Vacancy: Senior Event Manager
| Job title: |
Senior Event Manager |
|---|---|
| Salary: | Up to £50,000 per annum |
| Location: | London or Swindon with hybrid working |
| Contract Type: | Full-time, permanent |
Working within the Marketing team, the role collaborates closely with: Membership, Communications, Policy and Sales teams, as well as senior colleagues across the organisation, to ensure events are aligned to strategic priorities and deliver measurable impact.
The Senior Event Manager has responsibility for the end‑to‑end delivery of both BCS‑owned events (including flagship events, awards and member activity) and external events (such as partner‑led, sponsored or jointly delivered events), ensuring all are delivered to a consistently high professional standard.
Key responsibilities:
- Contribute to the development and ongoing refinement of the organisation’s events strategy, ensuring a coherent portfolio aligned to business and member objectives.
- Lead the planning and delivery of a diverse programme of BCS owned and external events, including flagship events including awards, member events, forums and webinars.
- Act as the senior event lead for assigned programmes, providing clear ownership, direction and delivery oversight.
- Work cross functionally to align events with acquisition, engagement, reputation building and revenue goals.
- Manage event budgets, forecasts and reporting, ensuring financial discipline and strong return on investment.
- Build and manage relationships with venues, suppliers, sponsors and external partners.
- Ensure excellence in member and attendee experience across in person, hybrid and virtual formats.
- Oversee all operational aspects of events, including venue management, event related suppliers, production, accessibility, risk management and on the day delivery.
- Collaborate with marketing and communications colleagues to shape and deliver event messaging, and promotional plans.
- Provide clear briefs, timelines and guidance to internal stakeholders contributing to events.
- Create and shape sponsorship packages, collaborating with the Sales team to pitch and sell opportunities directly to clients and external partners.
- Ensure all events meet brand standards, governance requirements and health and safety obligations.
- Use data and feedback to evaluate performance and drive continuous improvement across the events portfolio.
- Develop best practice processes, templates and guidance to support consistent, high quality event delivery.
Who are we looking for?
- A level qualified in any subjects or equivalent
- Membership of Professional Body (e.g., Institute of Event Management) or equivalent
- Attained a professional qualification in Event Management (e.g., Level 5 Diploma in Event Management or above).
- Proven experience (7 years+) delivering a diverse portfolio of large and small scale, in-person, hybrid, and digital events.
- Proven experience of end‑to‑end event management, from concept and strategy through to delivery and evaluation
- Experience of contributing to, or shaping, an events strategy or programme, rather than delivering tactical events alone
- Experience working closely with senior stakeholders and collaborating across marketing, communications, membership and sales functions
- Practical experience of cost/budget control.
- Strong planning, organisation and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
- Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with confidence working with senior leaders and external partners
- Clear and effective written and verbal communication skills
- Confident decision‑making, with the ability to solve problems and adapt under pressure
- High attention to detail while maintaining a strategic and outcomes‑focused perspective
- Ability to balance creativity and innovation with operational rigour and compliance
- Strong collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across teams and disciplines
- Confident in working to and reporting on KPIs and ROI.
- In‑depth knowledge of event delivery best practice, including logistics, production, accessibility and delegate experience
- Good understanding of risk management, health and safety, safeguarding and duty of care within events
- Knowledge of event marketing and audience engagement, particularly in professional or membership contexts (would be advantageous)
- Understanding of brand alignment and reputation management within events
- Awareness of current trends in events, including sustainability, inclusion, hybrid delivery and digital platforms
- Understanding of how events support wider organisational objectives such as membership engagement, thought leadership, professional standards and commercial outcomes.
- There is a requirement for out of hours working, travel and overnight stays.
- There is also a requirement for manual handling, including erecting display stands and lifting, packing and unpacking boxes.
BCS is dedicated to providing training and development to help all staff realise their potential, and also offer a generous benefit package.
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT are committed to promoting equality at every opportunity as an employer. This statement and our policies are designed to ensure our recruitment and employment practices and procedures actively promote equality of opportunity and value diversity.
All applicants must be eligible to work in the UK upon application.
PLEASE NOTE: This vacancy may be removed before any listed closing date once a sufficient amount of applications have been received.
In the event that we receive a high number of applications for this vacancy, we may be unable to provide an individual response to every candidate, therefore if you haven’t heard back from us within 4 weeks of the closing date, please consider your application unsuccessful on this occasion.
No recruitment agencies please.
How to apply: Please apply by submitting your CV to careers@bcs.uk along with a cover note answering the following questions:
(a) Your area(s) of expertise & qualifications;
(b) Your experience and suitability for the role
We look forward to hearing from you!
What we offer
- Group Personal Pension Plan
- Hybrid Working
- 27 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays
- Birthday leave
- Paid Christmas office shutdown
- Private Medical Insurance and/or Health Cash Plan
- Life assurance (x4 salary)
- Income protection
- Enhanced maternity/paternity leave
- Free BCS membership
- Reimbursement for professional membership (role dependant)
- Holiday buying scheme
- Financial wellbeing support
- Peer recognition scheme
- Unum Help@Hand (including access to EAP, online GP consultations, wellbeing support, retail discounts and more)
