Associate Director, Meeting Planning and Event Technology

The Associate Director, Meeting Planning and Event Technology is a leadership role and is responsible for overseeing corporate meetings, event technology, and the FINRA Strategic Meeting Management Program (SMMP). FINRA Strategic Meeting Management Program (SMMP) is to ensure that enterprise -wide meeting and events align with the advancement of the company’s mission, strategy, and priorities. This position manages a team of individual contributors and is accountable for complex multifaceted meetings.

Event Technology

• Oversee and manage all cross departmental integrations into the Cvent technology system(s). Facilitate productive operations to share information and processes efficiency through multiple system sources such as: Single Sign On, Workday, Deem Travel, Conference Virtual Platforms, mobile apps, HTTP Post, and URL Branding. Develop and maintain best practices to improve fiscal transparency, standards, and practices.
• Lead the implementation, productivity, and efficiency measures for FINRA’s meeting planning technology software, tools, and resources. Provide the direction necessary to continue the development and growth of SMMP.
• Develop and implement the meeting technology roadmap to initiate new processes, create efficiencies, and collaborate across FINRA lines of business.
• Serve as the Virtual Technology Specialist for revenue generating conferences that use virtual and mobile applications. This role includes project manager between FINRA groups and platform vendor, initiates APIs between FINRA and virtual system to provide secure transfer of information, serves as virtual producer for live stream sessions.
• Maintain best practices to improve fiscal transparency, standards, and practices.
• Lead key stakeholders in identification and review of new software products that enhance department efficiencies and effectiveness.  Evaluate business impact and present options to leadership that best fit business needs.
• Partner with the FINRA cyber security and data privacy teams to ensure meeting technology vendors, as well as departmental processes, are in compliance with FINRA policy and procedures.
• Implement the development of metrics and standards for the department of technology. Areas include Single Sign on, Concur Travel, Conference APP Integration, HTTP post URL branding and maintaining private domain account.
• Manage and support team in their day-to-day responsibilities to execute the goals and priorities of the program. Promote daily prioritization of workload, coordinate program intake. Support registration using on-demand badge printing and attendance tracking system.
• Manage and develop ongoing training and materials for key users of meetings technology
• Integrate FINRA spending codes, workday feed, within meeting technology platform for budget planning to provide reporting and accruals in coordination with financial management team.
• Manage the supplier network.
• Leverage strategic vendor and technology contracts to drive higher cost/benefit ratios and positive financial results for FINRA.
• In-person work required for week of FINRA annual conference

Team Management & Meeting Planning:

• Supervise and lead the meeting planning team in providing day-to-day oversight, guidance, and support to ensure efficient operations and high-quality event delivery.
• Assign and distribute meetings, events, and project responsibilities.
• Project Manager responsible for handling complex meetings, events, and conferences from conception to completion. Responsible for overseeing the planning and organization of all meeting aspects, including facilitation of program structure, cross department collaboration with liaisons, site selection, contract negotiation, hotel rooming list, food & beverage, vendor management, onsite management, event design and signage, registration, technology solutions, and post conference financial and attendee reporting.
• Accountable for developing and managing multi-faceted budgets for revenue generating meetings, ensuring cost-effective planning and execution.
• Independently negotiate numerous vendor contracts including hospitality services (which incorporates FINRA Legal addendum), technology systems, and exhibitor contract management.
• Select and manage conference virtual platform and mobile application to enhance attendee engagement, interaction, and provide high-quality experiences for conference attendees.
• Oversee the entire exhibitor management process for revenue-producing conferences which includes creating policies and guidelines with OGC for exhibiting companies to adhere to onsite, manage floor plans, logistics, and signage alongside the exhibitor manager, and payment collection prior to event.
• Responsible for coordination of external speaker/committee travel guidelines and approval of expenses.
• Adapt and scale program objectives to meeting and venue requirements. (Fit and flow of meeting to facilitate meeting goals).
• Manage the execution of marketing materials to support meetings, including presentations, customized signage, session collateral, and media scripts.
• Strategic development of meeting goals, objectives, and program with key stakeholders.
• Interact with internal key stakeholders, invited guests and management committee during events.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Demonstration of FINRA’s values.
• Collaboration, both in-person and virtually, in furtherance of FINRA’s mission of investor protection and market integrity.
• Other duties as required.

Education/Experience Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Communications, Technology, or other related field plus a minimum of eight (8) years of meetings management, event management, project management, hospitality experience and/or IT-related roles, or equivalent combination of education and relevant work experience.
• Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) required. Cvent Certification required.
• Expertise in technologies and software, including Microsoft Office Suite and Cvent, with proven aptitude for learning new technologies.
• Advance Verbal and Written Communication Skills.
• Previous experience using Cvent to manage a strategic meetings management program of similar scale of up to 3,000 person events and exhibits.
• Must have experience in negotiating 3rd party vendor contracts and legal addenda.
• In-depth knowledge of Virtual Event Production, Audio Visual industry, equipment, webcasting and multi casting.
• Must maintain professionalism in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment.
• Must be flexible, creative, and capable of trouble shooting and developing alternative plans on the go.
• Strong leadership and mentoring skills.
• Experience managing or leading a team preferred.

Working Conditions:

• Hybrid work environment, with defined in-person presence requirements.
• A professional, highly visible, and fast-paced environment.
• Travel is required and extended work hours.

For work that is performed in CO, FL, TX, IL, PA, MA, MD, VA, Washington, DC, NY and NJ, please refer to the chart below for the salary range for the corresponding location. FINRA complies with all state and local pay transparency laws and regulations requiring the disclosure of salary ranges for the position. In addition to location, actual compensation is based on various factors, including but not limited to, the candidate’s skill set, level of experience, education, and market considerations.

CO/FL/TX: Minimum Salary $114,200, Maximum Salary $207,200

IL/PA: Minimum Salary $125,900, Maximum Salary $228,000 MA/MD/VA/Washington, DC: Minimum Salary $131,200, Maximum Salary $238,300

NY/NJ: Minimum Salary $131,200, Maximum Salary $248,700

#LI-Hybrid

To be considered for this position, please submit an application. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

The information provided above has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work of the position. It is not a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required.

Please note: If the “Apply Now” button on a job board posting does not take you directly to the FINRA Careers site, enter www.finra.org/careers into your browser to reach our site directly.

Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Non-exempt employees are also eligible for overtime pay in accordance with federal, state, or local law. As part of its dedication to employee wellness, FINRA provides comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance. Additional insurance includes basic life, accidental death and dismemberment, supplemental life, spouse/domestic partner and dependent life, and spouse/domestic partner and dependent accidental death and dismemberment, short- and long-term disability, long-term care, business travel accident, disability and legal. FINRA offers immediate participation and vesting in a 401(k) plan with company match and eligibility for participation in an additional FINRA-funded retirement contribution, tuition reimbursement, commuter benefits, and other benefits that support employee wellness, such as adoption assistance, backup family care, surrogacy benefits, employee assistance, and wellness programs.

Time Off and Paid Leave*

FINRA encourages its employees to focus on their health and wellness in many ways, including through a generous time-off program of 15 days of paid time off, 5 personal days and 9 sick days, unless otherwise required by law (all pro-rated in the first year). Additionally, we are proud to support our communities by providing two volunteer service days (based on full-time schedule). Other paid leave includes military leave, jury duty leave, bereavement leave, voting and election official leave for federal, state or local primary and general elections, care of a family member leave (available after 90 days of employment); and childbirth and parental leave (available after 90 days of employment). Full-time employees receive nine paid holidays.

*Based on full-time schedule

Important Information

FINRA’s Code of Conduct imposes restrictions on employees’ investments and requires financial disclosures that are uniquely related to our role as a securities regulator. FINRA employees are required to disclose to FINRA all brokerage accounts that they maintain, and those in which they control trading or have a financial interest (including any trust account of which they are a trustee or beneficiary and all accounts of a spouse, domestic partner or minor child who lives with the employee) and to authorize their broker-dealers to provide FINRA with duplicate statements for all of those accounts. All of those accounts are subject to the Code’s investment and securities account restrictions, and new employees must comply with those investment restrictions—including disposing of any security issued by a company on FINRA’s Prohibited Company List or obtaining a written waiver from their Executive Vice President—by the date they begin employment with FINRA. Employees may only maintain securities accounts that must be disclosed to FINRA at one or more securities firms that provide an electronic feed (e-feed) of data to FINRA, and must move securities accounts from other securities firms to a firm that provides an e-feed within three months of beginning employment.

You can read more about these restrictions here.

As standard practice, employees must also execute FINRA’s Employee Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement without qualification or modification and comply with the company’s policy on nepotism.

Search Firm Representatives

Please be advised that FINRA is not seeking assistance or accepting unsolicited resumes from search firms for this employment opportunity. Regardless of past practice, a valid written agreement and task order must be in place before any resumes are submitted to FINRA. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at FINRA