UnitedMasters enables independent artists and change-makers to grow and earn unlike any other platform.

The UnitedMasters team is made up of musicians, marketers, engineers, and storytellers with backgrounds from YouTube, SoundCloud, Pandora, Facebook, Uber, Dropbox, Complex, VICE, and more. We work hand in hand with the award-winning creative teams that forge those innovative partnerships at Translation (our in-house creative advertising agency).

We are looking for a Director of Events to join UnitedMasters! Please note that this role is a Hybrid role based in New York City: three days in office and two days remote.

What You'll Do

Lead the events practice at UnitedMasters, responsible for oversight of multiple departments and stakeholders for the planning and execution of high-profile, revenue-generating events that celebrate, engage and grow our community of independent artists (e.g. SelectCon, Grammys Weekend, SXSW and Art Basel). You will:

• Provide experiential expertise and input to creative look and feel, marketing, talent casting, FOH (invite/ticketing) strategy
• With input from internal stakeholders, define the event roadmap for UnitedMasters, balancing the needs of Marketing and Sales/Client sponsors.
• For each event on the roadmap, review a brief that communicates the vision of the project and recommend the experience (format, venue, run of show, etc.) that best meets Marketing and Sponsor KPIs with consideration for both the strategic narrative as well as brand and budget parameters.
• Program & Event Management: You will holistically manage each event end-to-end, with inputs from internal/external stakeholders inclusive of Marketing, PR/Comms, Production, Project Management, Vendors, Sales and client sponsors; you will drive effective and efficient collaboration by leading internal project kick-offs and regular cross-functional meetings (with support from project manager) and retrospective debriefs.
• Oversee the execution of creative direction across all event assets (from stage design to printed signage and more) with input and approvals from Marketing and Sponsors (via Sales/Client Services teams) as needed
• Collaborate with Group Executive Producer to recruit and contract top tier producers and external vendors
• Map out guest experience for each group - from invite to thank you email
• Budget & Financial Management: Forecast budget, manage and optimize spend across the annual event portfolio and individual projects. Make day-to-day decisions about project spend to most effectively and impactfully achieve project KPIs.
• Create documentation, systems, tools and processes to continuously evolve the blueprint for events
• Manage vendors and internal collaborators as day-to-day lead inclusive of Production (experiential and digital), Marketing, Talent management, Publicist, Social, Sales, Branded Content
• Proactively identify sponsorship opportunities and concept meaningful ways for brands to integrate into events and partner with sales to concept, sell & execute custom integrations
• Ensure every event & experience UMT creates is inclusive & accessible

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• System and Process Development: You think in playbooks and plan for repetition/scale. You have the ability to create and implement systems, tools, and streamlined processes that strengthen the events department and enable it to operate effectively.
• Strategic Planning: Ability to develop and implement event strategies aligned with UnitedMasters' goals and KPIs, including selecting culturally relevant moments to participate in and defining clear project objectives.
• Entrepreneurial: You are scrappy and resourceful, take on new challenges with energy and enthusiasm, and are confident navigating ambiguity. You are cool under pressure and comfortable operating on tight deadlines.
• Operational Excellence: You possess strong organizational skills with proven ability to create and manage an annual event calendar and master interdepartmental work plans. You have a track record of ensuring cross-functional teams work effectively to meet key milestones across events.
• Program Management: You have a proven ability to manage a portfolio of events simultaneously that balance Marketing and Sponsor KPIs at budget and on time.
• Communication and Leadership: Excellent communication skills to articulate the vision and strategy of each project, lead interdepartmental efforts, and effectively collaborate with various teams and stakeholders. You possess the gravitas and interpersonal skills to confidently engage senior leadership, influential executives, celebrity talent and project teams from top to bottom.
• Team Management: You have strong leadership and people management skills to oversee both freelance and full-time events teams, providing guidance, direction, accountability and day-to-day management.
• Budgeting & Financial Management: Ability to forecast budget, monitor spend, weigh tradeoffs and optimize spend across a portfolio of events and individual projects

Minimum Qualifications

• Passion for Music and Artists: An understanding of the music industry and a genuine passion for supporting artists and creating events that resonate with music lovers.
• 8+ years experiential production experience encompassing planning, organizing, and executing a portfolio of successful events of various scales, with a strong understanding of event logistics, production, and cross-functional coordination.
• Experience Design: Skill in designing and curating meaningful guest experiences, from invitations to post-event follow-ups, with a focus on inclusivity and accessibility.

Preferred Qualifications

• Creative Direction: Experience working with marketing and creative teams to define the event's look and feel, aligning with existing brand guidelines and overseeing the execution of creative assets.
• Experiential marketing, promotion and/or experiential agency experience
• Sponsorship Integration: Ability to identify sponsorship opportunities and develop meaningful ways for sponsors to integrate into events (given space, time and budget parameters) while providing value for artists and aligning with the event's goals.

About UnitedMasters

UnitedMasters has over 1.5 million artists on its platform and is growing rapidly. Brands like Diageo, Ally, and ESPN come to UnitedMasters to partner with these artists and play a role in moving culture forward. In the past year, UnitedMasters subscribers have grown rapidly. With $170M raised to date and valued at $550M, UnitedMasters is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Apple, Alphabet (aka Google), and Disney amongst others. Over the last year, UnitedMasters artists have used our platform to land sync deals with major brands including the NBA, ESPN, Overtime Elite, Bose, Warner Brother Studios and in the NBA video game 2k. These deals give them additional money for their work and increase their exposure.

Salary Hiring Range: $170,000 - $190,000

Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry, and are one part of many compensation, benefits and other reward opportunities we provide (e.g. bonus, stock options, 401(k) match, etc.)

Individual pay rate decisions are based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skillset, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company. We expect the majority of the candidates who are offered roles at our company to fall healthily throughout the range based on these factors.

The range above is for the expectations as laid out in the job description, however we are often open to a wide variety of profiles, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted. If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated with you as a candidate.

The salary range above is for the NY/CA. As a company, we have a location based strategy, which means the salary range could be lower or higher than this if the role is hired in another location.