Director of Events & Operations

🔍 Office for Religious Life, Stanford, California, United States

📁: Marketing

📅   : Sep 26, 2025 Post Date

📅   : 107363 Requisition #

Please include both a resume and cover letter with your application for this position.

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.

WORK STANDARDS:
When conducting university business, must comply with the California Vehicle Code and Stanford University driving requirements.
Interpersonal Skills: Demonstrates the ability to work well with Stanford colleagues and clients and with external organizations.
Promote Culture of Safety: Demonstrates commitment to personal responsibility and value for safety; communicates safety concerns; uses and promotes safe behaviors based on training and lessons learned.
Subject to and expected to comply with all applicable University policies and procedures, including but not limited to the personnel policies and other policies found in the University’s Administrative Guide, http://adminguide.stanford.edu.

Why Stanford is for You
Imagine a world without search engines or social platforms. Consider lives saved through first-ever organ transplants and research to cure illnesses. Stanford University has revolutionized the way we live and enrich the world. Supporting this mission is our diverse and dedicated 17,000 staff. We seek talent driven to impact the future of our legacy. Our culture and unique perks empower you with:

Freedom to grow. We offer career development programs, tuition reimbursement, or audit a course. Join a TedTalk, film screening, or listen to a renowned author or global leader speak.
A caring culture. We provide superb retirement plans, generous time-off, and family care resources.
A healthier you. Climb our rock wall or choose from hundreds of health or fitness classes at our world-class exercise facilities. We also provide excellent health care benefits.
Discovery and fun. Stroll through historic sculptures, trails, and museums.
Enviable resources. Enjoy free commuter programs, ridesharing incentives, discounts and more.

The expected pay range for this position is $99,968 - $124,938 per annum.

Stanford University provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the university reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographic location, and external market pay for comparable jobs.

At Stanford University, base pay represents only one aspect of the comprehensive rewards package. The Cardinal at Work website (https://cardinalatwork.stanford.edu/benefits-rewards) provides detailed information on Stanford’s extensive range of benefits and rewards offered to employees. Specifics about the rewards package for this position may be discussed during the hiring process.

Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact Stanford University Human Resources by submitting a contact form.

The job duties listed are typical examples of work performed by positions in this job classification and are not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Specific duties and responsibilities may vary depending on department or program needs without changing the general nature and scope of the job or level of responsibility. Employees may also perform other duties as assigned.

Stanford is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Additional Information